Spiritual, religious care part of patient experience
From left, Karen Chesler, Charge Nurse, Greater Niagara General, and Al Vanden Boogaard, Staff Chaplain.
A young man is brought to the Emergency Department with traumatic injuries following a car crash. Medical tests determine that an elderly patient experiencing abdominal pain requires surgery to remove a cancerous tumour from her colon. A child is admitted to the paediatric unit with a respiratory illness.
Spiritual and religious care are important components of the healthcare experience, and patients and their families can require assistance at any time in order to cope with difficult life experiences. Doctors, nurses and other healthcare providers can also find themselves in need of support for the stresses they face on the job and in their personal lives.
Niagara Health’s Spiritual and Religious Care Program provides a valuable multi-faith and inter-denominational service to all members of the Niagara community.
“We are seeing a steady increase in the number of requests we receive for chaplains, which demonstrates how integrated spiritual and religious care has become in the overall patient experience at the NHS,” says NHS Chaplain Doug Jones.
The Spiritual and Religious Care program consists of four chaplains (three full-time and one part-time staff member) who provide services across all sites of the NHS, as well as volunteer on-call emergency chaplains who are available after hours and on weekends at most NHS sites.
“The on-call chaplains touch people’s lives at times of crisis and pain in the often stressful and demanding hospital environment, and we are truly grateful to them for the important contributions they make to patient care at the NHS,” says Chaplain Bob Bond. “These committed volunteers are dedicated to motivating healthy, meaningful use of a patient’s and family’s spirituality and their traditions, beliefs and practices, in order to cope with the difficult medical and life situations they face.”
The 47 chaplains volunteer their time on an on-call basis, providing multi-faith spiritual and religious care and general support to patients and their families, in emergency situations. May marked the launch of the on-call chaplain team at the Greater Niagara General Site.
“The volunteer chaplains tell us that contributing to the emergency on-call service is one of the most valuable and rewarding elements of their ministry,” says Bob. “We truly appreciate the dozens of faith communities in Niagara for their ongoing support of their faith group leaders to provide this service to NHS patients and their families.”
24 hours a day / seven days a week
Under the Spiritual and Religious Care Program, multi-faith spiritual and religious care giving is available to patients and their families 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Also important is the support the two spiritual care co-ordinators (Chaplains Doug and Bob) and two staff chaplains (Al Vanden Boogaard and Donna Hollands-Hurst) provide NHS healthcare workers in their professional and personal lives. In addition, the chaplains provide leadership and support in a variety of other areas, including ethics, organ donation and educational programs.
Faith leaders from the community who attend at NHS to care for patients who are members of their congregations do so under the Spiritual and Religious Care Program. In addition, the Roman Catholic Diocese provides a rotation of parishes on call for sacraments for Catholic patients.
The Spiritual and Religious Care Program also boasts an educational component in which Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) students use NHS as their training ground for an 11-week full-time program. The CPE program recently received its 10-year accreditation, and the latest group of CPE students began their studies at St. Catharines General Site at the beginning of May.
The students come from the Golden Horseshoe area and have completed or are in the midst of completing their master’s studies in theology. Approximately 50% of the students’ time is spent as the chaplain assigned to clinical areas, where they work as members of the healthcare team, providing spiritual care to patients, families and staff. The other 50% of time is spent in classroom activities.
“Student evaluations in the past have revealed a rich life and professional experience here at the Niagara Health System,” says Doug. “Our staff are to be commended for being such wonderful mentors and contributors to these students’ learning and growth.”
The Spiritual and Religious Care program can be contacted through the hospital’s main switchboard at 905-378-4647. «
