Despite the “disembodied” nature of technology, patients and their families have expressed gratitude to chaplains for their efforts to facilitate connections between loved ones and to be “a guide on the side,” as Mary Wetsch-Johnson, BCC, put it. She recalled one phone conversation with the daughter of a man with COVID-19 who was placed on comfort measures. “She said her dad was like the dad on the TV series Father Knows Best, just a kind-hearted, loving, wonderful man,” said Ms. Wetsch-Johnson, a chaplain at CHI Franciscan Health, which operates 10 acute-care hospitals in the Puget Sound region of Washington state. “She was able to describe him in a way that I felt like I knew him. She talked about the discord they had in their family and how they’re processing through that, and about her own personal journey with grief and loss. She then asked me for information about funeral homes, and I provided her with information. At the end of it, she said, ‘I did not know that I needed you today, but you are exactly what I needed.’ ”
Courtesy Rabbi Neal J. Loevinger
Rabbi Neal J. Loevinger
Hospital chaplains may be using smartphones and other gadgets to communicate with patients and their families more than they did in the pre-COVID-19 world, but their basic job has not changed, said Rabbi Neal J. Loevinger, BCC, director of spiritual care services at Vassar Brothers Medical Center in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., part of a seven-hospital system operated by Nuvance Health. “We offer the hope of a caring presence,” said Rabbi Loevinger, who is also a member of the board of directors for Neshama: Association of Jewish Chaplains. “If someone is in a hole, our job is to climb down into the hole with them and say, ‘We’re going to get out of this hole together.’ We can’t promise that someone’s going to get better. We can’t promise that everything’s going to be all right. What we can promise is that we will not abandon you. We can promise that there will be someone accompanying you in any way we can through this crisis.”
Ms. Hauck remembered a phone conversation with the granddaughter of a patient hospitalized with COVID-19 who was nearing the end of her life. The granddaughter told her a story about how her grandmother and her best friend made a pact with each other that, when one was dying, the other would come to her side and pray the Rosary with her. “The granddaughter got tearful and said, ‘That can’t happen now,’ ” said Ms. Hauck, who oversees a staff of 9 chaplains and 10 per diem chaplains. “I made a promise that I would do my best to be at the bedside and pray the Rosary with her grandmother.”
The nurses were aware of the request, and about a day later, Ms. Hauck received a call at 1 a.m., indicating that the patient was close to dying. She drove to Lancaster General, put on her personal protective equipment, made it to the patient’s bedside, and began to pray the Rosary with her, with a nurse in the room. “The nurse said to me, ‘Carolanne, all of her stats are going up,’ and the patient actually became a little more alert,” she recalled. “We talked a little bit, and I asked, ‘Would you like to pray the Rosary now?’ She shook her head yes, and said, ‘Hail Mary, full of grace ...’ and those were the last words that she spoke. I finished the prayers for her, and then she died. It was very meaningful knowing that I could honor that wish for her, but more importantly, that I could do that for the family, who otherwise would have been at her side saying the Rosary with her. We have a recognition of how hard it is to leave someone at the hospital and not be at their bedside.”
Mary Wetsch-Johnson poses by a banner placed outside of St. Elizabeth Hospital in Enumclaw, Wash.*
Hospital chaplains are also supporting interdisciplinary teams of physicians, nurses, and other staff, as they navigate the provision of care in the wake of a pandemic. “They are under a great deal of stress – not only from being at work but with all the role changes that have happened in their home life,” Ms. Wetsch-Johnson said. “Some of them now are being the teacher at home and having to care for children. They have a lot that they come in with. My job is to help them so that they can go do their job. Regularly what I do is check in with the units and ask, ‘How are you doing today? What’s going on for you?’ Because people need to know that someone’s there to be with them and walk with them and listen to them.”