you about the lack of nursing attention received. Always gather data from the nursing station about the situation before you intervene in the nurse-patient relationship. There may be times when you can facilitate better understanding between the patient and nursing staff, but do not ever try to do this prematurely, that is, before you have taken time to fully understand the situation.
You can be most helpful to the patient if you clearly understand the nursing routine, shift schedules, and nursing plan for this patient. You can interpret these to the patient. In so doing, you may develop a deeper empathy for the role of the nursing staff as well. Use this empathy to be a supportive member of the health care team in the hospital.
Realize too that there will be times that the nursing staff needs your support. The serious illness, pain, and even death of patients they care for affects their lives deeply. Be sensitive to the times they need help.
For doctors, time is the key issue. The average internist in private practice, for example, has eight to ten patients in the hospital. The internist is aware that he or she has a coordinating, interpreting role to the patient. The physician will often take a pulse and listen with a stethoscope primarily to make physical contact with the patient. The doctor will reinterpret comments of a surgeon or other specialist and listen to the patient's concerns. Sometimes emergencies will prevent the internist from seeing a patient on a certain day, and this may be upsetting to the patient. Doctors consistently cite the difficulty of finding time to keep up the human contact with the patient while going about professional duties as the key pressure of their job.
You as clergy can relate to this doctor by understanding just how he or she needs your support. Some doctors welcome a ten minute break over a cup of coffee, just to unwind. Others will tell you they would rather have the extra time with patients and prefer that you not try to make them take a break. Find out from the physicians treating patients you see how you can best support them in their role.
Your empathy with the situation of the doctor and nurse will enhance your total hospital ministry. You will be trusted by hospital staff. You will be able to communicate the needs and role of the hospital staff to the patient. And when necessary, the hospital staff will listen to your concerns on behalf of the patient.
Consulting With the Physician
How will you know when you should consult with the physician about the patient's condition? Generally, you can rely on the family to share with you what has been reported by the physician. If it's comfortable for the family, be there when they meet with the physician, so you can hear what they have been told and be identified to the physician as a significant support person to the family. Contacts with the physician beyond these times should be for specific reasons, such as an agitated family member, organ donations, and preferences regarding extraordinary treatment interventions. You receive your authority in these areas from the family.
One of the areas in which clergy and patients often feel uncomfortable is getting a second opinion for a medical procedure. A patient or family may fear that this will offend their physician. However, second opinions, especially in serious interventions such as surgery, are becoming routine. Some industries which partially provide workers’ health insurance discount costs to the employee when a second opinion is sought. Health care providers should respect the right of individuals to this type of consultation. Usually it is wise to notify the original physician of this second consultation. Often this physician can facilitate referral to a competent colleague. At the very least, the pastor can alleviate any feelings of guilt or disloyalty the parishioner may have in seeking a second opinion. Such a consultation is a wise and increasingly routine procedure.
You now have the basic map for orientation to the hospital, making your call or visit, and dealing with some of the special issues of the patient's environment. With this information, it is up to you to develop your own unique style. Pastors who shared data for this chapter each prefer different times to visit. One finds non-visiting hours to his liking. Another sees the mid-afternoon as the time a patient is most free of other procedures. One pastor makes a point of visiting late in the evening the night before surgery, a time when a patient often feels most alone. That same pastor by the way also added, “I never bring the altar flowers.”
How you use this information is up to you. Now we move on the more specific situations.
Bibliography
Biegert, John E. Looking Up While Lying Down. New York: Pilgrim, 1983.
Clinebell, Howard. Basic Types of Pastoral Counselling. Nashville, Tn.: Abingdon, reissued 1984.
Nelson, James B. Rediscovering the Person in Medical Care: Patient, Family, Physician; Nurse, Chaplain, Pastor. Minneapolis, Mn.: Augsburg, 1976.
Essays on identity of persons involved in health care, providing opportunities for understanding and care of all parties in the hospital setting.
Pipe, John H. “From Brokeness to Wholeness.” Minister—A Journal of the American Baptist Ministers Council. Valley Forge, Pa. Vol. V(1), Spring 1984, pp. 1–3, 13–15. John Pipe shares his experience of long term hospitalization following a car accident that left him partially paralyzed. This is an excellent account of the experience of hospitalization from the perspective of one who has also been a visiting pastor.
Medical Dictionaries
Mosby's Medical and Nursing Dictionary. St. Louis, Mo.: C.V. Mosby Co. Physician's Desk Reference 38th edition. Oradell, N.J.: Medical Economics Co., Inc., 1984.
Stedman's Medical Dictionary. Baltimore, Md.: Williams and Wilkins.
Taber's Cyclopedic Medical Dictionary. Philadelphia: F.A. Davis Co.
All of these dictionaries offer definitions of medical terms and diseases. Some are more helpful in certain fields than others. The Physician's Desk Reference is the most well-known and is available in most public libraries.
3
The Minister is a Team Member
Getting Into the Game
Activating the Role of Minister
There are at least three dimensions involved in the pastor's enactment of this role with hospitalized parishioners. Each is important and related to the other. The first dimension can be referred to as preparatory in nature, the second is the act of taking initiative, and the third focuses the actual provision of care.
Preparing to be pastor when parishioners are hospitalized involves two efforts: an educational process for the congregation, and the continuing professional development of the minister. In the life of the congregation, there can be concentrated emphases during which the pastor and other resource persons provide information about the health care field, perhaps lay ministry, and certainly the role of pastoral ministry during the crisis of illness. It has been mentioned several times already how important this type of preparation can be for persons who have never experienced hospitalization. Some of the information shared in chapter two can be useful. Equally important would be utilizing a panel of resource persons from local hospitals to address key issues. Examples of topics which could compose an emphasis week might include:
1. Patient-physician relationships
2.
