Erin Nash was a hospital chaplain whose job was to be with people in some of their worst moments, praying, holding hands, even singing with them. Shadowing her on her rounds, I watched as she managed to create brief peaceful moments with suffering patients and their families again and again, making temporary sanctuary between the thin blue medical curtains despite the buzzing alarms, fluorescent lighting, and constant stream of footsteps on the linoleum floors nearby.
I was surprised to learn that in addition to consoling the bereaved and calming the anxious, Erin (the names in this piece have been changed) had to fill out three separate charts—including the standard electronic health records system that many clinicians use—for every person she visited. She even carried around a cheat sheet to help her remember the codes, murmuring, under her breath, “Asking for a prayer is a resource, family together is a resource,” while she hunted and pecked at the keyboard. Nobody was being billed for Erin’s work, so why was she charting in triplicate?