Is this a change for the better?

As my third year as a hospital chaplain started I realised how comfortable I was in the role. Not only was I comfortable but I was starting to make changes and be involved in some developments.

One of the changes was that I was putting up a very short thought for the week on the notice board outside the chapel. These would be very short quotes and not particularly religious. Things like “Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take but by the moments that take our breath away” I was receiving lots of positive feedback about these quotes and people would sometimes stop me to talk about this weeks quote.

One of the other changes that I was involved with was a more formal structure for staff support in A&E. I always walk through A&E on my way to and from the wards. A&E is a charged environment which has high support needs but it can so easily be neglected and missed out in general chaplaincy visiting. The problem is that the patients don’t get referred to us until they are on the ward. I decided to make a point of not missing out the A&E department and my wanderings were beginning to pay off. Many of the staff talked to me about personal issues they had.

One of the senior nurses asked me if I would take on the clinical supervision of the nursing staff. This would be done once a month and would be carried out in the form of group supervision. Clinical supervision is the wrong name really. It wasn't about supervising their clinical practice but rather enabling their clinical practice by getting anything that was troubling them out of the way.

I was pleased to be asked and jumped at the opportunity to do something on a regular basis. One of the problems of chaplaincy work, is so much of it is fire fighting and dealing with the here and now. It’s good to have things that are more long term to balance this.

When the supervision first started I think the staff were a little suspicious. They were probably wondering what the chaplain was doing in this role. I made it clear to them that I wasn’t doing this as the chaplain but rather as a person who has group work skills. In fact I always started the sessions by removing my clerical collar. I used to finish the sessions with my “Thought for the Week” which I was still doing and putting on the notice board outside the chapel. The staff really appreciated this and it was also leading to more staff coming to talk to me privately.

I wonder if there will be any further new developments as my third year confidence grew?