In this session, we'll be discussing healthcare chaplaincy in rural settings. We'll be paying special attention to the spiritual and emotional struggles associated with some of the most common admission diagnoses in rural and critical-access hospitals. We will also discuss best practices for spiritual care to patients while they are with us, including how that care can extend beyond the hospital walls.

Ben Wiles is the spiritual care manager at Mercy Jefferson Hospital in Festus, Missouri. Previously he served as the spiritual care specialist for the east regional hospitals at Ascension Saint Thomas for over seven years. Prior to his chaplaincy work, Ben was a preacher in the Churches of Christ for 20 years, working in prison and church benevolence ministries in Nashville, and serving small rural churches in Florida, Minnesota, Kansas, Kentucky, and Illinois. He completed bachelor's and master's degrees at Lipscomb University, and he earned his M.Div. from Freed-Hardeman University in 2016. 

As part of his transition out of the pulpit and into chaplaincy, Ben did a two-unit CPE internship at Baptist Health Paducah in 2015, and a four-unit residency at Deaconess Hospital in Evansville, Indiana, in 2017.

Ben and his wife, Laura, have been married for 28 years, and they have twin 22-year-old daughters. In his down time, Ben enjoys playing and writing trivia games, solving word and number puzzles, curating his collection of giraffes, and playing the banjo.

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