One of the many responsibilities that the chaplain at the hospice in Pasadena has in the healthcare system is to assist patients and loved ones find a sense of peace at the moment leading up to a patient’s transition. Many medical care professionals at palliative care in Los Angeles must deal with people from many different backgrounds and traditions.
For instance, many believe that the main purpose of a chaplain at the hospice in Pasadena is to evangelize. However, this is actually not the verifiable truth. Generally speaking, chaplains are responsible for assessing the spiritual needs of patients and families and working together with them with the resources they want within an emotionally charged time. What you have to keep in mind is that the role of the chaplain at hospice in Burbank Ca is to accommodate the needs of the patient and family before anything else. The chaplains at hospice in Pasadena do not impose their own beliefs.
What Is The Chaplain’s Role?
Unfortunately, there are many mistaken beliefs about the chaplain’s role in the medical environment. Many people identify the chaplain with the passing of the patient only. However, the chaplain plays an important part in making life more meaningful after there is a terminal diagnosis. Every chaplain is supported by faith tradition; although, they have supplementary training in how to encounter people in crisis despite a person’s faith tradition or background. Chaplains are trained in aiding people to tell their stories and define meaning in their own lives by asking questions and giving sympathetic listening. Although chaplains can provide understanding and tenderness in a time of need, sometimes it is essential to connect with particular rituals related to their own traditions.
When Does A Chaplain Interact To Other Faith Leaders?
From time to time, a chaplain will touch base with other faith leaders to meet the requirements of the patients and families. One of the most common examples of this is when Catholic patients want rituals that only a priest can conduct. For instance, there have been many occasions that a hospice had to contact a patient’s parish priest to provide the Sacrament of the Sick, which used to be referred to as the “last rites”. This is due to the fact that only a Catholic priest can carry out this sacrament. If a ritual requires a spiritual leader from a particular denomination that is different from the chaplain’s denomination, a chaplain will collaborate with individuals who can meet the requirement to help the patient.
How Do Hospice Chaplains Help Patients?
First of all, the chaplain is committed to providing the patient with care and spiritual counsel that meets their needs and is in agreement with what the patient wishes for. If a patient does not want to enlist a hospice chaplain or any type of spiritual care, they do not have to. It is completely optional and the patient can change their mind whenever they want.
As mentioned before, chaplains do not try to convert patients or include a specific religion. On the other hand, chaplains help a [atient through their spiritual journey and help the patient realize a renewed meaning and spiritual peace. No matter the patient’s religion, creed, or culture, a chaplain’s aim is to provide patients with compassionate spiritual support and counsel.
How Do Chaplains Help Patients Spiritually Prepare For End Of Life?
Normally and understandably, a terminally-ill patient deals with their end of life with vigorous and complicated emotions such as depression, anger, and guilt can start to take effect. Also, patients start to question the meaning of life, their purpose, and whether or not their life made a difference and added any value.
The hospice chaplain’s responsibility if to help lead patients to a place of spiritual health by assisting them to see the value of their life and its positive influence. Ven though the chaplain may not be able to give all the answers a patient is looking for, expressing these emotions is healthy and conducting these conversations can help create a path toward healing.
Furthermore, a chaplain makes sure that no patient dies alone. The vital element of the hospice philosophy of care is that no one should be alone at the end of life Regardless, on the time of day or night, the hospice team, which consists of the hospice chaplain, is committed to making certain that no patient dies alone and that each patient is encircled by comforting, compassionate friends when the time comes.
How Do Chaplains Improve A Patient’s Sense Of Comfort and Well-Being?
A healthy spiritual perspective is closely linked to a patient’s general sense of well-being. Many studies have revealed that patients who think of themselves as having a more balanced and positive spiritual outlook say they have higher levels of positivity, reduced levels of pain, and an overall higher level of comfort at the end of life.
How Do Hospital Chaplains Help Families?
Although the chaplain, as a member of the hospice care team, mainly focuses on the patient with the care they require (according to the patient’s wishes for their end of life care) families are also given emotional and spiritual support.
A patient’s family is severely affected by the revelation of their loved one’s terminal diagnosis along with the daily process of their loved one’s end-of-life journey.
As anticipated, the end-of-life process creates a spiritual loss on the patient’s family, who may feel angered, confused, guilt-ridden, or even questioning the meaning of life themselves.
Within this scope, chaplains act as a compassionate listener and provide spiritual counsel for families, allowing them to articulate their fears, voice their concerns, and start to work through these complicated emotions.
Ultimately, chaplains help to reinforce the significance of spiritual coping during the dying process. Typically, once a patient is terminally diagnosed, the patient and the patient’s family may start to question long-held spiritual beliefs, and might even abandon their spirituality altogether.
A chaplain has the important role of boosting their spiritual health by helping them understand the importance of their spirituality, the strength it brings, and the effectiveness that good spiritual health has on mental as well as physical well-being.
