Vitalsigns 2017 | Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre
Supporting our patients spirituallly and emotionally “I know you. You’re the lady who smiled at me with her eyes.” Those were the first words Phyllis Alberts-Meijers heard from the ICU patient she had been visiting twice a week for many weeks. The patient was usually unresponsive so the best Alberts-Meijers, a supervised pastoral education student at RVH, could do was simply be in the room and offer support to the young man’s family. “Then one day I walked in and he was sitting up in bed and communicating and that’s when he spoke those words to me,” says Alberts-Meijers. “It was humbling to know how powerful the simple act of just being alongside someone can be.” In fact, her entire seven months of training at RVH has proved to be life-changing for this high school teacher now working part-time on her Masters in Theology. She is one of five students enrolled in the second session of the Supervised Pastoral Education program currently under the supervision of RVH spiritual care leader, Angela Schmidt.
That’s where we come in,” says Alberts-Meijers. “This is a Spiritual Care department not a religious care department so while religion may factor in our work, we are primarily tending to the person spiritually and emotionally. We meet the person where they are at in their spiritual life. It is very humbling work. It is so meaningful when a patient allows a stranger into the most intimate and meaningful conversations about their emotional and spiritual lives. The generosity of spirit of both patients and staff has been profound.” “It is a privilege to do this work,” says Alberts-Meijers. “And as long as there are people in hospital there will be a need for spiritual care.” The Spiritual Care office can be reached anytime by calling Locating at 705-728-9090 Ext 0. Locating will reach the Spiritual Care team member. There is also an Inter-Faith Chapel located on the first level food court directly across from the Fracture Clinic.
The program is one of 34 such pastoral teaching programs in Canada, with 21 in Ontario and usually in hospitals located in urban centres such as Toronto and Ottawa. The program at RVH is in support of the health centre’s focus on teaching and research. “To offer this program at RVH, which is considered more of a community setting, is quite prestigious and demonstrates great vision,” says Nancy Savage, executive vice president, Patient and Family Experience, regional vice president Cancer Care Ontario. “The nine students who have completed the program so far have been dynamic and caring as they helped patients, and their families, cope with everything from fetal demise to suicide; palliative care to mental illness. And what is so exciting is that many of the students have signed on to do on-call chaplain work here after graduation.” As a provider of spiritual care at RVH the students’ goal is to support patients and families emotionally and according to the faith perspective of the patient.
Phyllis Alberts-Meijers
“Times of crisis tend to bring out vulnerability in people and sometimes they just need someone to come alongside them.
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