TORONTO - With nurses nearly run off their feet taking care of patients' physical needs, it's often chaplains or pastors who fill the role of sitting by bedsides and offering words of encouragement.
Joanne Davies, ecumenical chaplain at Toronto's Mount Sinai Hospital, says nurses are busy people, and although "spirituality is a deep part of nursing ... they just don't have the time to be expressing that.''
On the other hand, she's somebody who can go into the hospital and be there for patients and their families, she said.
"I give them the gift of time.''
For Philip Heron, who works on his family's farm near Elkton, Ky., a chaplain's gift of time went a long way toward helping him cope with intense pain and trauma after he was seriously injured in a traffic accident.
"My chaplain came by daily and we prayed,'' said Heron, who was 18 at the time he was hit by a truck while riding his motorcycle.
"On Sundays, he would bring communion,'' said Heron, now 23, who spent more than a month in a U.S. marine/naval hospital in traction and then three months in rehab.
The chaplain "really did help you feel better 'cause you felt someone who counted had spoken to the big guy (God) for you that day,'' said Heron, who lost his spleen, most of his teeth, and had his leg and arm broken in several places.
Heron, serving in the U.S. Marine Corps at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina at the time of his accident, said his chaplain also brought farm and car magazines to read. Later, in rehab, another chaplain encouraged him as he learned to walk with a rod in his leg.
Davies said bringing comfort to patients is one of her principal roles.
"Some people will say `send me the chaplain, I want prayer.' I go in and I pray,'' said Davies, who is working towards ordination as a priest in the Anglican Church of Canada.
"To have that by your bedside, that's a very intimate moment, that's comforting,'' said Davies, who has been at the hospital for five years.
Many people, she said, "don't get a lot of intimacy in their lives.''
By praying at bedsides, she said, "I'm giving (people) a doorway to be intimate with something greater than themselves.''
And sometimes, people simply want to talk about their lives.
With the dying, "they simply want someone to sit with them,'' she said.
Davies received her certification as a hospital chaplain through the Canadian Association for Pastoral Practice and Education, a multifaith organization that helps set the standards for chaplaincy in Canada.
The association has 800 members, said Tony Sedfawi, CAPPE's executive director, who works out of the group's headquarters in Halifax.
About 350 of them have been certified as chaplains to the level of being able to teach, said Sedfawi. The rest are associate members who serve as chaplains but can't teach.
Certification can be obtained in two different fields.
Clinical pastoral education is for the people who work in hospitals, and counselling pastoral education is for those wishing to work in private clinics, the military, the Salvation Army or prisons.
Courses for the degree of certification can be completed in three months, which is quite intensive, or six months, said Sedfawi.
CAPPE certifies about 50 new members each year after they take the special courses at 40 accredited education centres, including schools, universities, colleges and hospitals.
It costs $175 a year to be an associate member and $375 a year to be a certified member.
Davies got her accreditation through an internship at St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto.
At hospitals in small towns and rural areas, pastors usually fill the role of chaplain, said Davies. They just don't have the money for staff chaplains.
Mount Sinai's chaplaincy has four full-time staff chaplains on call 24-7. They are paid in some cases by the hospital. In other cases, funding is given to the hospital for the positions.
Hospitals in smaller centres have lists of local clergy to call for patients in need of spiritual help. Those on the list usually receive a stipend from their churches.
Bob Barraball, 83, who recently underwent bypass surgery at St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto, was visited by the pastor from his local United church.
Her visit during his five-week stay in hospital "was encouraging,'' said Barraball, who lives east of Oshawa, Ont. "It was a help ... uplifting.''
"She told me about the help I would get from the church and the prayers. She told me they were praying for me.''
Davies sees being a chaplain as a lifelong commitment. "What I wanted to do was to be able to be with people one on one ... to serve God and my faith.''
"I grow in my faith actually by being here,'' she said.
Many experiences are memorable for her. "There's some patients, where you get relationships with them, because part of their getting better is their need to have a relationship with someone in the hospital,'' Davies said.
"I realize I made a difference in somebody's life while they were here.''
Davies gets letters from many patients. They tell her: "You made me feel safe; you helped me when I was scared; you helped me understand how God was with me.''
"That's wonderful,'' she said.
