Hospital Services

Kaplan Service

The Chaplain service belongs to the standard services of a modern hospital. Chaplains help everyone, be it a patient or an employee, to cope with difficult life situations. Their hospital service allows spiritual support but is not tied to a particular church. Everyone can ask for a chaplain, regardless of their religion or spiritual orientation.

What the hospital chaplain offers

The chaplain service is quite varied and includes many ways to use it. These are primarily:

  • personal interviews and consultations
  • accompanying in difficult life situations
  • Assisting patients and their families in challenging decisions
  • help in finding solutions to personal problems
  • providing a spiritual dimension in difficult situations
  • consultation of ethical issues in general
  • promoting human dignity in specific situations,
  • intervention in conflict situations.

Myths about the Chaplain ministry

The Chaplain service in the hospital is relatively new and very burdened with various errors and myths. Here are a few common mistakes that help explain how chaplains work in the hospital.

  • Myth 1: I'm not dying yet. I don't need "last anointing". 

This service is there for anyone who needs help. For people in any situation. Kaplan does not make a difference in 'diagnoses'. It is here for everyone, and the "last anointing" is certainly not what is exclusively his job.

  • Myth 2: Kaplan will "preach" me and blame my sins.

Kaplan certainly does not show. Above all, Kaplan listens. He knows that we each have our bright and shady sides, and his job is to support everything good and positive in man. Moralizing and haunting does not have a chaplain in the job description.

  • Myth 3: Kaplan is a parish priest and will persuade me to believe.

Convincing anyone to anything that the chaplain does not have in the job, or even not. Kaplan is a professional who has gone through challenging study and training to accompany, support and listen. Any manipulation or persuasion is a gross ethical offense. Kaplan accompanies exactly the same atheist, buddhist or Christian. In the case of a particular need, he can provide spiritual care for a particular church that the patient requests.

  • Myth 4: Kaplan has the power and it makes me stupid to bother him with my problems.

Kaplan does not judge what is a big or small problem. If you approach him, he will surely satisfy you. He is part of the medical team. His job is to help anyone who needs it.

M.Sc. Pavel Ruml
The hospital chaplain
Do NOT follow this link or you will be banned from the site!