Life as a Hospital Chaplain

By Jeff Hale

Medical science has evolved over the centuries. Yet understanding the needs of the ill and injured as a whole being composed of mind, body, and spirit and how to treat the whole person has only been a topic and practice of modern medicine for a couple of decades.

The medical field has labeled this innovative approach to medical dealings as holistic healing. This approach not only considers the physical needs of the individual but the emotional and psychological as well, such as it has been proven beyond a doubt that the attitude of the patient can play a major role in the healing process.

Now treatment involves an entire team of professionals treating all the needs involved in the healing process. Thus, the hospital chaplain has a major role as part of that team.

People tend to have many preconceived notions about chaplains, assuming that all chaplains are priests or ministers, that chaplains want to convert patients to a new religion, or that chaplains sit in a patient's room and pray.

Through short vignettes, Life as a Hospital Chaplain presents the many ways in which the chaplain provides nondenominational support for people with emotional triggers, grief, vulnerability, loss, or change in their lives. As seen in these short stories, the chaplain works in a variety of missions with patients, families, and staff. As you read these stories, you might be encouraged and inspired as well.

The stories revealed here are all actual cases told just as they occurred in the Life as a Hospital Chaplain.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Apr 22, 2024
• ISBN: 9798892433044

Book preview

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Life as a Hospital Chaplain

Jeff Hale

ISBN 979-8-89243-303-7 (paperback)

ISBN 979-8-89243-563-5 (hardcover)

ISBN 979-8-89243-304-4 (digital)

Copyright © 2024 by Jeff Hale

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Dedication

Introduction

A hospital is, in effect, a community in and of itself. It has all the amenities of your local neighborhood, even to the point of being totally self-contained should the need arise. The only difference between a local neighborhood and a hospital is that the hospital's residents never remain the same.

Like a local community, the goal of any hospital is to care for the well-being of its residents. Unlike your local neighborhood, though, the sense of community found in a hospital derives from the common struggle against illness and life-threatening diseases. They are victorious a portion of the time but do suffer losses, and when dealing with human life loss, it can be traumatic and painful. It is during these experiences that we learn just how fragile life really is and how quickly it can change. However, the true paradox is that no matter how successful they are in their efforts, in the end, they have only postponed the inevitable, for death is a part of life.

Trauma centers are distinguished from other hospitals in that they guarantee the immediate availability of surgeons, anesthesiologists, physician specialists, nurses, ancillary services, and resuscitation life-support equipment on a twenty-four-hour-a-day basis. They not only receive patients from their own area but critical patients transferred from other hospitals in other communities who are not equipped to manage the severity of the situation. The result being a trauma center deals with a greater variety of cases that are far more severe than those of a local community hospital.

Life as a Hospital Chaplain contains the stories and experiences of real patients admitted to a Northwestern level 2 trauma center as witnessed and told by the facility's chaplain. All the cases in this volume occurred and were collected during the seventeen years this chaplain was on staff at the center. Although the events are factual and told just as they occurred, the names have been changed to protect the privacy of patients and staff.

To care is to be compassionate and so to form a community of people honestly facing the painful reality of our finite existence… Compassion is that purifying desert in which we are stripped of all our false difference and able to embrace each other as children of the same god.

—Thomas Morton

A Learning Experience

A Falling Tree

My Time Has Come

I Need a Sign

What to Do?

A Mother's Love

Does Anybody Care?

Choose Life

We Can Do It

Life Is Unpredictable

Where's Fred?

I'll Just Keep Trying

I Am Waiting, Lord

I Give Thanks

Do I Get a Second Chance?

Author's Note

About the Author

Dedication

This book and these stories are dedicated to the Reverend Gary Jones. He was the director of pastoral services in our hospital. He was my mentor in my early years and taught me most of what I practiced during my career. He was the strength to get me through when work demanded more than I thought I could give.

And after all was said and done, he has become a lifelong friend even after we both have said good by to life as a chaplain.

Introduction

A hospital is, in effect, a community in and of itself. It has all the amenities of your local neighborhood, even to the point of being totally self-contained should the need arise. The only difference between a local neighborhood and a hospital is that the hospital's residents never remain the same.

Like a local community, the goal of any hospital is to care for the well-being of its residents. Unlike your local neighborhood, though, the sense of community found in a hospital derives from the common struggle against illness and life-threatening diseases. They are victorious a portion of the time but do suffer losses, and when dealing with human life loss, it can be traumatic and painful. It is during these experiences that we learn just how fragile life really is and how quickly it can change. However, the true paradox is that no matter how successful they are in their efforts, in the end, they have only postponed the inevitable, for death is a part of life.

Trauma centers are distinguished from other hospitals in that they guarantee the immediate availability of surgeons, anesthesiologists, physician specialists, nurses, ancillary services, and resuscitation life-support equipment on a twenty-four-hour-a-day basis. They not only receive patients from their own area but critical patients transferred from other hospitals in other communities who are not equipped to manage the severity of the situation. The result being a trauma center deals with a greater variety of cases that are far more severe than those of a local community hospital.

Life as a Hospital Chaplain contains the stories and experiences of real patients admitted to a Northwestern level 2 trauma center as witnessed and told by the facility's chaplain. All the cases in this volume occurred and were collected during the seventeen years this chaplain was on staff at the center. Although the events are factual and told just as they occurred, the names have been changed to protect the privacy of patients and staff.

To care is to be compassionate and so to form a community of people honestly facing the painful reality of our finite existence… Compassion is that purifying desert in which we are