We Can Do Better: Why Pastoral Care Visitation to Hospitals is Essential, Especially in Times of Crisis
From his perspective as a general surgeon, Episcopal priest and Medical Director for High Risk Populations and Outcomes at a large health-care system, the author identifies an unrecognized problem that clergy were banned from visiting parishioners in most hospitals across the country during the heig...
| Published in: | Journal of religion and health |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Springer Science + Business Media B. V.
[2020]
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| In: |
Journal of religion and health
Year: 2020, Volume: 59, Issue: 5, Pages: 2283-2287 |
| Further subjects: | B
Pastoral Care
B Covid-19 B Quality Improvement B Hospital Administration B Pastoral visitation |
| Online Access: |
Presumably Free Access Volltext (Resolving-System) |
| Summary: | From his perspective as a general surgeon, Episcopal priest and Medical Director for High Risk Populations and Outcomes at a large health-care system, the author identifies an unrecognized problem that clergy were banned from visiting parishioners in most hospitals across the country during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic—a situation that persists in many contexts. The author explains why pastoral visitation should be considered essential care—especially at a time of crisis—and encourages hospital administrators across the country to clarify policies to welcome community clergy as essential personnel, but to do so with prudent procedures that mitigate risk to the community and to the visiting clergy. Given the fact that most hospitals in this country were founded by religious organizations and still carry the imprint of that founding in their names, it would be tragic for these very same hospitals to cut patients off from their religious communities precisely at the time they need them most. |
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| ISSN: | 1573-6571 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Journal of religion and health
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1007/s10943-020-01072-x |