Contributed By:
Steve Mattern, Vice President of Mission Services – OSF Saint Francis Medical Center
What comes to your mind when someone speaks the words “hospital chaplain” or “pastoral care?” What images form there? If you are considering a person or persons together, what is happening in that scenario? Perhaps we might consider a person praying with a patient or a family member or quietly and attentively listening with great care and love.
It could be that we picture a clergy member administering a Sacrament such as Baptism, Reconciliation or Anointing of the Sick. Finally, we might imagine a pastoral care professional offering emotional and spiritual support during a crisis situation or at a time of intense suffering for a patient, family and care-giving team.
Pastoral care professionals are vital and longstanding members of the health care team. In some health care settings they are ordinarily considered “chaplains,” whereas in others the title is “pastoral care professional.” For the sake of simplicity, I will use the term “chaplain.”
What is the Purpose of Pastoral Care?
We are hard-wired for relationship with God, who is Love. As human persons, we have goals, needs, desires, hopes and aspirations. We seek the good in life and desire wholeness and fulfillment. When we are connected fully to God’s love and experience this connection, when our personal relationships and occupational and social life is flourishing, we experience deep joy and meaning. Our living enables connection also with nature in this beautiful cosmos which speaks of God’s glory and loving presence.
Pastoral and spiritual care is something we may experience quite routinely in our everyday life as we attend worship, meet with those who companion us along life’s journey and receive the touches of God’s grace and love in the Sacraments.
We may routinely attend to our spiritual growth needs in an organic way. We experience wholeness when each aspect of our humanity (body, mind, spirit, soul) is experiencing health and when we are in relationships with God and those around us.
When we become ill or experience suffering and life-disruption through acute or chronic sickness, we can continue to attend to our spiritual needs or may even initiate such focus on such needs in a renewed way. We can feel particularly vulnerable at such times.
Chaplains are here to screen, assess and respond-in a variety of ways across each developmental part of life and across the continuum of healthcare. They serve patients, family members as well as the health care team! But, how?
What Does a Chaplain or Pastoral Care Professional Do?
Chaplains serve within OSF HealthCare across several settings – home care, hospice and within the hospital environments. They are ordinarily persons who have educational backgrounds in related subject areas and who have experience relative to the professional knowledge base and skills necessary for this professional role.
For example, Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) offers significant formation for chaplains serving in health care. Other team members and family members may be supported in offering spiritual support as appropriate.
Chaplains can offer you support by gathering information about your religious affiliation, assessing your connection with a faith community and your family. They are also ready to explore such areas as: what gives you peace and comfort; what are your faith or spiritual concerns and what are your particular needs?
Spiritual screening and assessment is vital so that the particular needs of the patient and family members can be supported. For one patient, Holy Communion and a blessing by a priest can be exactly what is sought. For another, they seek companionship and support through grief, shock or loss. For yet another, a loving, listening presence is the support offered.
Pastoral care is a witness to the abiding presence of God’s love, from the bedside of a newborn baby to the bedside of a patient as they come close to death. They offer us a profound gift!
Last Updated: October 31, 2018