COLUMN: Grey Matters – A chaplain’s role

As a hospital chaplain (aka spiritual care provider), I often find that people misunderstand my role. When I introduce myself, some people say they aren’t religious, some say they are from a faith that is not Christian, some say they have a pastor or that they are OK for now. However, there is a reason this role is now called ‘spiritual care provider’. It is a role that is to serve all. It is not called Christian care provider, religious care provider, but spiritual care provider because it is about tending the spirit that is in all of us. Pain is not only biological, but it also has emotional and spiritual impacts.

Our word ‘psyche’ includes the human soul in its etymology. For the ancient Greeks it was an all-inclusive word that involves the mind, emotions and spirit of a person. That is why most hospitals have spiritual care providers as part of their inter-disciplinary team. We know that for the best hope of recovery or adjustment it is essential that we help the body and spirit together. The first thing I usually say to a patient is ‘I am here for you. This is your journey and I’m here to support you in whatever way I can. If it is just to listen or to pray if desired, it is all about you.’

The spiritual care provider walks through hospital corridors with quiet anticipation, knowing that in each room there is pain. In each room there is space for a little more hope. The chaplain’s role is not defined by procedures or charts, but by presence – sitting with people at a vulnerable time of life. Spiritual care providers offer spiritual and emotional care to patients of all beliefs and to those who have no belief in God, listening for meaning more than the words and forms people use. In sterile rooms buzzing with machines and monitors, they remind patients and families that they are more than their diagnoses, that their stories, fears, and faith matter more. Biography over biology.

Much of a spiritual care provider’s work unfolds through gentle, open questions that invite reflection rather than demand answers. “What is giving you strength right now?” “What worries you the most in this moment?” or “Are there beliefs or practices that bring you comfort?” or simply “How was your sleep last night?’. These questions open doors to reflection, allowing patients and families to voice hope, doubt, anger, or grief. Often, the greatest gift is a silence that listens – a safe space where complicated emotions can rest without being judged or rushed. It is amazing how much better one can feel after talking a little with a trustworthy person.

For patients, spiritual care providers can be anchors in turbulent times. They offer prayer or ritual when desired, but also companionship when faith feels distant or broken. They help patients face fear, navigate end of life decisions, search for meaning, and sometimes just have a good laugh. They provide steady support as needed, a weekly check-in for some or an almost daily visit for others. Often it is the waiting and wondering that is hardest. Providers help patients process change, hold together fractured emotions, and find words when there seem to be none. Sometimes a blessing, a poem, a song provides the needed words.

Spiritual care providers also serve the caregivers themselves, whether it be family members or hospital staff. Hospital staff routinely encounter trauma, moral distress, and exhaustion, and spiritual care providers offer a listening ear away from clinical expectations. Through confidential conversations, debriefings after difficult cases, or quiet moments of reflection, spiritual care providers help nurses, physicians, and support staff tend to their own inner lives. In doing so, they help preserve compassion in an environment where burnout can slowly erode it. One chaplain who wore a clergy collar to identify himself was called into an ER trauma room. When the patient’s family member saw him, she said that his services were not needed, a nurse who was busy with compressions on the patient’s body looked up and said, ‘But I need him.’ In a sea of quickly moving machines and people he was a calm anchor point.

Spiritual care providers navigate a wide diversity of beliefs while ensuring that no one feels imposed upon. Witnessing repeated loss, responding to ethical conflicts, and balancing deep empathy with professional boundaries can weigh heavily over time. Still, chaplains return to the bedside, believing that even brief moments of presence – listening, blessing, sitting – can bring light into the darkest hours. Ask for us the next time you or a loved one is in the hospital!

Gary Dyck is a chaplain and spiritual care provider at a hospital and personal care home in the Southeast.