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A Day in the Life of a Hospice Chaplain

Alicia is the chaplain at Gifted Hearts Hospice and Palliative Care.  I had suggested the blog topic “A day in the life of...” to the medical director, Dr. Owusu-Boakye.  When he shared it with his staff, the quick, positive, whole-hearted response came from Alicia.  She knows her work is valuable and meaningful, yet many people outside of her profession often view her work as discouraging, depressing, or super religious; or even as an opportunity to preach and “recruit new believers.”  

I was afforded the joyous gift of interviewing her for this blog and discovered the truth about her work which is nothing like the misconceptions of ‘outsiders.’ 

            “The first thing I do as a part of processing a new patient into hospice,” Alicia began, “is conduct a spiritual assessment.  This is not about religion.  It’s about personal preferences and beliefs, routines and traditions, sources of support and individual spirituality.”    

She shared with me that one misconception about chaplaincy is that some people think everything a chaplain does revolves around religion.

            “Chaplaincy is about loving people.  In hospice I get to encourage patients and their caregivers,” she explained.  “I listen to them and help them work through end of life issues.  If they want counsel, I’m there for them.  If they want prayer, I’m available to pray with them.  I love the religious and the nonreligious equally, and I remain neutral on spiritual matters.” 

Alicia began her journey to the chaplaincy at Gifted Hearts Hospice and Palliative Care by working with the aged, the blind, and the disabled as a bi-lingual secretary.  When the social workers in her unit had to communicate with clients who only spoke Spanish, they would call on her to translate for them.  Across the span of fifteen years she had essentially been doing the job of a social worker but in the capacity and paygrade of a secretary.  She decided to pursue a degree in social work.  The agency she worked for offered to pay for the four years of education required to be licensed if she would repay the debt by working for them in that capacity.

She agreed and during her years of social work there, she noticed a repeated theme: prayer.

              “People would ask me to pray for them,” she told me. “But as a representative of my employers I was not permitted to do that.  I attended a spiritual conference around this time and accepted my call to ministry.”  She left her job as social worker and earned a master’s degree of divinity. 

Her training in palliative care was with the VA. 

             “They actually paid me to sit and listen to patients!” Alicia laughed.  “But they taught me to listen with a heart, to share the gift of presence.  You know, just be there so they know they are not alone.”

Alicia uses this form of active listening to comfort her hospice patients. 

              “Sometimes I tell myself, ‘It’s not about you, it’s about them.  So be quiet and listen.’  And that type of listening gets them to talk because they know I care.” 

Recently she encountered a patient who “looked like he was dead.  Just a corpse.  No reaction.  No life.  He just laid there not looking at anything or anyone.”  She was assigned to visit him once a month but requested an increase in visitation to twice a month. 

             “I also went as a volunteer with the social worker [from Gifted Hearts Hospice and Palliative Care] between visits.  He needed the attention.  We brought him gifts of food and took him outside for fresh air.”  Those acts of kindness brought life back into his soul.  He now converses and makes eye contact and reads the literature she brings for him. 

             “We are all born to be loved,” Alicia stated emphatically.  “Like plants, when we touch their leaves and talk to them, water them and give them attention, they grow.  People need attention to thrive, to live.  When I listen to my patients and sit with them, they begin to trust me.  They lose some of their fear and feel more peaceful.  When I do things for them, pray for them, they know they are loved.” 

Two main events in her life helped to make hospice a field of priority for Alicia.  

The first was her husband’s death. 

             “When I arrived at the hospital, he was already dead.  On my way to his room, the nurse stopped me and asked, ‘Where do you want the body sent?’  The body?  He was now just an object to the nurse, just a body.  For me that was cold and rude.  I did not want other people to face the death of a loved one like that.” 

The second was her mother’s death a few years ago. 

             “I knew my mother was dying.  My sisters were in denial, so I put her in hospice where she died two months later.  My sisters were angry about it, but she didn’t die alone.  That was so important.  People should not have to die alone.”

One major concern for patients with families of different religions or denominations is chosing one church over another.  They must select where to hold the service and who to select to officiate without offending anyone.

            “When I offer to give their eulogy at a neutral location like a funeral home, they are so relieved.  They don't realize they have that option,” she remarked.  As we came to the end of our interview, Alicia summed up her daily experience as a chaplain with this simple phrase:

             “Acts of kindness and showing love and active listening... [it all] makes a difference.”

As Chaplain of Gifted Hearts Hospice and Palliative Care, Alicia makes a difference.  She brings life to the dying so patients can fulfill the motto:  Live until you Leave.

Gifted Hearts Hospice and Palliative Care in Seguin, TX, is a fully staffed facility available to patients who call South Central Texas their home.  It is nestled in the beautiful New Braunfels area as the best hospice near San Antonio, Texas.  It offers palliative care for patients of any age in any stage of illness.  It also offers all four levels of hospice care and maintains its motto: “Live until you Leave.”