Saint Francis & St. Mary's Hospitals CPE Program
Clinical pastoral education (CPE) is interfaith professional education for ministry in health care settings. It brings participants into supervised encounters with people in crisis. Through intense involvement with people in need of spiritual care, and feedback from peers and teachers, CPE students develop new awareness of themselves, their abilities as caregivers and the needs of those they serve. Through reflection on specific human situations, students learn to use their own faith tradition (if they have one) as a lens for understanding spiritual care. And through the process of helping others, chaplains-in-training develop skills that support interpersonal and interprofessional relationships.
The UCSF Health Saint Francis and St. Mary's Hospitals CPE Program benefits from the expertise of many health care professionals, including Association for Clinical Pastoral Education (ACPE) Supervisors, Supervisory Education Students and staff chaplains. CPE students regularly participate in workshops that include didactic sessions with guest speakers, and they also have opportunities for group and individual reflection.
Our CPE program is designed for people preparing to enter professional hospital or hospice chaplaincy, congregational ministry or sangha service. Many are seminary students, completing CPE to fulfill denominational requirements. Students can participate either as interns (for a single unit) or residents (for four consecutive units). At this time, we are not offering internships.
We strive to maintain a diverse faculty and student population, including people of all genders and faith traditions from various ethnic and cultural backgrounds. Our CPE program is committed to equal opportunity in the admissions process, without discrimination based on age, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, race, national origin, disability, religious affiliation or veteran status.
For more information about the Saint Francis and St. Mary's Hospitals CPE Program, please call:
Rev. Dr. Unyong Statwick:
(415) 244-8758
Accreditation
The UCSF Health Saint Francis and St. Mary's Hospitals CPE Program is accredited by the Association for Clinical Pastoral Education (ACPE) to offer Levels I and II CPE and Certified Educator CPE by the Association for Clinical Pastoral Education.
ACPE: The Standard for Spiritual Care and Education
1 Concourse Pkwy, Suite 800
Atlanta, GA 30328
Phone: (404) 320-1472
Fax: (404) 320-0849
[email protected]
www.acpe.edu
How you can participate
As a student in our CPE program, you can expect to be active in the following ways:
Direct ministry with patients and their loved ones, residents and staff
Most of the time you'll be working as a chaplain, providing spiritual care to people in your specific unit at UCSF Health Saint Francis or USCF Health St. Mary's Hospital. In addition, you'll participate in on-call rotation (serving as chaplain for the entire hospital on a rotating basis), both overnight (usually once per week) and over the weekend (usually once per month).
Clinical supervision
You will receive individual and group supervision in all areas of your training. This includes a minimum of 100 hours of structured education and 300 hours of clinical work. A final evaluation will be presented at the end of each CPE unit. Educators in our center are certified by ACPE and the Association of Professional Chaplains (APC).
Peer group work
You will join a group with other CPE students and a Certified Educator. You will present cases based on your work, reflect on your faith tradition, simulate incidents, practice pastoral responses and engage in interpersonal group relations.
Didactic workshops and seminars
You will attend presentations on spiritual care and assessment, ethics, behavioral sciences, hospital chaplaincy, cultural sensitivity, interfaith awareness and other issues.
Reading and writing assignments
You will be expected to do supplemental reading and prepare papers related to your learning goals and the ACPE objectives.
Skills you will learn
The UCSF Health Saint Francis and St. Mary's Hospitals CPE Program is designed to help you gain experience and expertise in the following areas:
- Pastoral reflection. Contemplation of yourself as a person and minister in relation to people in crisis, your supervisor and your peers, as well as the CPE curriculum and the hospital in which you are serving
- Pastoral formation. Focusing on your personal and pastoral identity issues in learning and ministry
- Pastoral competence. Deepening and unfolding your capabilities in spiritual caregiving, including skills development and knowledge of faith traditions and the behavioral sciences
- Pastoral specialization. Supporting your desire to become proficient and knowledgeable in a particular area of clinical service, such as oncology, emergency, outpatient, general medical-surgical, palliative care, cardiology, rehabilitation or psychiatry
Types of programs available
The UCSF Health Saint Francis & St. Mary's Hospitals CPE Program is accredited for Level I, Level II and Supervisory CPE, by the Association for Clinical Pastoral Education.
With this accreditation, we offer several formats for CPE.
Residency
Residency consists of four units of training in a calendar year, beginning August 2025 and concluding September 2026. Full-time yearlong residents receive a stipend of $1,128 per week. This money is paid by check with no tax withheld. Because you aren't an employee, automatic tax withholding is not available. You are advised to plan accordingly to ensure you can fulfill your income tax obligations. Interns completing one unit are not paid a stipend.
Residents serve full-time, five days a week, with on-call responsibilities. In addition to the stipend, students receive 15 personal leave days, in addition to hospital holidays. Tuition is $400 per unit.
Internship
An internship consists of one unit of training, usually completed during the summer. Interns work full-time, five days a week, with on-call responsibilities. Tuition is $500 per unit. At this time, we are not offering internships.
Application, admission requirements and accreditation
Our program does not charge an application fee. When you apply, please supply or be ready to demonstrate the following:
- A completed ACPE application. Please be sure to submit all items listed on the application. We will not accept incomplete applications.
- Student and supervisory evaluations from any prior units of CPE.
- Documentation of one of the following: Either graduation from high school, completion of GED, ordination by a religious or spiritual tradition, or commission to function in spiritual care by an appropriate religious or spiritual authority as determined by ACPE.
- Fulfillment of education or experience requirements established by our ACPE-accredited program.
- A signed Use of Clinical Materials Consent Form.
- Educational readiness: motivation, openness to clinical learning, willingness to work under individual and group supervision, and capacity for self-reflection.
- Aptitude for interpersonal work: capacity to function professionally in a hospital environment and ability to minister in a multicultural, multifaith setting.
- Writing and word-processing skills sufficient to manage use of the hospitals' computerized information systems and to produce weekly written assignments off-site.
- Ability and time to fulfill program requirements, including clinical assignments, educational components and on-call responsibilities.
Admissions policy
The UCSF Health Saint Francis and St. Mary's Hospitals CPE Program is committed to giving fair and thorough consideration to all qualified applicants and to enhancing the educational experience by selecting students with a variety of backgrounds and perspectives. We select students who are seminarians, ministers, religious professionals and laypeople according to aptitude, ability and potential for ministry without regard to race, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, faith group, national origin or disability.
Admissions interview
After our CPE faculty has screened a completed application, the applicant may be invited to visit one of our working sites for an admissions interview. The purpose of this interview is both to acquaint the applicant with the program and for us to learn more about them through a personal encounter. If the applicant is unable to come to the Bay Area, they may interview with us online by video.
Rolling admissions process
We do not have application deadlines. We encourage you to apply one year ahead of your intended program. Those accepted into the program will be informed in writing and allowed 10 business days to accept an offer of admission by sending in a $200 nonrefundable deposit. Any application not accepted for admission will be destroyed unless the applicant requests in writing that it be returned to them, forwarded to another center, or retained for consideration if seeking future units of CPE.
You may submit your application via email to [email protected]
For questions about our CPE programs
Rev. Unyong Statwick, PsyD
Certified Educator
Phone: (415) 244-8758
Email: [email protected]
The CPE Educator Team
The Rev. Unyong Statwick, PsyD, is an ordained Interfaith Chaplain, an APC board–certified chaplain and an ACPE-Certified Educator. Her spirituality is based on her cultural heritage, which includes animism, Buddhism, Daoism and Confucianism, while her primary faith expression is Christianity. Unyong has worked as a hospital chaplain since 2004, supervised CPE students since 2010 as a Certified Educator Candidate, and worked as a CPE Manager in two previous hospital contexts. Her educational philosophy is collaborative and relational. Her main educational theories include Bowen family systems theory, Jungian theory of shadow and persona, and the Empowerment Dynamic by David Emerald. She believes in the benefit of engaging with conflicts as an invitation to grow in compassion for self and others. She serves in the ACPE's accreditation commission, and finds great joy working as a theory integration mentor.
Samuel Christensen (they/them) is endorsed as a chaplain and celebrant by the Humanist Society, is provisionally board certified by APC and its Board of Chaplaincy Certification (BCC) and is a Certified Educator through ACPE. Raised as an Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) Lutheran, they now draw on those roots to express their spirituality through humanism. Samuel completed their CPE residency at UCSF Health Saint Francis Hospital in 2024 and now serves as the CPE Lead Staff Chaplain for Saint Francis and St. Mary's.
Andy Madsen (he/him) is a Certified Educator Candidate through ACPE and is provisionally board certified by APC and BCC. His spirituality is expressed through Christianity, and he enjoys utilizing creative, symbolic and somatic practices in his patient care and CPE curriculum. Andy completed his CPE residency at UCSF Health Saint Francis Hospital in 2024 and now serves as a chaplain fellow in the UCSF Health Saint Francis and St. Mary's Hospitals CPE Program.
Frequently asked questions
- How much does it cost to take CPE?
The tuition for the year-long program is $400 per unit. This amount is due in the first week of the unit. Your non-refundable $200 deposit is applied toward the first unit’s tuition cost. Other costs, such as registration fees for retreats, are paid for you by the CPE center.
- How much will I be paid?
Full-time yearlong residents receive $1,128 per week. This stipend is provided in the form of a check with no tax withheld. Because you aren't an employee, automatic tax withholding is not available. We advise you to plan accordingly to ensure you can fulfill your income tax obligations. Interns completing one unit are not paid a stipend.
- Will I receive any days off?
If you are a resident, you will accrue five days of personal leave for each unit of CPE that you complete except for the fourth unit; in other words, you will have accrued fifteen total days of personal leave. These days may be used for vacation time between units (or during Christmas week), for personal appointments, or if you are ill and cannot report for clinical duty. Any personal leave days you intend to use must be approved by your individual supervisor. In addition, CPE students are not required to work on recognized hospital holidays (with the exception of the chaplain on-call, who then receives a compensatory day off from clinical duty). Interns do not accrue personal leave days.
- Is housing provided?
No. We will inform you of housing opportunities as we learn of them.
- Is medical insurance provided?
No. However, yearlong residents will have the option to purchase student-rate health insurance.
- Is parking provided?
Currently parking is free for chaplain students at both sites. You will need to contact the supervisor at the site where you are assigned to learn about parking policies. Both are accessible by public transit.
- What is a typical day in the CPE program?
On Tuesday through Thursday mornings you will be in the learning group (class) and the rest of the week, you will be and serve in your assigned clinical areas, providing spiritual care to patients, family members, and employees. On Mondays through Thursdays, you will have approximately nine hours of class sessions with your peers and a one-hour individual education meeting with your Certified Educator each week. In addition, you and your peers will share in covering the overnight on-call system.
- What is on-call coverage?
Each hospital requires that chaplains be available to respond to emergencies no matter when they occur, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. In order to fulfill this responsibility, we assign a chaplain each day to serve as the overnight or weekend on-call chaplain. You can expect to be assigned on-call duty approximately once every five to six nights. While it is possible that you may be awakened at night or in the early morning during your call shift, we estimate that such an event occurs only about once every three or four times you are on-call. Furthermore, if you are on-call for a weekend day, you receive the preceding Friday as a compensatory day off.
- What is required to complete a CPE unit?
In order to receive credit for a full unit of CPE training, you must complete at least 300 hours of clinical service (providing spiritual care) and 100 hours of educational time, which includes group sessions and individual education sessions. If you are absent during a unit, you may be required to make up clinical hours in order to receive credit. You must also fulfill the written and reading requirements, which include a weekly verbatim report (i.e., a record of a conversation you have with a patient or other care recipient), a weekly highlight report, a weekly review/summary of your individual supervisory session, a weekly clinical activity log, assigned reading, a mid-unit self-evaluation, and a final self-evaluation.
- There seems to be so much to know. Will I receive any orientation?
Yes. We provide a full orientation to the CPE program, including a comprehensive student handbook that should answer many of your questions about working as a chaplain in a hospital environment. In addition, the hospital where you will serve will give you an orientation within the first month of your arrival.
- Will I have the same certified educator?
You may have more than one supervisor during the course of your residency year.
- Will my certified educator be qualified?
Yes. All of the supervisory staff are certified to supervise and educate CPE students, either independently or with on-site certified supervision. In addition to CPE certification, CEs also hold credentials as board certified chaplains with the Association of Professional Chaplains (APC).
- Can I be certified as a chaplain after taking CPE?
Four units of ACPE are required to apply to become a Board Certified Chaplain. However, certifying organizations such as APC, NACC, and NAJC have other requirements, and so the answer to this question depends to a great extent upon whether or not you meet these other requirements. Our supervisory staff will be happy to assist you in determining your status in pursuing board certification as a chaplain.
- Will I be able to find work as a chaplain after taking CPE?
We can offer no guarantees, but our commitment to providing spiritual care for our patients allows us to aid in referrals for available staff chaplain jobs.
- Do you have a summer internship program?
The UCSF Health Saint Francis and St. Mary's Hospitals CPE Program does not offer a dedicated summer internship program. On occasion, we accept interns who join a group that includes yearlong residents to complete a unit of CPE. However, we are not currently offering internships.