Registration is now open for the fourth annual Spirituality in Health Care Conference set for Wednesday, April 3, at Chiara Center on the Hospital Sisters of St. Francis Motherhouse campus in Springfield.

Participants will focus on "Chronic Illness: Meaning and Connection" with keynote speaker Kelly Arora, PhD., an affiliate faculty member at Regis University in Denver. She is additionally an adjunct faculty member of the Iliff School of Theology in Denver and in private practice as a spiritual director.

Open to all, the all-day conference will provide an opportunity for health care professionals and caregivers to contemplate the process of living with chronic illness and to identify ways caregivers can help individuals living with chronic illness find meaning and connection.

According to the Institute of Medicine, chronic illness has emerged as a major public health problem with more than one in four Americans having two or more chronic conditions. Chronic illness impacts the social and economic lives of millions of Americans and their families and also significantly affects the individual's sense of spirituality — of finding meaning in life.

Conference co-sponsors are Hospital Sisters Health System and Chiara Center. The HSHS Continuing Education Council, an approved provider of continuing nursing education by the Ohio Nurses Association, an accredited approver by the American Nurses Credentialing Center's Commission on Accreditation, will award a total of 5.5 contact hours for this educational activity.

Registration is $75 and pre-registration is required as space is limited. An e-mail confirmation will be sent when registration and payment are received.

To register, mail the registration form (available under Featured Events at www.chiaracenter.org) with payment to Hospital Sisters of St. Francis, c/o Accounting, PO Box 19431, Springfield, IL 62794-9431.

Hospital Sisters Health System and Chiara Center are committed to creating a greater awareness of spirituality in health care and to addressing these issues through an annual conference. Sponsored by the Hospital Sisters of St. Francis, HSHS provides health care framed in traditional values taught by St. Francis and St. Clare of Assisi. For more information about HSHS, visit www.hshs.org.