Hospital chaplains embrace new role during the pandemic: caring for caregivers

Peggy Kelley, a Protestant chaplain, hugs nurse Jillian Katz, who is Orthodox Jewish, this month at Cedars-Sinai hospital in Los Angeles. “I was sad for him, but I was also like, ‘Please give me strength; I need all the help I can get.’ I was like, ‘Wow, I actually felt God — that was crazy!’ ” Although hospital chaplains are primarily tasked with supporting the sick and their loved ones, the pandemic has thrust them into new territory: caring for the caregivers. “When we see that there’s a lot of stress on the unit — maybe there has been a critical case, or a lot of them — sometimes we’ll just bring up the tea cart,” said Dagmar Grefe, manager of spiritual care at Children’s Hospital. “It has become so popular that people will call us and say, ‘We have a lot going on, can you come up?’ It’s an expression of care for people who usually always care for others.” Sue Martinez, a nurse manager at Children’s Hospital, said the presence of the chaplains is “invaluable.” “Sometimes I’m not sure that we all recognize the magnitude that they have within the hospital walls,” she said. Katz said patients perk up after the chaplains’ visits, reminded of God’s love and the feeling “that they’re in good hands.” As hospitalizations for COVID-19 decline, for Katz and Kelley and so many others, the work continues.