Reflections from the Frontline of COVID-19: Rabbi Rachel Van Thyn

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the need for chaplains has come to the forefront of public conversation, as evidenced by the stories and news coverage of their care and support of hospital staff, patients, families and people all across the nation and the world. During the initial months of shelter-in-place orders in the U.S., hotspots of the virus emerged in the North East, especially in New York City. As loss and grief mounted in New York and beyond, chaplains supported those bereaved and those who care for them.

In the following reflections, chaplains from Mount Sinai Health System in New York offer their stories and perspectives from the frontlines in the hopes of helping other spiritual care providers in cities that are now surging. If you have a story you’d like to share, let us know.

The following reflections were transcribed and compiled by Juliane Ding and have been edited and condensed for clarity. You can hear audio from this interview below. This post is one of a series, also including Chaplain Kaytlin Butler, Rabbi Jo Hirschmann, Esther Maria Roman, and Chaplain Rachelle Zazzu.

Chaplain Rachel Van Thyn grapples with the transition of chaplaincy practice from physical interaction to the precariousness of a call as the only channel of empathy and communication. The role of a chaplain during these times has been especially heightened for her, and the passion of her work has shown through during these times.

How was your experience providing care to patients, loved ones and staff during the COVID-19 crisis?

One interaction that stands out in my mind was a phone call I made to a patient who was hospitalized with COVID-19. It was one of the first phone calls that I made, and she had been referred to me by her nurse because the patient’s mother had passed away that same day. Naturally she was in a lot of distress. It was a really hard phone call to make. But I did what I think we would do as chaplains at any time whether we were in person or not. I made space for the patient to share her feelings. I didn’t try to cheer her up. I invited her to share her thoughts. I asked her to share about her mom so that we could bring honor to her mom’s life. We explored her concerns and worries.

She didn’t understand how she herself had contracted COVID-19 and she was really distressed, not understanding why or how her mother had contracted it based on the precautions they had been taking. There was an element of meaning making, which is also something we do in many of our encounters as chaplains. I think something that I learned from that experience that would shape a lot of the care that I provided during the pandemic is that it is harder when you’re not in person. You can’t really read facial expressions, so you really learn how to listen even more intensely and even more intentionally.

“There was wondering about how she would grieve in the future or say goodbye to her mother in the future.”

I had to really pay attention to the pauses in our conversation to try to get a sense of what was happening for the patients because I didn’t have all of the senses that I normally would if I was physically in the room with somebody. I don’t think that it impacted my care negatively. We still offered a prayer and blessing for her mom and still talked about the ways that she would like to try to find closure. Since she wouldn’t be able to be with her family while she was still recovering, there was wondering about how she would grieve in the future or say goodbye to her mother in the future, which I suppose is different in some ways because during the crisis so many people could not and cannot attend funerals of their loved ones.

What would you like colleagues from around the country to know?

Although we may feel that it is harder to not be in person with people, it doesn’t prohibit the possibility of connecting to people and of providing competent and compassionate care to others. The intensity of the work is really present. That phone call was so meaningful, and I found I had to take more time between that call and the next phone call to just regroup and learn how to slow down. It’s okay to not immediately go into the next phone call, the next visit, as we might when we’re on site and working under different conditions.

One of the other things highlighted during this experience has been just how important our work as Chaplains is. I don’t doubt the role that we play on a care team. I know it’s important; I know it matters to patients and their loved ones and staff. But especially during the pandemic there were far fewer people going into patients’ rooms for a lot of really good reasons. And the staff may not have otherwise been able to spend more time at the bedside of patients in offering emotional support and care, as there was just so much going on.

“One of the other things highlighted during this experience has been just how important our work as Chaplains is.”

I think it was helpful to them to have somebody else on the team who could address some of these needs. I was feeling really proud knowing that we’re trained to offer just this specific type of care. That’s such an important part of what we can do. I think it also brought to attention my own desire to do this work, my own sense of resiliency of looking ahead and seeing that there would probably be months and months of calls like these and feeling my own desire to want to be able to respond to those needs, to knowing that we would need to really take care of ourselves in order to preserve our longevity. Again, I’m reflecting on one of the first phone calls that I made to a patient about 6 weeks ago now. And we are still making phone calls like this. It really reminded myself about my own desire and passion for this work in a really lovely way … an important way.

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