ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, April 10, 1997 TAG: 9704100001
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: RADFORD
SOURCE: LESLIE HAGER-SMITH THE ROANOKE TIMES
Radford hospital's full-time chaplain finds spiritual side of medical care challenging but meaningful.
Crisis isn't just Jonathan Webster's business - it's his calling.
Webster is chaplain of Carilion Radford Community and St. Albans hospitals, the first chaplain hired by the Carilion Health System for facilities beyond its home market of Roanoke.
The nonprofit health care provider employs full-time chaplains at Roanoke Memorial and Community Hospitals and, more recently, a half-time chaplain in Franklin County. Webster, 32, came to the Radford job in November 1994.
"More and more we're seeing that a holistic approach to patient health and well-being is important to the healing process," said hospital Director Virginia Ousley.
Webster's office is close to the main entrance and just 30 seconds from the emergency room, so he can respond swiftly to calls. A nurse's voice pages medical staff five or six times an hour from the speaker in the corner ceiling.
When a "Code Blue" comes in, alerting staff to a patient in cardiac arrest, Webster races to the emergency room alongside the respiratory therapist, nurses and cardiologist. He seeks out the patient's family and acts as go-between for them with the medical staff. Sometimes he is called upon to deliver the sad news that all efforts have failed.
"He facilitates communication," said Dr. Craig Barnett, a cardiologist. "I find that often patients and their families are reluctant to discuss emotional and spiritual issues. Everyone is focusing on the mechanical" when a physician is on the scene. With Webster's collaboration, "we can talk about more all-encompassing issues," Barnett said.
The aid Webster gives to families in medical crisis or mourning is extended to their caregivers, as well. In the aftermath of a crisis, Webster will join the nursing staff in munching popcorn and rehashing the moment. He is checking on their well-being and seeing to his own. "It's a kind of stress reliever for them, a debriefing," Ousley explained.
Not uncommonly, a hospital employee seeks Webster's counsel or referral. "We have had a couple of tragedies within the hospital family this year alone," Webster said. It is a sobering reminder that a life of service provides no immunity from misfortune.
"My mother died in September of myelofibrosis, a rare form of leukemia," said Beth Gaspard, a paramedic with the emergency medical services unit at Radford Community. Webster's visits, sometimes as long as an hour, were one of the highlights of her mother's final days - so much so that she asked him to perform her funeral service. "He's an exceptional person," Gaspard said.
Gaspard has seen him stay with a trauma victim until 12:30 or 1 a.m. "He doesn't have to do that," she said. "He goes above and beyond."
Carilion joins a national trend by providing paid professional chaplaincy services in a medical setting. Most staff chaplains in Virginia are found at larger metropolitan hospitals, however, making Radford an exception. The Giles, Pulaski and Montgomery hospitals rely, as hospitals traditionally have, on volunteer chaplains.
Volunteer chaplain associates continue to play an important role in Radford, serving on call to relieve Webster on nights, weekends and when he is simply overextended. He oversees the activities of the 19 volunteers, who achieve "associate" status by taking at least four hours of training each year.
Chaplaincy services are increasingly valued in the broader community, as well. More than 160 companies in 30 states put chaplains on the corporate payroll as a form of employee assistance.
But for Webster, chaplaincy is much more than a benefits program. Asked to speak of his calling, Webster lowers his eyes, and speaks through a throat tight with emotion.
"I grew up with a really severe speech impediment." Indeed, the second thing one notices about Webster, after his youthfulness, is that his speech impediment is still with him. The l's and r's roll around and wobble out, a wad of wayward w's. His articulation belies the depth of his experience and the gravity of his words: "I felt a sense of brokenness, of not fitting in."
He joined his church youth group when he was a teen-ager, and felt sustained by the warm acceptance he found there. A native of Harrisonburg, Webster attended James Madison University, where in 1986 he earned a degree in philosophy. Inspired to enter youth ministry, he went on to the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky. But events took a turn there which would change his life, both spiritually and professionally.
"In the end of my second year in seminary, my father was diagnosed with lymphoma, a very grave cancer diagnosis, with no cure and very little treatment. It was a tough year to watch I really found out what faith meant to me." Webster began to re-evaluate his future in youth ministry. When he graduated in 1989, it was with a master's of divinity, with an emphasis on pastoral care and counseling.
He spent fours years at the Cancer Institute of the Baptist Medical Center in Columbia, S.C. - two as a chaplain resident and two on staff. During his first year in residency there, Webster began dating a young woman who had joined his home church during his years in seminary. He'd pull 36-hour on-call shifts in the oncology unit, and then make the drive from Columbia to Harrisonburg to visit Jennifer Phillips.
"It must have been love!" he laughed. Jennifer is now his wife and the mother of their 21/2-year-old son, Benjamin Dakota. An accomplished artist, her watercolors decorate his office. The family lives in Radford and they are members of First Baptist Church.
If Webster's speech is an impediment, the record doesn't show it. "I know of no one else associated with the institution who is more highly regarded. That goes for patients, relatives, medical staff and employees," said Lester Lamb, the hospital's executive vice president and Webster's boss.
Webster is president of the Radford-Fairlawn Ministerial Association, and also chairs the ethics committee for both hospitals he serves. He conducts educational groups; provides training seminars for volunteers; and preaches at churches of many denominations, for Sunday services and midweek get-togethers.
Since coming on staff, Webster has initiated memorial services in host churches every six months for the families of those who have died at the hospital. "It allows them to see the people who cared for their loved ones once again and to know that they still care," he said.
Cardiologist Barnett voices the sentiments of many: "He is figuratively and literally a godsend."
Webster's own evaluation is more modest. "It's tough," he said of his work, "but it's meaningful."
LENGTH: Long : 121 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: GENE DALTON THE ROANOKE TIMES. Carilion Radfordby CNBCommunity Hospital chaplain Jonathan Webster talks with patient
Andrew Szerokman. a retired Radford policeman. color.