This may seem like a strange title for a post.  But please hang in here as you read and I promise to make sense!  When we think of Chaplain Visits we envision them taking place in these settings:

 

• Patient Rooms
• Waiting Rooms
• Consultation Rooms
• Treatment Areas

 

Recently I have experienced a significant increase in pastoral care being provided in elevators.  At first this may seem strange because an elevator does not offer either a confidential setting or a long time length for getting to know those who are riding with you.  What usually sparks a conversation that leads to pastoral care is when I see a look of emotion on the face of a rider and ask them how their patient is doing and if I can help in any way.

 

Frequently these are responses that arise from my simple inquiry:

 

• I am asked by the family member to visit the patient.
• The family member and I find a secluded place to talk after we exit the elevator if they want to have a conversation that affords privacy and a longer length of time than is available on the elevator.

 

These elevator encounters then frequently send be back to an area where I have just been because I did not see the patient whose family member I met in the elevator.  I am tempted to write “elevator referral” in the reason for the visit when I document, but don’t because that term is meaningful to me but may have a different definition to someone else who reads my entry.  So I choose the longer description “met family member on elevator and received request to visit patient.”

 

Even though years ago I would not have guessed the elevator is setting which can start a pastoral care encounter I now know it is.  Furthermore when I am not sure who to visit I often find an elevator ride gives me a new direction to go in making patient visits.  It is funny how a device designed to let us avoid the stairs also can put us in contact with people who can benefit from our caring and tools of compassion!