Inside Duke Medicine
DUH chaplains: An encouragement to patients and staff
posted February 16th, 2010Duke University Hospital chaplains work with caregivers and patients throughout the hospital to help meet the spiritual and emotional needs of patients. The chaplains' roles go beyond patients' needs to also include caring for staff.
"The chaplain can go in and take time to listen to a person," said Jim Rawlings, director of Spiritual Care. "Often we find that taking 15-30 minutes to listen to that person, helps them relax."
Jennifer Parsons, RN on 2200, finds that chaplains are "so helpful for family support and for patient support when their families are not readily available." She adds that chaplains help the staff on 2200 cope when a patient passes away.
A similar opinion is expressed by Donna Ryan, a clinical social worker in Solid Organ Transplant. The chaplains helped Ryan and her team reach out to a colleague, who lost a loved one.
"They helped us and guided us on how we could prepare for that person's return, so that we could appropriately support them."
Ryan also understands the role chaplains play in helping her care for patients. She was unable to provide a weekend visit to a patient's family member who requested spiritual care, but she knew how to make sure they were visited. Ryan immediately consulted with the on-call chaplain and arranged for them to meet with the family member.
"And I received a call on Monday morning from the family member who shared that it was very comforting to have the chaplain visit."
Marion Kalbacker, a pediatric clinical social worker, says the Pediatric Blood & Marrow Transplant Program is fortunate to have resident chaplains, who have created a chaplain's chat for families.
"It's a coffee/refreshment time on the unit when families can stop in and sit down in a very relaxed manner, share their thoughts and get support."
Read more about the role DUH chaplains in a previous Inside article.