Spiritual nurturing helping OLOL staff cope with COVID stress

The numbers are staggering and showing no signs of retreating.

During a recent five-day period, Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center in Baton Rouge admitted 91 COVID-19 patients, nearly 20 per day. 

Thirty-four percent of those were on ventilators.

On one day alone, 50 OLOL team members were out with COVID-19.

ICU beds are becoming scarce, and the situation is growing more tenuous daily as the state’s third spike during the coronavirus pandemic has its grips firmly on the state.

“We are running out of beds for patients,” OLOL Chief Medical Officer Dr. Catherine O’Neal said Jan. 6, adding that the number of coronavirus cases needs to go down.

Inside the hospital, where medical workers perform heroic acts daily without a word of complaint, the stress can be overwhelming. Not only is there concern about their own health, these same medical professionals are also worried about the health of their families, wondering if they are bringing home what amounts to a loaded gun, cocked and loaded with a deadly virus.

“These are some of the more difficult times of my career,” said Dr. Richard Vath, president and chief medical officer of the Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady Health System. “It’s very hard to watch others have to undergo that and deal with it. (Some team members) have burned out.”

Sophia Solomon, a senior nursing director at OLOL, said the grind has been difficult for her staff of several hundred nurses because many work 12-hour shifts while also wondering about a child who is attending school virtually or other family concerns.

“A lot of people (have) suffered from isolation and depression,” she said.

Along with the physical and mental toll, the pandemic also has the potential to extract a  spiritual toll on frontline workers. As a Catholic hospital deeply steeped in the Franciscan tradition, OLOL has placed an emphasis on developing ways for workers to maintain their spiritual lives, to draw on their spirituality to find solace and peace and to learn how to have prayer as a constant companion when they enter a patient’s room.  

“Our pastoral care team has been so supportive of our team members,” Solomon said. “Sometimes when units were having a bad day or feeling low, (someone from pastoral care) would say ‘Let’s just take a minute and pray.’ It means a lot.”

“We do feel the spirit of God here,” she said. 

Dr. Chris Trevino, chief medical officer at Our Lady of the Lake Ascension in Gonzales, said he believes there is nothing more important than the employees’ spiritual well-being. Finding that spiritual tranquility is as simple as looking to St. Francis Assisi for inspiration, he said. 

“It’s amazing (because) if you focus on that it becomes clear what you have to do,” he said. “(St.) Francis went to the lepers, he did not run from them. COVID patients are not lepers and if Francis was here, he would not run from them either. He would absolutely reach out, especially to those who have the least ability to take care of themselves.

“Therein is our message. If you focus on ‘I am going to do what Francis would do,’ you can kind of relax a little bit. You say your prayers and you go in there and feel really good about being able to help someone.”

From a practical standpoint, Vath, a New Orleans native who graduated from LSU Medical School, said the hospital has established online counseling for those wishing to seek  mental assistance when the burden is overbearing. Team members have also been given additional paid time off, especially valuable when a family member is home suffering with COVID-19.

Vath has done many podcasts in an attempt to stay in touch with and support team members. 

He said the pandemic has created a multitude of challenges, especially when considering FMOLHS prides itself on maintaining a family atmosphere among employees. 

“How do we support our team members, clinically make sure we do the best and support team members psychologically and spiritually?” he said.

Regarding the spiritual component, Vath noted the hospital already had in place its long standing tradition of praying twice a day via the facility’s intercom system. Those prayers are also broadcast into each room.  

As the pandemic evolved, team members began praying and sharing spiritual reflections during their daily  “huddles” at the beginning of their shifts, a practice still present. Masses have been celebrated when possible as well as broadcast on the hospital’s closed circuit television system.

Clergy members have also maintained their visitations. Vath said initially there was some hesitancy about exposing priests to the virus but administrators worked with Bishop Michael G. Duca to balance the exposure risk while allowing priests to visit with parishioners and others. 

During his annual Thanksgiving message, Vath encouraged employees to reflect on what they are thankful for.

“Connect with their heart first and let’s connect to the fact we are a Franciscan health facility,” he said. “If our team members are not spiritually formed and comfortable and we can’t support them they will not be able to do their job, and they will not be able to provide the right care and attitude for their patients.

“I think we do better than most but we do have our struggles.”

His message to team members has been living out the Gospel message through their ministry because “this is who we are.

“This is what we do, meaning this is really our job as a Catholic faith organization providing health care. It’s different from someone else who might think of it as a job who punches in and punches out.”

“This is our vocation,” Vath added. “This is our Franciscan charism. We service patients, we service individuals, we provide care for them whether they can pay or can’t pay, it doesn’t really matter. That is what we are here for, to connect with humanity in the workplace and see God in the work we do. That is our purpose in life.”

Solomon said nurses often put prayers, some written by team members “from their heart,” in patients rooms.

“The fact you can work in an organization and at any time you can say ‘let’s stop and pray’ means a lot to me personally, and I know our team members appreciate that,” she said.

“St. Francis is always the model,” Trevino said.