‘Urgent’ need to fill vacant chaplain posts

There is an ‘urgent’ need to fill vacant chaplaincy posts in Irish hospitals to meet the spiritual needs of dying patients, a leading member of the Church’s Healthcare Council has warned.

Sr Pat O’ Donovan, Executive Secretary of Irish bishops Council for Health Care, also said the spiritual dimension to end of life care is a “glaring omission” from a newly released report on end of life and bereavement services here.

In a submission to Oireachtas Health Committee, Sr O’Donovan said: “Urgent attention needs to be devoted to employing chaplains to fill vacant chaplain positions in public hospitals, and to ensuring that long-term and other healthcare facilities employ the required number of suitably qualified Catholic chaplains.

This matter must be given “priority attention” in order to meet the spiritual and religious needs of the terminally ill and those who are experiencing grief, loss and bereavement, she said.

Criticising the report for failing to adequately address the spiritual needs of patients, Sr O’Donovan claimed the points raised in her submission were “ignored” in the committee’s report.

“There is no attention given to theology or spirituality in the report and there is no holistic or total patient care without proper spiritual care,” she told The Irish Catholic.

“The majority of people in Ireland still live their lives according to a faith base which is rooted in a theology and which required spiritual accompaniment and ritual. These issues are very important to people especially at the end of their lives and legislators need to take that into account,” she said.

Spiritual needs

Canon Daniel Nuzum (pictured, right), Healthcare Chaplain at Cork University Hospital said chaplains are “key members of the multi-disciplinary healthcare team in the provision of pastoral care to meet the diverse and varied spiritual and religious needs of patients and their loved ones”.

“In a changing environment professional chaplains are responding to an increasingly diverse range of spiritual, faith and philosophical traditions to best meet the needs of each individual.

“Chaplains through their ministry of presence and spiritual attentiveness are a tremendous resource to supportively care for the community of each hospital in what is a very challenging environment,” he said.