Pastoral Care
Every person who enters the doors of East Alabama Health is on a journey of life and a journey of faith.
For many people, faith is a vital part of their everyday lives. The need for pastoral and spiritual guidance and understanding often grows during a hospital stay. Pastoral care can be an important part of your treatment and recovery.
You may be anticipating surgery, or feel anxious about being in the hospital. You may need some assistance in clarifying your options or you may need help understanding your feelings.
Physicians, nurses, therapists, case managers and the rest of your health care team combine their talents and knowledge to serve you. The spiritual component of the healing process complements the state-of-the-art medical care you receive at East Alabama Health.
Mission and Scope of Services
At East Alabama Health, we recognize that meeting spiritual and religious needs is an important part of caring for the whole person. To respond to these needs, the hospital offers the services of our chaplaincy. The Chaplaincy Department is committed to providing spiritual care to patients and families, to the staff and to the institution as a whole. Ministry is available to people of all faiths and to those of no religious affiliation. Pastoral care at East Alabama Health is provided by trained professional chaplains as well as other East Alabama Health health care professionals. Spiritual care of patients/families is always provided in collaboration with the multidisciplinary care team.
East Alabama Health Chaplains:
- Provide religious ministry and spiritual support to patients and their families<
- Provide ministry for and consultation to hospital staff
- Serve as liaisons between the hospital and visiting clergy, seminarians, and lay visitors.
Pastoral care of patients, families, and staff helps people faced with illness and hospitalizations remember that they belong to God and their community. Chaplains sustain, support, guide, and help people in their search for meaning in illness and for reconciliation in relationships. They offer consultation and counsel regarding spiritual, emotional and ethical matters. They support by listening without judging, sharing without preaching, and offering the resources of tradition, sacraments, scripture, ritual, and personal presence.
How to Contact a Chaplain
A chaplain is available for you around the clock at East Alabama Health.
- You may phone the Pastoral Services office directly from your bedside Monday through Friday at extension 1415.
- You may ask your nurse for assistance.
- You may dial “0” for the operator who will locate a chaplain for you.
- In the evening and on weekends, your nurse or the operator can reach the on-call clergy for emergency requests.
To speak with a chaplain, please call the office at 1415 or ask your nurse to page a chaplain. Roman Catholic priests, interfaith chaplains, Muslim, Jewish and Buddhist chaplains are available at your request. Oncology and Pediatric chaplains are available during weekday daytime hours. Representatives of other traditions may also be contacted through our office.
The East Alabama Health Chaplaincy provides spiritual care to patients of all ages and their families, and to all staff members. Frequent situations to which chaplains are called include:
- Patients/families in spiritual distress
- New diagnosis
- Treatment decision-making process
- Changing the goals of care from curative to palliative
- End-of-life issues
You will find a Bible placed in your bed stand by the Gideons. If you need a different translation, meditation material, or a Torah or Quran of your own, please call extension 1415.
Please note: While chaplains are present on patient care units, they may not be able to see every patient. Please ask to see a chaplain, rather than waiting for a chaplain to come to you.
Visits from your own minister
We work closely with community clergy and pastoral visitors who minister to their parishioners or congregants in the hospital. If patients indicate their denominational preference when they are admitted to the hospital, their names will be included on a Ministerial Clergy Census. Your name will be listed under your denominational choice where your visiting clergy person can find you in the hospital. You can choose NOT to be included in the Ministerial Clergy Census and your name will not be included. It will then be your responsibility to make your clergy aware that you would like a visit while hospitalized at East Alabama Health.
Honoring Diversity
For a listing of ways that chaplains can be helpful for patients/families with faith-specific needs, please see below:
Roman Catholic
- Request to see the Catholic Priest
- End of life/Beginning of Life decisions
- Roman Catholic perspectives on medical decision making
- Sacraments: Baptism, Marriage, Sacrament of the Sick [Anointing] (formerly known as “last rites,”) Sacrament of Reconciliation (i.e. Confession,) Communion
- Spiritual Distress
Protestant
- Request for prayer
- Request to receive a Bible
- End of life/beginning of life decisions
- Blessing, dedication, and/or baptism of infants
- Denominational perspectives on medical decision making
- Sacraments and Rites (baptism, marriage, communion, anointing)
- Spiritual Distress
- Request to see a clergy person from a particular religious tradition
Buddhist
- Request to see a Buddhist Priest
- Request for guided meditation, chanting, or reading of sacred texts
- Buddhist perspectives on medical decision-making
- Staff request cultural/religious consult in order to provide culturally competent care
- Counsel regarding Buddhist death practices
- Spiritual distress
- Patient or family member requests marriage performed in the hospital
- Request to see a Buddhist chaplain
Muslim
- Request to see an Imam
- Request for reading of Quran (Koran) or for prayer
- Request for prayer timetable
- Muslim perspectives on medical decision making
- Staff request cultural/religious consult in order to provide culturally competent care
- Arrangements for religious dietary needs
- Consultation on Muslim death practices
- Spiritual Distress
- Patient or family member requests marriage performed in the hospital
Jewish
- Request to see a Rabbi
- Request for Hebrew Bible
- Jewish perspectives on medical decision making
- Kosher food
- Sabbath candles or other Sabbath concerns
- Spiritual distress
- Patient or family member requests marriage performed in the hospital
- Staff request cultural/religious consult in order to provide competent care
- Consultation on Jewish death practices
Chapel
You will find the Buck Rice Memorial Chapel located just off the Main Lobby elevators. The Chapel is always open for quiet meditation and prayer. Each Sunday morning at 8:30 a.m., one of our chaplains leads a service and all are welcome to attend. The chapel also hosts special services throughout the year, including the following:
- Hospital-wide holiday worship: Christmas and Good Friday
- Sacramental services: communion, baptism, marriages, blessings
- Literature distribution/other items: Bibles, Torahs, Qurans and other books, pamphlets, crosses, prayer rugs are also available if needed.
Information for Clergy
We work closely with community clergy and pastoral visitors who minister to their parishioners or congregants in the hospital. If patients indicate their denominational preference when they are admitted to the hospital, their names will be included on a Clergy Census. Their names will be listed by their denominational choice so you may locate them for pastoral visitation. Persons may choose NOT to be included in the Clergy Census, and their names will not be included. It will then be their responsibility to make their clergy person aware of their hospitalization.
Below is a link to an information form for visiting clergy. Completing this form allows our hospital to have an after-hours contact number in the event that a patient or family (of your parish or congregation) has a need. Please print and complete this form and either mail it to us or bring it by on your next visit to East Alabama Health.
Visiting Parishioners at East Alabama Health
Visiting the sick in the hospital is a wonderful way to show you care. The emotional and spiritual support you show your friends, loved ones or parishioners is a valuable part of healing. However, there are some things that you should be aware of to make your visit more pleasant for both you and the patient you are seeing.
- Wash your hands or use the alcohol-based hand sanitizer available in each patient room BEFORE and AFTER you visit. Germs can transfer from your hands to the patient (or from one patient to another) and put him or her at risk for infection.
- Do not visit if you are ill. Call, send a card or a gift instead. Although most of us are used to going about our business when we’re sick with a cold or mild bug, for a patient in the hospital recovering from illness or surgery, that bug could be serious.
- For your protection, get a flu shot every year.
- Always knock before entering a patient’s room, and wait until you are asked to enter.
- Cover your cough or sneeze with either a tissue or your sleeve. Then wash your hands.
- Limit visits to 30 minutes or less to avoid overexerting the patient. Follow the hospital’s guidelines for visits to the critical care units.
Visiting Hours
Patient care is our primary concern; therefore, specific visiting hours and regulations have been established for each unit. Visiting hours are from 9 a.m. until 9 p.m. If you need additional information, please check with a nurse on the unit or the volunteer at the information desk in the Main Lobby.
Critical Care Areas (CVICU and ICU) Visiting Hours:
8 a.m. – 2 p.m.
4 p.m. – 6 p.m.
8 p.m. – 9 p.m.
Clergy Parking
There are a number of reserved clergy parking spaces in Level 1 of the parking deck.