Several trends are playing out in the class of a chaplain-training program that will graduate 20 students on Thursday.

One is that the demand for chaplains is growing, according to chaplain Mark Allison, training supervisor of the Clinical Pastoral Education Residency Program hosted at the Veterans Administration medical center in Salt Lake City.

Allison's students come from a broad variety of religious traditions. His graduates include one Buddhist, a Methodist, a Presbyterian, a Nazarene, an Anglican and two Roman Catholics. But he is noticing more of his students are Mormons; and that an increasing number of his Mormon students are women.

"More and more employers are seeing the benefit of having a chaplain on staff to help with morale," he said of the increase in demand for chaplains.

"They've found in many places that having a chaplain instead of a social worker, or in addition to that social worker, has been a medicine of sorts to help good employees cope with adversity or changes in life that tend to smack up against the spiritual side of people."

Frank Clawson, military affairs coordinator for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, acknowledges that surge as well. "A lot of larger corporations will have industrial chaplains in their workplace. A chaplain can kind of help with ethics training and things like that for their employers."

Allison said the increase in the number of Mormon women going through his program can be explained by two words firmly planted in the Mormon vernacular: "Compassionate service."

"It's that type of service work," Clawson confirms. In the military, all of the Mormon chaplains are males because they perform a broad range of priesthood functions. But among civilian chaplains, the duties are very complimentary to those performed by professional therapists, "where we also have a number of Latter-day Saint women," he said.

Graduating student Jen Lambert is a registered nurse at the George E. Wahlen VA Medical Center. She sees a trend toward greater integration of the science and spiritual components to healing. The practice of medicine "is getting to the point where they're coming to realize how terribly integrated our bodies are," she said. "The holistic treatment -- body, soul, emotions, the support system -- it's the full-healing thing."

Lambert said being an RN and a chaplain gives her greater flexibility with patients. "I'll sense a spiritual need and ask if I can put on my chaplain hat. If the patient says 'yes' I have all kinds of flexibility with them."

"We're the ones who find the person inside the body," said chaplaincy student Lissa Last, who said she was drawn to the program after raising a family and being asked by her husband "What do you want to do now?"

One of the questions that comes up with a Mormon is training for a job as a chaplain is: "Is that a paid ministry?"

"It's not," Clawson said. "The employer is not the church. ... They are not the minister of a congregation who gets paid for preaching."

A number of participants are specifically looking for volunteer work. "I'm in my 75th year. I'm not looking for a paying career," said program participant Melvin Ward, a retired airline pilot who became interested in the program after serving five LDS missions with his wife, Kay. While making rounds at the VA Medical Center, he described the work of a chaplain as "comforting, very inspiring."

Allison said some in his program are already military chaplains who enroll to enhance their skills or boost their marketability as professionals. "It also lines them up to be eligible to apply for national board certification as a chaplain when they leave the military."

More unique than a trend, Allison said, is that he is one of only two chaplain trainers in the United States who is a Mormon.

The training program Allison conducts is also sponsored by the Salt Lake Chapter of Chaplains, the Wasatch (Provo) Chapter of Chaplains and the College of Pastoral Supervision and Psychotherapy.

Thursday's graduation is scheduled for 11:30 a.m. in the chapel of the George E. Wahlen VA Medical Center in Salt Lake City. Visitors are welcome.