If a person does want to work with Bradstock, his goal on the first visit is to do a spiritual assessment to find out both what sort of care and attention the person wants and what approach he thinks would be most helpful.
At the heart of figuring that out is learning where people are in their relationship with God, or, more generally, a higher power. It doesn't matter whether the person is Christian, Buddhist or Muslim. And, if the person isn't sure about the existence of God or is sure that God doesn't exist, Bradstock works with that.
"I don't go in with any preconceived ideas," he said. "I work with people who are agnostic. I work with people who are atheist."
Some of his most fruitful work is with agnostics, he said. "I love working with agnostics because they have honest questions."
Bradstock says that he has to be careful not to impose his own beliefs on others.
"Hospice chaplains have to be strong enough with their own theology that they can set it aside," he said. "At the first sign that I am putting myself before the patient, I back away."
Friday, January 30, 2009
Hospice Care - A Team Approach
Kim Underwood at the Winston-Salem Journal wrote a nice piece on the various roles played by a hospice care team. In addition to writing about hospice nurses and doctors, Underwood discusses the role of the hospice chaplain in some detail:
