Jobs › SSM Health

Chaplain - Palliative Care and Hospice

SSM Health · Fond du Lac, WI · Full time

Posted Aug 27, 2026 · We last checked this listing on Oct 6, 2026

Apply at SSM Health

Likely interview questions for this role

Written from this job description, not a generic list. Each one notes what the interviewer is really checking.

About your past

How do you support a patient whose faith tradition is different from yours, or who has no faith at all?

What they are checking: Providing respectful, patient-centered care across beliefs, which the posting emphasizes.

How do you work as part of the interdisciplinary hospice team?

What they are checking: Collaborating with nurses, social workers and physicians, which is central to hospice care.

Tell me about a time you supported staff after a difficult death.

What they are checking: Providing debriefings and support for staff, which the posting lists as part of the role.

How do you take care of yourself in a role full of loss?

What they are checking: Healthy self-care practices that sustain them over time in hospice work.

What training and certification do you bring for this work?

What they are checking: Background in clinical pastoral education and chaplaincy, which shapes how they practice.

What would you do

A family is in conflict about stopping treatment. How would you help?

What they are checking: Guiding hard conversations with compassion while supporting the care team and the patient's wishes.

A patient asks you to arrange a sacrament or ritual from their tradition. How do you handle it?

What they are checking: Connecting patients with the right faith resources and pastoral care, as the posting describes.

About the work

Walk me through how you do a spiritual assessment with a hospice patient you're meeting for the first time.

What they are checking: Using a structured approach to understand a patient's beliefs, fears and sources of meaning.

How do you document spiritual care in the medical record?

What they are checking: Clear, appropriate documentation that helps the team without oversharing private matters.

What role do you see for a chaplain in program development and quality improvement?

What they are checking: Thinking beyond individual visits to improving spiritual care across the program.

Practice this interview out loud.

Offer builds a real interview for this exact role at SSM Health from your resume and this job description, asks the questions one at a time, and tells you what landed. The first one is free.

Practice this out loud

The full job description

As published by SSM Health.

It's more than a career, it's a calling. WI-St. Agnes Hospital Home Care & Hospice Worker Type: Regular Job Highlights: Department: Hospice Schedule: 32 hours per week - day shift Location: St. Agnes Hospital Home Care and Hospice Job Summary: Provides expertise in assessing and addressing the spiritual and existential needs of patients, families, and staff through the provision of comprehensive spiritual screening, assessment and interventions, including pastoral counseling and crisis intervention, consultation, education, and support. Provides supportive services such as debriefings and education for staff. Models and collaborates with treating teams in respecting and providing cultural, emotional and spiritual/religious competent patient and family-centered care. Serves as a consultant to the clinical team, service lines, and other departments and participates in program development and quality improvement initiatives. Maintains an important link to the pastoral care department for support and collaborates with the pastoral care team as needed to meet the sacramental and other needs of patients, families, and staff. Practices evidence-based care and takes responsibility for continued professional development. Job Responsibilities and Requirements: PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITIES • Provides spiritual assessment to palliative care patients and their families, including spiritual distress and wounding, identifying sources of strength and meaning, forgiveness and reconciliation, closure and EOL concerns, pain and suffering, life review, preparation for death and grief support. • Develops, describes and advances the plan of care specific to spiritual/emotional issues with the palliative care team; acts as spiritual care leader to other members of the team. • Chooses and utilizes appropriate pastoral care interventions and counseling techniques targeted to intended outcomes. • Supports and prepares caregivers and families for their role in the care of the patient and addresses conflicts if appropriate. • Provides grief counseling and bereavement support to patients and families experiencing end-of-life and loss. • Help to identify and interpret cultures and faith traditions that impact health care practice and decisions. • Provides and/or coordinates the provision of religious resources including prayer, sacramental ministry, rituals, and linkages to community clergy when appropriate. • Facilitates or assists in complex goals of care discussions, family meetings and other conversations about goals, values, and emotional/spiritual/cultural needs. • Provides education on sustainable practice and spiritual needs of palliative care patients and families to fellows, residents, medical students, nurses and chaplains rotating with the palliative care service as well as throughout the hospital. • Complies with standards for timely submission, accuracy, and completeness of documentation in the medical record and collects all required statistical data. • Works in a constant state of alertness and safe manner. • Performs other duties as assigned. EDUCATION • Master's degree in Divinity or related field EXPERIENCE • One year experience in hospice or palliative care chaplaincy settings, including care of the imminently dying and their families PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS • Frequent lifting/carrying and pushing/pulling objects weighing 0-25 lbs. • Frequent sitting, standing, walking, reaching and repetitive foot/leg and hand/arm movements. • Frequent use of vision and depth perception for distances near (20 inches or less) and far (20 feet or more) and to identify and distinguish colors. • Frequent use of hearing and speech to share information through oral communication. Ability to hear alarms, malfunctioning machinery, etc. • Frequent keyboard use/data entry. • Occasional bending, stooping, kneeling, squatting, twisting and gripping. • Occasional lifting/carrying and pushing/pulling objects weighing 25-50 lbs. • Rare climbing. REQUIRED PROFESSIONAL LICENSE AND/OR CERTIFICATIONS • None Department: 1902000116 HOSPICE FDL Work Shift: Day Shift (United States of America) Scheduled Weekly Hours: 32 SSM Health is an Equal Opportunity Employer. SSM Health provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, gender, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, protected veteran status, genetic information, or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state, or local law. Click here to learn more.

Apply at SSM Health