Hospital pastoral care: help on a difficult road

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By Nancy Barthel
Compass Correspondent

Rev. Jan Bast-Dalebroux and John Viste have seen just about everything as part of the pastoral care team at St. Vincent Hospital, Green Bay. And for them it's a calling that allows them to help people at moments that are life-changing.

If a patient is at St. Vincent for 24 hours or longer, their lives will be touched by a pastoral care associate. Sometimes it's just for a quick visit to say "hello" and inquire about their spiritual needs.

At other times, they provide individuals and families the opportunity to experience and explore their spirituality and core values in deep, meaningful ways. What a family may experience as a once-in-a-lifetime event - an accident, end-of-life questions, making the decision to donate organs or tissues, the challenge of a serious diagnosis - are the everyday life for a hospital chaplain.

"We help the individual find what they want," said Bast-Dalebroux.

Bast-Dalebroux, a nondenominational pastor, and Viste, a member of Corpus Christi Parish in Sturgeon Bay, are part of a pastoral care team of seven people at St. Vincent. No matter the day, 24/7 someone is there. And when there is a multiple trauma, other team members are called in for patients and their families.

A pastoral care associate's role is often to "be the calming effect," said Viste, who once studied for the priesthood.

The pastoral care team is called to maintain composure, even in the most difficult of situations. Sometimes there is anger, as people struggle with their grief. Pastoral care staff are the people "they can depend on in that situation," said Bast-Dalebroux.

And always, said Viste, they serve as the patient and family's advocate. Both he and Bast-Dalebroux are certified by the Association of Clinical Pastoral Education.

For Viste, who commutes from Sturgeon Bay each day, he has returned to an earlier calling. The late Bp. Aloysius Wycislo had asked him to become part of a hospital pastoral care program, while he was studying for the priesthood.

Family life and a successful business career intervened, but a few years ago it was time to re-explore the calling he had felt to hospital ministry.

For Bast-Dalebroux, her ministry choice was also a journey of faith. A Menominee Falls native, she earned a degree in psychology with a background in deaf education from UW-Stevens Point. She has served in two positions at NEW Curative, working with brain injury patients, and also as the Respite Care Coordinator for Brown County.

Those experiences, combined with her father's death in his 40's and her mother's challenges from that loss, brought Bast-Dalebroux to ministry at St. Vincent.

While the hospital is a Catholic institution, the work in pastoral care is very ecumenical. Each day, the chaplains call numerous churches to inform them of parishioners' stays. Beyond that, "A huge part that we do is the durable power of attorney (for health care)," said Bast-Dalebroux.

Federal law requires hospitals, nursing homes, and other institutions receiving Medicare or Medicaid funds to provide written information regarding advanced care directives to all patients upon admission. Beyond the legalities, Viste said it serves as a good vehicle in which to discuss some of the soul-searching questions patients in a trauma hospital find themselves asking.

"We try to make it real comfortable to talk about death," said Bast-Dalebroux.

And among those questions is the donation of organs and tissue. Some families have discussed it, others haven't. As a hospital chaplain, it's their role to speak with families when the time is appropriate.

"It helps them see the gift it can be, that that person can continue to live on in other people," said Bast-Dalebroux, who emphasized that for families making this big decision, "there is no right or wrong way."

Bast-Dalebroux said she was honored to travel to New Orleans last year to receive a national award on behalf of St. Vincent's acknowledging its high organ donation conversion rate. According to St. Vincent Hospital, Wisconsin had the highest donor rate in the nation for 2005.

Among other gifts they can offer those they minister with is a chance to get to know themselves better. "We do want people to be in touch with their emotions," said Viste, who often ministers with cancer patients and their families. "It's easy to put it on the shelf."

Exploring emotions isn't limited to patients and their families. "We're here for staff too," said Bast-Dalebroux. After a significant event happens, the pastoral care staff is part of the "debriefing" process and reviews each organ donation decision. Ethics are always discussed "so that the right decisions are made," said Viste.

Bast-Dalebroux and Viste say it's always the ministry that keeps them walking the halls of St. Vincent. Spirituality is always at the forefront as they minister to those who may be faced with painful moments. A waiting room can be a lonely place for that person waiting for news about their loved one.

In the end, their role as pastoral care associates is all about celebrating life, both said.

"That's the beauty of life's lessons ... if you didn't have the valley you wouldn't touch the mountaintop," said Bast-Dalebroux.