Pastoral learning at Bellevue Hospital

Christian Century, August 30, 2000 by Chloe Breyer

I also saw selfless professionalism. Here were medical and social work professionals, often leaders in their fields, who had forgone more lucrative and prestigious places at well-endowed medical centers to help care for the poorest people in our society.

I often walked past rows of people waiting to register for Medicaid. Going into a patient's room, I was as likely to be asked for spare change as for a prayer. Sure, it would be great to speak with a chaplain, a patient says. But first, would I mind calling his daughter to come over from Brooklyn, and could I pay the $20 fee to turn on his TV, or better yet, call the public notary from medical records so he could send a letter to his bank and bail his son out of jail? I would turn away, guessing that our heart-to-heart on spiritual matters might have to wait. "By the way," the patient adds, as I try for a discreet exit line, "Could you get one of the nurses to pick up my bedpan? It's been sitting here since breakfast."

Over the intercom, I heard requests for interpreters of Spanish, French, Filipino and Cantonese. In addition to meeting the African-American homeless woman who just learned she is HIV positive, I might encounter a highly paid model recovering from a heroin overdose or a Wall Street lawyer hit by a bicycle courier. People from every class, race, ethnicity and nationality pass through Bellevue's halls. Upward and downward mobility, not to mention immobility, are all on display.

AFTER RECEIVING medical clearance and a brief orientation, our CPE group gathers with our supervisor in a small, sparsely furnished room on the ground floor next to the social work department. Having to choose between the air conditioner and being able to hear, we opt for a stuffy room. We try to ignore the broken answering machine that jangles at odd intervals during our meeting, and stop for a few minutes while two janitors assess the damage from a gaping leak in the ceiling.

Our instructor tells us a little about himself. After growing up in a strict Mennonite family, Chaplain Joseph went through an extended period of religious doubt and struggle. At college he studied history and theology, then spent several years teaching in the Middle East. Once home, he began working with the mentally ill. In the early 1960s he came to Bellevue as a CPE supervisor, and liked it so much that he decided to stay.

Chaplain Joseph is an unassuming, quiet figure who seems on good terms with much of the permanent staff particularly the social work department. At the same time he's a little removed from the hospital mainstream. One psychiatric resident describes him as "that very nice-looking elderly gentleman." Chaplain Joseph's affable air and the way he walks--one hand tucked in the pocket of his short lab coat, name tag slightly askew--reminds me of the gardener in the Peter Sellers film Being There.

He appears unassuming, but we discover that very little slips by him. During our hour-and-a-half morning debriefings, we each recount our interactions with patients in reports called "verbatims." Chaplain Joseph's way of intensive listening, eyes closed, is sagelike.