Staff have feelings too

Getting back to the day to day life, as a chaplain one of the things I was keen to develop was a teaching role with staff. I have been gradually building these sessions up. At present I talk about the role of chaplains and rituals at the time of death. I’m also doing some domestic violence awareness courses. All this has been good in that it has broken down some of the misconceptions about chaplains amongst the staff. Whenever I get the opportunity I remind staff that we are there for them too and not just the patients and their visitors.

This has led to several staff members coming to chat to me. The issues have ranged from marital problems, difficulties in offering care to a dispersed family with elderly parents living abroad, bereavement support, complex family relationships and coming to terms with past hurts. Sometimes staff have approached me for support with work related issues. Recently that has become more so with cuts that have been made and the threat of future cuts.

One of the staff support activities that I got into was to acknowledge and support the work of a particular ward. They’d had an unusually rough time with a number of untimely deaths amongst their patients. One of these was a young man in his 20’s who unexpectedly went into cardiac arrest and couldn’t be saved. It deeply affected every member of the team, especially the other young men.

I put together a little ceremony, which happened on the ward. The liturgy needed to contain elements that appealed to all faiths and those of no faith. I used a bowl of salty water to symbolise tears and a central candle and gave each staff member a small candle, which symbolised the light and life of the many patients that they had cared for. The ward manager read out various poems and chose some music. It was only half an hour but it was a very emotional occasion for the staff and gave them an opportunity to stop and think and acknowledge their feelings.

The next day one of the young men told me that he had slept better that night than he had for months. He thanked me for making it possible for him to move on. I think this is important. Many staff don’t get the opportunity of going to patients funerals but they sometimes need a space to say goodbye. That was provided on that occasion and helped. It’s something maybe to think about in future for the whole hospital.