'I treat my unit as a parish in itself'

Some pace the hallways, looking anxious; staff members in white coats or colorful scrubs detour around them, eyes forward.

Shelly Hughes sees herself as the eye of this hurricane. A former teacher at Christ the King School in Westmere, she has come a long way to arrive at her present position: one of four lay chaplains currently completing their residency at Albany Med.

Studying

The wife and mother of two put her most recent work with the Big Brothers/Big Sisters reading program aside a few years ago to pursue a master's degree in community counseling from The College of Saint Rose in Albany. She noted that completing the Albany Diocese's Formation for Ministry program "jump-started" her to see she could do public ministry.

"In the back of my mind, I always wanted to do counseling," she remembered. "In counseling, you help people come to answers for themselves. A good teacher [also] does that."

Counseling goal

"I thought, 'Where can I be a counselor in a spiritual environment?'" she recalled.

The answer came in the first-ever collaboration between CSR and Albany Med, for an internship in clinical-pastoral education. Two summers ago, Mrs. Hughes interned as a lay chaplain at Albany Med, assigned to the cardiac care unit (CCU).

Although she loved the work, it was, ironically, the last place she expected to end up.

"All my life, I've had a phobia about hospitals," she said with a smile. "I don't understand why I even came to the job interview! In some ways, I felt led."

Moving around

"I have a dance background," she explained. "I love to be able to move. When you do therapy, you sit! It was frustrating. I found I didn't want to do just therapy."

Instead, Mrs. Hughes was thrilled to be accepted for the chaplaincy residency program at Albany Med, where she could spend her days moving from patient to patient.

Many types

She recalled the story of an elderly patient from New York City, who told her in broken English that he belonged to the "church of the heart." Mrs. Hughes liked the phrase so much that she still uses it with patients and said it gives them comfort.

"They're so happy, because you're not saying, `You don't belong,'" she explained.

Full day

Some of those calls are her most difficult. Often, family gathers in the ER when a person has died suddenly. Eventually, the staff needs the room for someone else, but it's hard to ask a grieving family to leave -- "so you provide a ritual where they bless the [deceased] and say goodbye."

The majority of Mrs. Hughes' day is spent in the cardiac unit, visiting patients, praying with them, giving out Communion and asking if there's anything the Pastoral Care Office can do for them.

Life and death

Another part of the job is to be present to a family when a loved one is on the verge of death: to arrange for a priest to give the Anointing of the Sick, or simply to wait with the family. The chaplain noted that in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus asked His followers not to help Him avoid His death, but just to wait with Him.

Being a lay chaplain has its hardships. "I have to come in [to a hospital room] with only myself," Mrs. Hughes stated. "I can't bring a title, a Roman collar or a habit. I have to bring a reason why I'm there. `Why are you here?' I get that all the time. It helps me to assess, `Why am I here?'"

But in some ways, she thinks not being ordained is an advantage because "I can relate to people that are marginalized -- that don't have a denomination or religion, are newly separated, are sick, whatever problems they have -- because I feel a little bit marginalized myself."

Reactions

Frequently, she said, "I'm kicked out only to be asked back in. I think that kind of `holy resistance' pays off. It's not about forcing religion down somebody's throat. It's showing them that God is merciful, God wants us."

In her time at Albany Med, the chaplain has learned about post-surgical depression and how it may change the personality of a patient. She counsels many families and patients who are dealing with the sense of loss that comes after surgery.

"We need to look at the mind-body-spirit," she explained. "Post-surgery, you've been heavily sedated; you've been opened up; you're weakened; you're depressed. It's very hard on a family. They were expecting you to be better. They say, `This isn't the same Dad that came in.'"

More to do

"I don't see death as final," she said. "In some ways, I'm like a midwife -- I have the opportunity to help give birth to another life. It reminds me we all have to live in the present moment."

A chaplain, she said, can be the eye of the hurricane for hospital patients. "That's what the chaplain does: You remind people there's a place that's still in the middle of the hurricane. That place is God." (05-04-00) [[In-content Ad]]