‘I see miracles every day’: Hospital chaplain reflects on spiritual care during pandemic – Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal

TUPELO Rev. Dr. Don Simmons, Director of Pastoral Care for North Mississippi Medical Center-Tupelo, believes in the power of prayer.

The 57-year-old Louisville, Mississippi native is going into his third year as a chaplain at the hospital.

He and his team are tasked with providing spiritual care for patients, their families and fellow health care workers, no matter what their faith background is, and that hasnt changed during the COVID-19 pandemic.

What has changed is the volume and emotional weight of what Simmons deals with each day. Whereas a typical day on the job might have previously involved praying with someone who came in for a minor surgery, theres more urgency now.

Families often have to make heart wrenching decisions regarding their loved ones and Simmons is there to help whether hes talking with a family representative inside the hospital or praying with a group in the parking lot due to visitation restrictions.

He often first sees patients in the emergency room, where they might wind up in the critical care or COVID unit for a week or two, sometimes even a month. All the while, Simmons and his staff are counseling and praying with the patients family for healing. The bonds they form make even small victories feel monumental.

To see them walk out of here, its incredibly emotional, Simmons said. We celebrate those victories because it doesnt always go that way.

Chaplains mark recoveries with a prayer of praise, Simmons said. The type of prayer depends on the patients faith background, tradition or denomination, of course, and their own faith leaders sometimes join by phone to share in the moment with them.

I see miracles every day," Simmons said. "I really do. Im in awe that I get the opportunity to see those things.

COVID-19 caused a dramatic increase in hospital staff requesting times to talk and pray with chaplains at NMMC. From administrators down to individuals cleaning hospital rooms, health care workers have dealt with staffing and budgetary challenges coupled with personal stress.

The size of the chaplaincy team at NMMC-Tupelo is currently limited to a handful of core staff, but pre-pandemic there would typically be 20 to 30 trained volunteer chaplains to help with patients on a regular basis.

Our volunteers right now arent able to come in, Simmons said. Many of them are older, oftentimes retired clergy, that we very much depend on. And right now, we really miss them.

During the pandemic, Simmons has also obliged nursing homes requests for pastoral care as residents werent able to have ministers, or even family members, visit for much of 2020. He conducted worship services in hallways while residents stood in the doorways of their rooms to participate.

An elderly man at one nursing home, tears running down his face, told Simmons I used to try to have the Lords Supper every week if I could, but he hadnt been able to since March.

This is just emotional and challenging for everybody, Simmons said. So you know it means a lot to them.

Being a chaplain isnt a 9-to-5 job. When families come together to make those difficult decisions about a loved one, its typically in the late afternoon or evening and Simmons does his best to provide care for everyone who needs it, whenever they need it.

Job demands of the pandemic have taken a personal toll on all health care workers, and chaplains are not immune.

I have decided that I need to start focusing a lot more on self care, Simmons said. I just have to. With Thanksgiving and Christmas surges, I have let my own self care slide a little bit, so Im trying to get better at those kinds of things.

Simmons said he worked through the Christmas holiday weekend to feel like he was doing something to help the situation. Otherwise, it would have been just he and his wife sitting at home, because they arent visiting family as they try to stay safe.

Right down the street, on Christmas Eve, I rode by a house that had about 20 cars in the yard and Im thinking Im probably going to see one of those people soon, Simmons said.

Thats the current reality for health care workers, and Simmons said the subject matter of conversations with other hospital personnel has largely been different this year because theyre facing a crisis that they cant escape when they leave work.

The stressor, whatever it is normally that is causing them to seek pastoral care, is usually something that they can take a long weekend and get away from or take a deep breath and escape, Simmons said. You cant go anywhere in the world and avoid something related to the challenges of COVID.

Simmons' office is on the same floor as the COVID unit, so the virus is never far away.

In the beginning, going into units with COVID patients was frightening because no one knew what they were getting into, he said.

When you go into work in the health care business, you know that youre going to come in contact with infectious diseases and other things, Simmons said. This was just such an unknown for everybody. You strip down before you get in the house and you jump right in the shower. Everything youre doing is trying to protect your family and everybody else from it.

Simmons never thought he would work in the healthcare field.

At one time in my career, I remember very clearly telling someone on a mission trip I appreciate all those folks that work volunteering as nurses and doctors but I just dont like hospitals, Simmons said. Now Im in the room everyday with patients and I help a lot of families say goodbye. I know the Lord put me where Im supposed to be.

While working with COVID patients, Simmons wears a double mask with a face shield and stands in the doorway, not entering the room. He accommodates families in any way that he can, often praying for and with patients.

Oftentimes, the patient cant talk or will be on a ventilator, but Simmons will recite the Lords Prayer in their presence.

Im not sure how conscious they are, but sometimes theyll start mouthing it with me, Simmons said. This happens, I wont say a lot, but sometimes it will happen.

He said its easy to get attached to the patients and their families while being there with them during their struggle.

We laugh together and celebrate success, and we cry together and mourn with the families, Simmons said. Its an emotional roller coaster sometimes, but I wouldnt want to be anywhere else.

Simmons credits his team, especially Lowell Walker, NMMCs staff chaplain, for helping him make it through the year. Walker is a rock for so many of us," he said.

He has also felt blessed during the pandemic to have a proactive administration at NMMC that addresses challenges and understands that you cant separate the physical and the spiritual in health care.

There is a growing understanding of the importance of spiritual care alongside health care, as part of the health care experience caring for the body, mind and spirit, Simmons said.

Another major source of support has been the faith community in the Tupelo area. He has received calls throughout the pandemic from different pastors and priests in the region asking how he and Walker were doing and offering support.

It doesnt hurt to be in the Bible Belt, Simmons said with a laugh.

One particular verse of scripture that gets Simmons through a lot, and has certainly helped him during the pandemic, is Mark 10:14, which reads: Jesus said, Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.

The reason that one really hits home with me is that everyone that we see and care for is a child of God, Simmons said. Theyre all his little children.

Simmons has received his first dose of Pfizers COVID vaccine and said receiving it makes him optimistic that it marks the beginning of a return to some sense of normalcy.

Hopefully I can start spending more time with my mother and feel a little more comfortable with it, Simmons said. I have a mother that is in her late 70s and I havent spent a lot of time with her because I was always concerned with What if? and now I can at least be a little bit more at peace, spending time even though well still social distance, still wear that mask.

Due to working in such close proximity with COVID patients, Simmons and other chaplains in Mississippi were included in the first phase of the vaccine rollout, which targets health care personnel and long-term care residents.

I remain hopeful, Simmons said. I think as a chaplain you have to.

After the pandemic began, he couldnt help but think back to a paper he wrote to complete his masters degree in History from the University of Mississippi on the topic of the bubonic plague and the impact it had on the church.

In the end, after a lot of conflict, controversy and challenges, the church came out of it stronger, Simmons said. I think the faith community in general, no matter what faith or denomination, will come out of this much more clearly focused.

Although he hasnt sat down to read through the entire paper yet, he did find it and glance through it. He sees similarities in the fear that people had, and the fact that though there were no mandates against it, people didnt go to church because they were afraid.

We have so much more knowledge and information now, Simmons said. Our understanding of things is very different and yet in so many ways, there are a lot of similarities. But I think the church will emerge renewed. Im hopeful, from a spiritual perspective, that that is the case.