555, 2000 K Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20006.)
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You're an Outsider:
How Do You Get Inside?
I write this chapter as a parish minister who spent a year hunting for parking spaces at one hospital before I discovered there was a special permit for ministers. I have visited more empty rooms than I care to mention. I have served in communities where everyone who did not know what denomination they were listed themselves as a member of my denomination when they checked into the hospital. And I have served in other communities where no one had ever heard of my denomination, including the people at the hospital information desk. I have heard the stories of countless other pastors who have struggled with the logistics of hospital visitation.
People Who Can Help
When you arrive in a new community, establish a plan to get acquainted with the hospitals and physicians who care for your congregation. Such a plan should begin with the physicians who are members of your congregation. Ask your parishioners for other names of the community's respected doctors as well. Call these key medical people and ask for an opportunity to meet with them at their convenience. Breakfast, lunch, a cup of coffee after rounds at the hospital, are all possible times to introduce yourself. Let these physicians tell you about their community, the current issues at the local and regional hospitals, and the needs they see for visiting and pastoral care. Find out how to share information about patients when necessary. Ask for the names of other health professionals they feel you should meet. Use all these contacts as a time to get to know each other. Specific questions and critical concerns may arise later. These will be much easier to deal with if you have first established a firm base of personal trust.
Before your first hospital call, find someone who can give you an orientation to the hospital. In a large hospital this might be the chaplain. If there is no chaplain, there are social workers, administrators, and staff with a title such as hospital hostess who can give you a tour, explain that hospital's policies for clergy visits, and even help you find a place to park your car.
If you cannot find someone within the hospital to help, ask another pastor in the community. Along the way, make sure your guide introduces you to key hospital personnel. You will be spending a lot of time in the hospital. It is important for hospital staff to recognize you and for you to know whom to call when you have special concerns.
It is clear that many of the logistical elements of hospital visiting are determined by the size of the hospital, community, and church where you work. In Connecticut I was on the staff of a large church, in the largest denomination in the state, in a small town, in a small hospital. There was always someone to see in the hospital, so I just went regularly. I didn't always know everyone I saw, but the hospital personnel got to know me quickly. It was easy to find patients from my church in the visitor's directory. When I moved to Florida, I found myself in a community with four large hospitals, in a small church, of a denomination most people in the South had never heard of. My hospital visiting in Florida is much different. I clearly know everyone I visit, but someone has to let me know they are in the hospital. I have to keep making myself known to the hospital staff.
We will continue to apply criteria for hospital visiting to the entire range of situations in which hospital visitors find themselves. At this point, clarify your own situation, the setting in which you do your hospital visiting, and have a picture of it before you as you consider your orientation.
Begin by getting to know the people who can help. Cultivate an awareness of different professionals in the hospital system and use them regularly. People to contact are chaplains, social workers, nursing supervisors in particular units or areas, patient services representatives, and information hosts or hostesses.
Getting Oriented
Begin your tour with the information desk. There is generally a separate file for clergy where patients are listed by religious affiliation. Make sure your denomination is listed in a way that is familiar to your congregation. Communicate this listing to the members of your church so they know how to indicate their affiliation when they go to the hospital.
In another chapter we will discuss ways to activate the minister's role in hospital visiting, but here it is important to note that church members need to be made aware of the importance of the clergy file at the hospital. I have had people refuse to fill out a religious preference card at the hospital out of civil liberty convictions. Here I had to point out that filling out this category helps me find them. My denomination, the United Church of Christ, still has people in it who call themselves Congregationalists, from the parent denomination prior to the merger. I alert the hospital to this dual listing and encourage my members to stick with one name or the other, depending on the characteristics of the community.
No matter how good the system, some names never make it to the religious card file. Therefore it is important to have a standing policy whereby members of the church call you when they or other members are in the hospital.
The second item on your tour should be the visiting policy. What are the hospital visiting hours and when does the hospital prefer to have clergy visit? You may have to balance the hospital's preference with your own convictions. Some pastors like to visit in the morning before regular visiting hours. This gives you a certain amount of privacy and freedom from interruptions by other visitors. However, it is also a time that many of the medical procedures are performed and you may be getting in the way of hospital personnel.
Find out when meals are served and avoid them. This is an awkward time for patient and visitor.
There are times, in emergencies and around surgery, that you cannot follow the most convenient schedule for the hospital. Find out in advance how to get in late at night or early in the morning.
The third piece of information you should obtain is how the hospital will get oriented to you. What will you do about identifying yourself? No one really looks like the stereotype of a minister anymore, so you cannot take it for granted that hospital staff will understand why you are walking through their halls. I have met staff who claim they can always spot a minister, but they've never spotted me. Women and younger pastors all have special difficulty being recognized as clergy. But unless you look like Ichabod Crane, even a middle-aged male will not be easily recognized as a minister.
Find out if the hospital requires you to carry or wear some form of official identification. If not, then it will be up to you to identify yourself. If you wear a clerical collar, this is easy. If this is not your denominational tradition, you will have to make clear who you are. It is important to introduce yourself as a minister at the nurse's station at the floor where you visit. Hospitals are concerned about the security of their patients, and personnel appreciate your courtesy in introducing yourself.
It is also important to find out how the hospital expects you to relate to special areas like the intensive care unit or the emergency room. These are areas which have strict prohibitions for general visitors but which allow clergy special privileges. You need to know your rights for these areas, because staff are not always aware of clergy privilege in specific situations. A later chapter describes some of the unique elements of emergency room and intensive care visitation, but you should find out what policies apply to clergy in your first tour.
The Visit
Having
