Pastoral Services: Ministering to the spiritual side of health care

Although they aren’t doctors, nurses or other health care practitioners, the chaplains who make up the pastoral services team at UTMB are part of the Health System and are there not only for patients and their families, but for staff as well.  

“I want the staff to know that we’re part of the health care team, that we're a resource for the patients and we’re a resource for them. That we’re here to support that spiritual piece to the patient care process,” Pastoral Care Manager Carla Price said. “It's a hope that UTMB takes a holistic approach to patient care, and I think we do.  

“And for those moments where the chaplain can come alongside and be part of that healing process, I think it’s rewarding for the patient; it’s rewarding for everyone involved,” she said. “If I had a message for staff, it’s ‘thank you for allowing us to be part of the healing process,’ because I hope that we're bringing an element of professionalism, care and compassion to that process that that they that they find beneficial.” 

Meeting the need 

Meeting that need for patients can take many forms—mostly, it’s prayer and presence. 

“We'll do that through prayer, and we’ll do it via presence, meaning that we will show up to the patient's room and sometimes it just means that we sit there with them in their grief, or in their confusion, or in their stress, or in their distress,” Price said. 

It might mean baptizing a patient who requests it. It might mean providing grief and bereavement support, wiping tears and giving hugs.  

“Whatever it takes to meet that spiritual need, we try to make ourselves available,” Price said. “And it's not scripted. We almost have to be very innovative, because each need is going to look just a little different. What might work for patient A or family B might be different from patient C and family D. 

“We are also here for staff,” Price added. “So, if there's been a particular traumatic event on a unit or floor, they might ask for a debriefing. And we'll make ourselves available for that as well. And we'll help them process that grief in that moment.” 

Staff members also can contact the Pastoral Care team at any time for their own spiritual support. 

Trained to care 

There are 11 chaplains in total working across the UTMB campuses. All are trained to offer support at a level-one health care facility. Each chaplain has at least a master's degree and at least a year of residency training. Many also have additional formal professional training.  

UTMB campuses at Angleton, Clear Lake and League City have a staff chaplain at each hospital. Galveston has a staff chaplain and a palliative care chaplain who splits his duties between palliative care and general chaplaincy needs. There also are on-call chaplains. 

Most of the chaplains at UTMB are connected to a church or other faith community, Price said, explaining that to be board certified, a chaplain needs an ecumenical or denominational endorsement, which would come from “a church, a temple, a whole host of things.” 

But no matter their faith community, each chaplain is equipped to meet the spiritual needs of people of all faiths. 

"We help each person connect with what gives them meaning, hope and purpose,” Price said. “That's their spiritual wellness. So, when we meet that spiritual care need, it could be someone who has a well-recognized faith or maybe someone who was even an atheist. But what we find is that there's still something that gives them hope. There’s something that gives them meaning, there's something that gives them purpose. And that's how we help them connect with spiritual wellness.” 

Here are some more insights into Pastoral Care at UTMB from Price. You can meet the chaplains individually in this feature, as well. 

What do you find most challenging about this work? 

Carla Price: That there are not enough hours in the day? Yeah. Yeah, that’s probably the most challenging is that we can't see everyone and do the kind of ministry that we can do. But what we do provide can be life changing, can be transformational, and it’s certainly helpful.  

We have one staff chaplain at each of our community hospitals. And those hospitals are growing. League City is expanding, Clear Lake is expanding and so that spiritual care need expands, particularly when you go from a level three facility to level two. Now you’re seeing codes and traumas at a higher level, a higher-acuity patient. And so those patients who come through your doors might need different Pastoral Care support than someone who is in an outpatient facility who's getting chemo. 

What do you find most rewarding? 

CP: That you get to be with individuals at their worst moments in life, and you get to see what God is doing in those moments. So, it gives you a heart full of gratitude to help someone remember that God’s not forsaken them at their worst moment in life.  

It could be a trauma, it could be a loss, it could be at the worst moment when people just need some kernel or just some remnant of hope and you see what God is doing with them, for them, through them in that moment. 

Can you see the difference that you can make in that moment? 

CP: Yes, I do. That's why I do this work. And that's why this work is not even work. Because when you get to see that, that's what draws you back again and again. In those moments, when you’re seeing what God is doing that—and I could probably speak for most of them—that’s what brings them back to do this work, not just that you’re called to do this work. But that when you see the impact of that transformation, when you see the impact of your presence with that patient, yeah, that brings you back every day. 

When you meet with someone, what would be the best thing they could say to you at the end of the conversation?  

CP: “Thank you for coming.” We may have a patient list, but then we’ll just stop at the nurses’ station and ask if they have any patients who might benefit from pastoral care and some of those most impactful patient visits are when we just happen to stumble across the patient. I call them God moments. The nurse will point us to a room, and it’s in those moments where what I’ve experienced is that God meets us there in the room, and that that visit was just very dynamic.  

So, at the end of the visit, when I get a “thank you for coming,” it’s because it wasn’t planned, it wasn’t prescribed, it wasn’t scripted. But we just show up, and then we’re allowed to be used. And then we see the transformation that’s occurring in those moments. 

Pastoral Care basics (from the UTMB Pastoral Care homepage)