Chaplain Angelo Betancourt, J.D., on thinking outside the box

"Chaplain, Take Me Away"

As all chaplains know, staff who work with chaplains at various facilities are under fire each day. The traumatic situations hospital employees deal with can be instantaneously stressful, and the stress that is experienced can have a cumulative effect, causing symptoms of compassion fatigue. Chaplains try diligently, in the case of the former, to meet the needs of staff in these situations by providing Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM) Debriefings and individual pastoral care. Due to the daily activities of the hospital environment, it may not always be as timely as the pastoral care staff would like, or as effective. Likewise, CISM participants may not be willing to delve into real issues for fear of losing the appearance of professionalism. For that reason, some may choose not to attend a CISM debriefing at all, or they may attend and be silent.

Therefore, Harris Methodist Fort Worth Hospital’s (HMFW) Pastoral Care Department decided to think outside of the box. We have not given up on CISM debriefings; however, we wanted to reach those who fall through the cracks. As noted above, there are those who did not benefit from CISM debriefings. Also, the stress that an individual staff member is experiencing may be the result of a culmination of events that would not necessarily warrant a CISM debriefing.

In order to help our HMFW staff, our Pastoral Care Department rolled out the “Chaplain, Take Me Away Program.” The program is simple, and was introduced at an opportune time in our hospital system. Restructuring was taking place and the anxiety levels of the staff were at an all-time high. The timing was right for the program to take hold.

The program was rolled-out by introducing it to all of the directors in the hospital; from there it was introduced at hospital staff meetings. Posters were made and posted in the staff accessible areas. The posters invited the staff involved in stressful situations to take five minutes away from their daily routine and call a chaplain. A chaplain would then respond with a caring, compassionate presence—to hear their concerns and allow them to vent their frustrations. The poster also invited them to leave the stress of the workplace for a few minutes.

When we rolled out the program, we had no idea whether or not the staff would utilize it. The first week we had fourteen calls! The second week we had sixteen calls, and in our third week we had twenty calls from stressed-out staff! We are very pleased with the response to our initiative and intend on making this a regular part of our pastoral care practice.

One of our sister hospitals sends out a global e-mail to the staff to keep “pastoral care” visible. Therefore, to add to our own program, we decided to incorporate a weekly reflection, distributed via e-mail.

This program is keeping our Department of Pastoral Care in the minds of the hospital staff so that when a situation arises, it becomes an automatic response to call a chaplain. It is an excellent way for the department to be at the forefront of the institution.

This is one positive way that our hospital’s pastoral care staff can meet the needs of the communities we serve.

If you choose to institute this program, perhaps one day you will receive a call and the person on the other end will say, “Chaplain, Take Me Away!!!”

Do you have thoughts about professional practice you’d like to share with your colleagues? Send an e-mail info@PlainViews.org.