The roles, outcomes, and perceived impacts of spiritual and chaplaincy care during and after rapid response team activations in hospitalized adult patients: a scoping review.

Hospital chaplains' roles in rapid response systems (RRS) remain undefined, and prior reviews examined family-support roles or chaplaincy generally rather than chaplain-specific roles, integration, outcomes, and evidence gaps in RRT and resuscitation settings. This review examined sources published since 2004 that addressed chaplains' involvement in RRTs. Of 1,201 records screened, six sources were included in the final analysis: two linked qualitative reports from one underlying project, one descriptive study, one implementation report, one narrative review, and one scoping review. Across these sources, chaplains most commonly provided spiritual care, communication support, and mediation between families and medical teams. These contributions were perceived to support families and clinicians and facilitate family presence during resuscitation; however, no source established causal effects or evaluated system-level or clinical outcomes. Overall, the literature describes potentially meaningful contributions while underscoring the need for rigorous research to define chaplains' role and measure their impact within RRS.