Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) at PeaceHealth

A father holds the hand of his son in a comforting manner.

Discern your calling and career in spiritual care 

Clinical Pastoral Education at PeaceHealth: Learn how to provide spiritual care in an environment that is relational, experiential, and supportive.

About the PeaceHealth CPE Program

What we teach

In our Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) program, we offer education that will allow you to become more effective at providing spiritual care to patients, families, and caregivers. As you go through the program, you will be invited to develop skills that help you become a more authentic and relational spiritual caregiver. Some of your learning will involve greater self-awareness and some of your learning will involve greater awareness of how others live out their spirituality in moments of crisis, loss, and change. You will always learn in a context of diverse chaplains and will collaborate with teams of other healthcare professionals such as physicians, nurses, therapists, social workers, and more. 

Throughout each unit, particular focus is given to studying personality development, grief and loss theory, meaning-making, trauma, systems theory, and materials related to professional development such as applying for jobs in spiritual care or pursuing board certification with the Association of Professional Chaplains or other cognate groups. 

How we educate

Our curriculum is rooted in an experiential model of education. In this sense, the learning begins on the hospital floors where life creates the heart of the curriculum. Through seminars and didactic instruction with a group of peers and one on one supervision with a CPE Educator, our program helps you use these unfolding encounters for reflection and learning. Your peer group consists of graduate students, people of all spiritual backgrounds, and those interested in applying spiritual care in many different settings.

 

The setting

At PeaceHealth CPE, you have the choice to complete your clinical hours at any clinical setting within PeaceHealth. Because you will have peers from across the PeaceHealth system, your supervision and group education will occur online where students can join from either a local PeaceHealth campus or from the convenience of their own homes. 

Some of your options for clinical hours include the larger medical centers listed below and some of these options consist of: 

Each PeaceHealth Spiritual Care department is unique in context, diversity, and culture. Throughout the unit, staff chaplains serve as clinical mentors and possess expertise in virtually every field of medicine such an intensive care, labor and delivery, oncology, bereavement, trauma, and hospice. 

Program Specifics

Clinical Pastoral Education is offered in “units” of CPE.

One unit of CPE shall be at least 400 hours of structured group and individual education and 250 hours of supervised clinical practice. The combined two are 400 hours of structured education.

PeaceHealth CPE currently offers three programs:

2027 Spring Extended Unit

This part-time unit runs from February 8, 2027, through May 28, 2027. One daytime shift and one overnight shift per week is required. At the beginning of the unit, students choose which day they would like to come in for their day shift and work with their specific site to determine when to sign up for their weekly on-call shift. The peer group meets online for structured education on Tuesdays or Wednesdays. 

2027 Full-Time Summer Unit

This full-time unit consists of forty hours a week over an twelve-week period from May 31, 2027, to August 20, 2027. One overnight on-call shift per week is required. The clinical hours schedule is determined by the student’s availability and the needs of their specific site. The peer group meets online for structured education on Tuesdays and Thursdays. 

2027 Fall Extended Unit

This part-time unit runs from September 7, 2027, through January 22, 2028. One daytime shift and one overnight shift per week is required. At the beginning of the unit, students choose which day they would like to come in for their day shift and work with their specific site to determine when to sign up for their weekly on-call shift. The peer group meets online for structured education on Tuesdays or Wednesdays.

Application Process

Fill out a ACPE Clinical Pastoral Education application form https://acpe.edu/education/cpe-students/cpe-application and email to: CPE@peacehealth.org

If mailing via USPS, please send the application to:

Jovon Grossi
PeaceHealth Clinical Pastoral Education
1115 SE 164th Avenue, Dept 318
Vancouver, WA  98683.

After we have received your application, we will contact you regarding an application interview.  Final acceptance into the program depends on successfully completing a drug screen and a criminal background check.

Once accepted into the program you will need to pay a deposit to hold your place in the peer group. This will be counted towards your tuition of $600 per unit. Scholarships are granted upon request. Final acceptance is contingent upon passing a background check, drug screen, and PeaceHealth’s immunization requirements.