HR Pulse - Fall 2008 - (Page 35)

expressway. As the information was received by the morning OR team, the HR director asked the chaplain to gather with all of the OR staff (along with the COO) for a time of sharing and debriefing. The chaplain continued providing this service to small groups throughout the day. Behind-the-Scenes Benefits While the direct contributions of professional chaplains to patient care are fairly well appreciated, the indirect contributions and the contributions to staff support and satisfaction are not well understood. During National Nurses’ Week, many professional chaplains visit nursing units blessing the hands of nurses and any other staff who wish it. This is a non-denominational blessing that recognizes the care that the staff gives with their hands as a sacred act. The short blessing tends to be very popular and highly anticipated by staff and contributes to staff morale. Because professional chaplains are communication specialists, they are viewed as approachable, non-judgmental, and impartial. They can be skilled and trusted mediators of both patientstaff and staff-staff communication issues. Chaplains can teach staff skills in listening and respectful communication that can improve both staff relationships and patients’ perceptions of care. As part of a comprehensive, interdisciplinary effort to counter low patient satisfaction scores on a particular nursing unit, the hospital chaplain in one client institution met with staff for spirituality groups and stress education once a month. As a result of this effort, the unit accomplished a major turnaround in both staff and patient satisfaction. Managing Diversity Religion and culture are often very hard to disentangle, and they certainly have signiﬁcant overlap. Many of the issues often considered “cultural,” including dietary habits, holidays, and relationships between the sexes, are driven by religious tenets in most cultures. Chaplains, as the chief religious experts in the institution, also have signiﬁcant appreciation for cultural issues and how to treat them. Many institutions employ their professional chaplains as the primary staff trainers on cultural issues. Providing Culturally and Linguistically Competent Health Care published by Joint Commission Resources, comments, “The emerging prominent role of the clinically trained, professional board certiﬁed chaplain working with health care organizations in completing spiritual assessments, functioning as the ‘cultural broker,’ and leading cultural and spiritual sensitivity assessments for staff and physicians can be of great value.” Our experience is that the great majority of clinical staff wants to respect the cultural issues and values of their patients and family members. Most often they simply lack the training necessary to know how to interact with a patient whose culture is different than their own. However, the issues are equally prevalent in staff-staff interactions. As institutions strive to diversify their staff and be known as friendly to employees of all cultural groups in their community, the potential for staff-staff miscommunication and disrespect grows. Many institutions use their professional chaplains to help teach staff about the cultures, values, and norms of others in the workforce. It is not often clear to supervisors which holidays are important for members of a particular cultural group or when in the day it might be appropriate to give a particular employee a short break to make required prayers. There also are many examples of chaplains intervening to help make the workplace more attractive to certain groups. During Ramadan when Muslim employees fast from dawn to dusk, some of our chaplains have facilitated the provision of food in a private room at the time of fast breaking so the employees can break their fast and make their proper prayers. One of our chaplains helped their hospital to obtain a Kosher food vending machine, so the many observant Jewish employees could have food accessible to them at all times. These and other such gestures are low cost and signal to employees that the institution takes their needs seriously. Crisis Support Professional chaplains specialize in crisis management. Again, much of this involves patient-related crises. These can revolve around traumas and codes or any time when a patient and family are out of control. In this way, they allow other staff, particularly nurses and physicians, to continue with their work. However, support of staff in crisis also is important. Chaplains generally make sure they check with clinical staff after a particularly traumatic death to help them debrief and resume their work. They are often the one present at the nurses’ station to help staff members vent after a particularly stressful encounter with a patient, family member, or fellow staff member. Often hospital management assumes that if staff members want support from a clergyperson or religious community they will seek it out on their own. Or they assume that religion has no place in the workplace. The fact is that many employees want to integrate their religious beliefs and values into their work. Like the rest of the population, people who are not afﬁliated with a religious community still value religion. Chaplains, as the chief religious experts in the institution, also have significant appreciation for cultural issues and how to treat them. 35 HR Pulse Fall 2008 >>

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of HR Pulse - Fall 2008

HR Pulse - Fall 2008 Contents Pulse Points Executive Director’s Letter President’s Message HR Leader Profile: Irma Pye Sammy’s House: Making a Difference in Austin Working Mother Magazine’s 100 Best Companies Increasing CEO Engagement Pastoral Care Retaining Scarce, Critical Talent The Engagement Dilemma Diversity Considerations…More than AAP & EEO Quashing the Workplace Bullying Bug How to Become a Strong Human Resources Partner Citizen Lobbyists Descend Upon Capitol Hill Conference Highlights Schedule at a Glance Sponsors Exhibitors Advertisers’ Index

HR Pulse - Fall 2008

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