NURTURING THE INSTITUTION'S SOUL

Health Progress, May/Jun 2006 by Bryant, Rev Cullene

By Adopting "Theatrical Roles," Staff Members Can Help Make a Hospital More Spiritual

"Life and livelihood, ought not to be separated but flow from the same source, which is Spirit, for both life and livelihood are about Spirit. Spirit means life, and both life and livelihood are about living in depth, living with meaning, purpose, joy, and a sense of contribution to the greater community. A spirituality of work is about bringing life and livelihood back together again. And spirit with them."

-Matthew Fox1

In many ways, hospital chaplains act as spiritual directors, helping people find meaning in crises. In so doing, they tend the spirits of patients, relatives, and staff. Having myself lived through budget cuts, layoffs, and outsourcing, I have come to realize how important it is to nurture the soul of the institution and to encourage people to ask: Where is God moving in the structure?

Today people want more than a living wage. They are searching for meaning in their work. This spiritual quest has made a change in the nature of work. "Organizations are slowly evolving from arenas of purely economic and social activity into places of spiritual development," argue two writers on organizational change.2 Spirituality embraces a relationship with our Creator, the source of life, and a deep concern for people and other living things, including our environment. As a result of one's spirituality, one acts out of certain values and one's life and work have purpose and meaning. A healthy spirituality can transform our world. How can we enrich the spirituality of our institutions?

In 2004,1 went to Ottawa for the annual convention of the Canadian Association for Pastoral Practice and Education, Canada's professional organization for chaplains. Sr. Elizabeth Davis, RSM, a speaker at the conference, encouraged those of us who were in the audience to think in terms of symbols as we reflected on the people in our particular institutions. Concerning such people, she asked, "Who in your organizations are the 'pilgrims,' the 'priests,' the 'prophets,' and 'kings'?"

Lee G. Bolman, PhD, and Terrence E. Deal, PhD, two experts on organizational questions, argue that one way to nurture spirituality in a workplace is to think of it as "theater."' They suggest that certain dramatic attributes- symbolism, rites and ceremonies, stories/myths, humor/play, and setting or place-might be applied usefully to workplaces. In this article, I will explore the idea of nurturing an institution's soul by using Sr. Elizabeth's symbols and Bolman and Deal's theater concept.

"PILGRIMS" AND "PRIESTS"

We might begin by thinking of patients and their families, passing through the portals of the hospital, as "pilgrims." In the midst of a crisis, they are looking for meaning. As they struggle with their mortality they stand on holy ground, just as pilgrims do when they visit a sacred site for renewal and inspiration. And, in an age of budget cuts and downsizing, hospital staff members are becoming "pilgrims" as well. They can no longer expect to stay in one workplace for a long time. As health care professionals dealing with ever more sophisticated technology, they also struggle with the meaning of their work.

Meanwhile, hospital chaplains can be viewed as the "priests" in this drama. They use symbols and conduct rituals in an effort to make sense out of some of the confusion that patients, family members, and employees may feel. "Faced with uncertainty and ambiguity, human beings create symbols to resolve confusion, increase predictability and provide direction," write Bolman and Deal.4 Symbols are an important aspect of both ritual and setting.

On the wall in the foyer of St. Paul's Hospital, Vancouver, British Columbia, is a bronze image of the Good Samaritan. As we know, the parable concerns a resident of Samaria who discovers a wounded man lying beside the road, the victim of thieves. The man beside the road is a Jew. In those days, Samaritans and Jews were not on friendly terms. But the good man from Samaria treats the wounded man generously and kindly. He takes the bruised and bloodied man to an inn and pays for his care, so that he may be nursed back to health.

The symbol on St. Paul's wall inspires staff members to treat patients with the same compassion. It has been shaped as a mandala, a circle, so that one has to look closely to tell where the bodies of the Samaritan and the Jew begin and end. Its obvious suggestion is that all human beings are interconnected and dependent upon each other.

Ritual, another aspect of theater, is also a way of nurturing an institution's soul. One function of a hospital chaplain, and part of his or her priestly role, is to help staff members ritualize their grief when a patient dies.

Some years ago, when I was the director of pastoral care at University of Alberta Hospital, Edmonton, Alberta, a baby born there lived for nine months in the pediatric ICU. When the child finally died, the nurses were distressed because they had been the baby's surrogate parents. We decided to hold a memorial service, more for the staff's benefit than for the baby's actual mother and father. Later we began to have monthly memorial services for the children who died on the unit.