My Working Day: Sr Chad McCollum, pastoral care co-ordinator at Portiuncula Hospital, in Galway, provides a listening ear to patients, their families and staff
In all our time working in clinical pastoral care, I and other members of my team have never really experienced what could be described as a "typical working day".
That said, there clearly has to be a structure within which we work. In Portiuncula, we work on a rotating shift system (similar to a nursing roster) which is flexible and offers 24-hour cover.
We are part of the hospital team which provides holistic care to patients, their families and to staff, in good times and bad. We provide pastoral and spiritual care regardless of religion, gender, sexual orientation, race or ethnic background.
We recognise that all with whom we come in contact possess an essential spiritual dimension, whether or not this is founded on any formal religious belief.
We know that some of our patients have religious needs and we know that everyone has spiritual needs. Pastoral and spiritual care is anything which touches the spirit of another.
Obviously, pastoral care can involve listening deeply and intently to all that is said and to what is not said and reflecting back what is heard until the truth begins to surface for the other. It can also be shared laughter or tears or something as simple as remembering a birthday.
It can be keeping vigil with a family as a loved one struggles. It can be supporting someone who is ill, as he/she struggles to redefine his or her worth and personal meaning in the light of their illness. It can be shared prayer or spiritual reading which has special meaning. Spiritual/pastoral care cannot be boxed in or narrowly defined as people express their spirituality in very different ways.
Our day would usually begin with checking the list of patients, particularly those who are very ill and those who stayed overnight in A&E, and visiting these first. Each of us has our own wards and we then go to these to check in with staff and visit the patients - this is the routine part of the day.
Aside from this, the day could involve a call to A&E because a family is coming in after a family member has died by suicide or a road traffic accident victim is being brought in, and we are called to be with the family - this can be especially traumatic if a child is the victim.
We can also be called upon if somebody has died suddenly and traumatically, and the family are in shock, if someone has been injured or suddenly taken ill or if a child is brought in as a result of cot death.
In all of these circumstances, an important part of our role would be to support and be with the staff.
We may get a call from maternity or the day-care centre because a mother is in danger of losing her baby in the early stages of pregnancy to miscarriage, where a mother has carried her baby to full or almost full term and the child has died or where a child is born with physical or mental defect. A call from the intensive care department nearly always signals something traumatic.
Alongside all of the above, there is the importance of religious and sacramental services which are part and parcel of busy hospital life. These include daily mass for patients and staff, funeral services including baby funerals in the hospital chapel and removals from the mortuary as well as different services throughout the year for staff and patients.
In conversation with Michelle McDonagh