{"id":429,"date":"2014-09-23T21:39:27","date_gmt":"2014-09-24T06:39:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cms.shelquist.us\/?p=429"},"modified":"2014-09-24T02:06:59","modified_gmt":"2014-09-24T11:06:59","slug":"sept-23-where-or-where-can-the-chaplain-be-found","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cms.shelquist.us\/?p=429","title":{"rendered":"Sept. 23 – Where or where can the chaplain be found?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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We have a small pastoral care department.\u00a0 Thus there are frequent times when no one is in our office.\u00a0 Our office is also nowhere near the chapel, so if someone looks in the vicinity of the chapel it is not highly likely they will find a chaplain.\u00a0 We do have phone on the wall a sign with directions on how to have a chaplain paged.\u00a0 This week I was on one of our nursing floors walking down the hallway.\u00a0 The group ahead of me was talking loudly enough that anyone in the vicinity including me could hear them.\u00a0 The conversation showed they wanted a chaplain and did not know how to find one.\u00a0 I spoke from behind them and introduced myself as a chaplain and offered to assist them.<\/p>\n

The group was thrilled that after searching on their own I suddenly appeared when they were not expecting me.\u00a0 They had concerns about the patient they were visiting and did not want to have the conversation in the patient\u2019s room.\u00a0 I told them we could use a nearby consult room and led them to that location.\u00a0 I was intrigued about why the conversation could not be held in the patient room and felt rather than ask I would wait and see if they would volunteer that information as we interacted.\u00a0 They felt badly about a request the patient made of them that they were not able to honor, and wanted to process whether they were doing the right thing and how they could move forward without feeling guilty.<\/p>\n

Their situation reminded me that no one wants to disappoint a patient: hospital staff, family, or friends.\u00a0 There are times what the patient wants is very understandable but the resources to meet that request just are not available.\u00a0 The family was not able to take the patient home to care for the patient and the patient did not want to go to a nursing facility.\u00a0 The conflict between the patient\u2019s desire and family\u2019s resources was the reason for discomfort.\u00a0 Being a person who likes to \u201cfix\u201d problems I felt badly that I did not have an instant solution to provide them.\u00a0 By listening to them tell their situation they had the chance to hear their reasons for not being able to take the patient home.\u00a0 They were convinced their reasons were valid.\u00a0 I offered affirmation that they had not dismissed the request without thoroughly examining how it might be accomplished.\u00a0 I offered to go with them to the patient\u2019s room and be a resource as they explained their limitations to the patient.<\/p>\n

That is what happened.\u00a0 The patient was not mad at the family; the patient knew their situation but was hoping they had a solution.\u00a0 The patient affirmed how the bond of love was still just as strong and that if going to a facility was the resolution that would be fine.\u00a0 The patient asked me to pray, that did not surprise me.\u00a0 The second part of the request did surprise me.\u00a0 The patient continued she wanted me to thank God for providing such a loving and concerned set of children.\u00a0 The request for the prayer brought the family more comfort than I have words to describe.\u00a0 I did pray with everyone and we did join hands.<\/p>\n

As I left the scene I was thrilled that I had happened to walk behind them and hear their need for a chaplain.\u00a0 More importantly it was fantastic to see that the bond of love within the family was strong enough for them to remain in a positive relationship with each other when the children were not able to meet the request of their parent.\u00a0 This displayed to me that it is often okay to not grant a request as long as we show we are not dismissing the request without giving it serious consideration.<\/p>\n

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We have a small pastoral care department.\u00a0 Thus there are frequent times when no one is in our office.\u00a0 Our office is also nowhere near the chapel, so if someone looks in the vicinity of the chapel it is not highly likely they will find a chaplain.\u00a0 We do have phone on the wall a … Continue reading Sept. 23 – Where or where can the chaplain be found?<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms.shelquist.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms.shelquist.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms.shelquist.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms.shelquist.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms.shelquist.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=429"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/cms.shelquist.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":432,"href":"https:\/\/cms.shelquist.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429\/revisions\/432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms.shelquist.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms.shelquist.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms.shelquist.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}