The Economist: Hospital chaplains and the treatment of COVID-19 patients

From The Economist:

One of the toughest things about Covid-19 for Pamela Lazor, as for workers in hospitals across the world, has been watching patients die without a loved one close by. As a chaplain at Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre in Los Angeles, part of her job is making sure dying patients have the company of a relative or a chaplain if they have signalled a wish for it.

As the virus spreads, hospital chaplains are playing a crucial role in the care of patients, their families and the medical staff who treat them.

As fewer people go to church, more of those who would once have become church ministers have become chaplains instead, says Wendy Cadge, a professor of sociology at Brandeis University and founder of the Chaplaincy Innovation Lab (chaplains are spiritual advisers attached to secular institutions such as hospitals or schools).

Read more here.