Spiritual care department leaders’ response to racial reckoning in 2020 and 2021

Abstract

Ascension, one of the largest Roman Catholic healthcare systems, and Transforming Chaplaincy (TC) collaborated on a research project “Managing Spiritual Care (SC) Departments During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Qualitative Study.” Research participants included 22 leaders from Ascension and TC contacts. Four rounds of individual interviews were conducted from April, 2020 to February, 2021. After issues of race and racial reckoning following George Floyd’s murder were brought up spontaneously in interviews, questions on how leaders responded to racial reckoning were added to the subsequent interviews. A secondary analysis examined responses from participants on racial reckoning from interviews 2–4. The objective of this study was to better understand how SC leaders understand their role in issues concerning justice, equity, and inclusion. This study utilized hermeneutic phenomenology methodology. Four phenomenological patterns emerged including: World of Racial Reckoning, Lack of Safety, Creating Safety, and Movement Toward Justice.

Keywords:

• Chaplaincy
• leadership
• race
• racism
• spiritual care

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank those spiritual care leaders who shared their time and stories with us as part of this research project.

Notes

1 The authors would like to acknowledge in using Heideggerian phenomenology as a methodology that Martin Heidegger was a member of the German Nazi party, though he may have recanted those views at the end of his life. The authors condemn his views and association with the Nazi party, and antisemitism and racism in all its forms.

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.