Promises, prayer and encouragement: A Q&A with AdventHealth Gordon’s spiritual leaders about COVID
Don Jehle is the chaplain at AdventHealth Gordon. Andrew Scheermeijer is AdventHealth’s Clinical Mission Integration Manager. Together, they are responsible for providing spiritual support to frontline workers at the hospital and in AdventHealth’s many clinics.
Their day-to-day routines have changed drastically since the onset of COVID-19. Today, they are sitting down to discuss the impact of the coronavirus on their work and how they have managed to support others and themselves in such an unprecedented and uncertain time.
Q: What has it been like serving as the spiritual support for so many frontline nurses, doctors and staff during the pandemic?
Chaplain Don Jehle:
It has been a challenging year for chaplaincy, especially for us at AdventHealth Gordon because we aren’t able to do many of the things we used to do for ministry right now. For example, we used to have different spiritual services in our chapels and so forth, and we can’t right now because we need to maintain social distancing and be safe for everyone. We’ve had to cancel those services. We’ve had to cancel things like our grief recovery group because of COVID. That had been open for anyone in the community as well as those grieving loved ones lost at the hospital. Since COVID, we haven’t been able to do that. We have done the same thing for our cancer support group. These are challenges, when we cannot minister in the way that we have in the past. The same thing is true in the hospital with our COVID patients. I would love to go into patients rooms and pray with them like we have typically done, but the hospital, as they looked at containing risk, said, ‘If you were to meet with a COVID patient, there’s a possibility you could be a carrier and spread COVID through the hospital,’ and we didn’t want that. It has been a real struggle. We do still pray with them over the telephone and things like that, of course. There have been times in the ICU when I would talk to patients over the phone and stand outside the door so they could see me through the window, but I couldn’t hold their hand or do anything like we have in the past.
Much of the ministry I’ve done over the past year has shifted to helping support the staff as much as I can. They are on the frontline. They are heroes. So, I always want to be there for them if they’re discouraged and feel lost or if they’ve just lost a patient or for whatever reason. I’ve had people come to me in tears, saying, ‘I did everything I could to save them, and they died.’ As a chaplain, my responsibility has shifted to taking care of those staff members. I pray with them and I pray for them.
Andew Scheermeijer:
My background is in nursing, so from that perspective, I wanted to be right back on the floor when lockdown took place last March because that’s what I’ve done in the past. I started my nursing career in 2007 in Australia. Then in 2009, the swine flu came through and that was my first exposure to a pandemic. It wasn’t anything like this, but healthcare doesn’t stop. It is constant. So, for me, when it happened, I was questioning my role. I wanted to make sure I was in the right place to help the most that I could. My role right now is to be a spiritual support for teams in our clinics. It was hard. I was torn. But at the same time, I count it as a privilege to figure out how to make things a little better for those people who are on the frontlines. I recognized that our team members needed support and wanted to do that.
As for what it has been like, I’ve been so empowered by the resilience of a lot of our team members. Seeing their adaptability and patience through it was extremely encouraging. Of course, there have been tough moments, especially in the beginning. I’ve had to do a lot of listening. I pray with staff. I pray with patients. I refer them to our e-spiritual care center whenever needed to make sure they have continued support. Everyone is going through this, including our patients, so we want to care for them spiritually as well as physically.
Q: How did COVID change the way you support staff and patients?
Jehle:
Many things have changed because of COVID. For a while the hospital wasn’t allowing any family members at all in rooms with patients — any patients, including non-COVID patients. That’s changed now, but initially I wasn’t allowed in those rooms either. My focus at that point became entirely about our frontline staff members. Now, a single family member can come in and I as a chaplain can go in. Even when I’m in that room, though, it is different than it was before. Now I have to maintain a social distance, so I can’t touch patients or hold their hands. I can raise my hand in the air and pray for them and they appreciate that, but the connection is not as strong as it is when you can hug them or offer them that sort of support.
Early on when people couldn’t meet in person, Andrew (Scheermeijer) started to a ‘PPE’ call for staff. It stands for Promises, Prayers and Encouragement. It is a phone line that staff could call each morning. We would pray for and with them, and we’d try to encourage them. I also send out devotionals every day, and I ask the staff how they are doing and check in regularly. Sometimes I’ve had a staff member come to me in tears before going into a COVID room, and I’ll pray with them.
Scheermeijer: What’s happened during COVID is that things have become harder. We can’t physically be as close, so people are finding new ways to support each other. You have to meet people where they’re at and support them the way they feel most supported, whether that’s through a Facebook group or through our PPE call. Our care plans have to be shaped around what is best for them. That’s always been the case, but I think it’s even more important now.
The questions we’re asking patients now are things like, ‘Do you have someone who loves and cares for you? Do you feel supported? Do you feel a sense of peace today?’ We offer resources and connect them with the right people and places to get support. If someone says, ‘No, I don’t have peace today,’ that gives us the ability to ask more questions. We can get to the bottom of why that is, and that’s what people need right now. Another big difference for me is touch. I don’t offer to hold hands the way I used to now, but I do look for that signal. If someone reaches for me, I reach out to them back. I want to be respectful of what people are going through.
Q: What have you learned as spiritual leaders over the last year? Are there things that you want to carry forward into the future after COVID?
Jerle: In terms of what I might’ve learned from COVID, I think most of what I was doing before I will return to doing because the personal contact is just so much stronger. The connection is much stronger when you’re able to be closer to a person. But, some of the advantages of COVID have been more in terms of how we can connect long distance through Zoom and Microsoft Teams and other video software. My colleagues at other AdventHealth hospitals, for example, have been able to come together much more. Normally all of the chaplains have a meeting once a year or maybe a little more frequently, but through Zoom we were able to check in with one another much more often and support each other if we were struggling with what we were seeing. I see that continuing.
Scheermeijer: A big thing I’ve learned this year is that each one of us is going through the pandemic. We all need support for that, but there are still other diseases and illnesses taking place, too. Those are things I am still supporting people through that can be very traumatic for families and employees, as well as the community. I can’t just focus on COVID. I have to work with everyone and support all of our patients. Cancer is still happening. Bones are still being broken. Those people still need support. As important as COVID is, I don’t want us all to forget about those patients either.
Q: Where have you personally found support over the last year?
Jerle:
It is a challenge. Whenever we lose a patient it is always something difficult. I may not have ever met that person, but when the family is upset and crying, it affects your heart too. A lot of times I find that I’m upset, even though I’d never met them previously. So, one of the ways I’ve found support is through talking with other chaplains. I really had some great support there. Another way was by working with Andrew. While our ministries are a little different, he is a colleague and so we would meet and come together. That was a big help for me. Having someone local to talk to was a big help.
One of the things that was really helpful for the staff was the Sunday School class at the First Baptist Church of Calhoun. Some of their Sunday School members would write cards to the staff that were encouraging. Administration would give them to me so I could give them to nurses and doctors and anyone else who might need a lift for the day. I thought that was a wonderful ministry that they did.
Scheermeijer: At the start of the pandemic we began what we call a ‘PPE’ call. That stands for Promises, Prayer and Encouragement. We were doing that seven
days a week at the beginning. Now we do it three days a week. Sometimes we get one person, sometimes we get eight or nine people on that call. We pray and do devotions together. It can be hard to find time to do that when you work in healthcare, so it has been a real comfort to me, personally, and to our staff.
We do other things too. For example,
we have a week of spiritual renewal coming up in April. We’ll share inspirational videos through the week of Easter. There are lots of different ways to minister, but we have a lot of staff that minister to each other and I think that’s been a source of comfort. Today in the urgent care center, I asked two staff members who were eating lunch and were talking and supporting
each other how they were doing. They said they were fine and that they were just talking through some things, so I gave them scripture cards and left them to do that. Sometimes they need that from each other and not from me, and I understand that. Part of my job is giving them what they need and knowing when is the right time to do that has been helpful for me as well.