Interview With A Hospice Chaplain

Chaplain Mark Jurkowski has an extensive background and educational history to work with Palliative and Hospice patients. He briefly provides information about the requirements to become a Chaplain in various environments.  He addresses the difference between Religion and Spirituality as well as discussing the difference between a Pastor and a Chaplain.  These are different words for different works and have different meanings.  Once explained, patients and families understand and appreciate this difference.
Helping patients connect to their surroundings through their strengths.  Chaplains help find these strengths.  The Palliative Team Chaplain participates as a member of the team and attends many of the same visits with other team members and works with the patient independently.  The Chaplain has independent responsibilities and performs a spiritual evaluation to guide the services they provide to assist the Palliative team addressing the patients needs and issues.  All team members want to reduce the patient's Total Pain and improve their quality of life.
Prayer takes many forms and Chaplains have specially trained skills to assist patients. Chaplains also assist patients and families when requests for miracles are presented.  When physicians provide frightening truths regarding the patient's  condition, Chaplains can provide the guidance and reassurance that is needed when the room is overcome with a stunned silence.
We are so grateful to have the information that is provided by Chaplain Skee.  He fulfils a necessary and vital role in caring for patients with serious illness and supporting the familys that love and care for them.  Having the involvement of a Chaplain will provide relief and peace for patients and their caregivers.  If you have the opportunity to work with a Chaplain while receiving care, please allow them to provide assistance and participate with your care.

0:00 Meet Chaplain Skee
4:30 Region vs Spirituality
7:27 Chaplain vs Pastor
8:28 finding Spiritual Strength
8:50 Various work environments
11:33 Spiritual Assessment
14:15 Palliative vs Hospice
16:08 Addressing: what comes next
18:08 addressing the Stunned Silence
19:38 Beliefs
20:54 Comments on Prayer
24:40 Addressing Miracle requests
26:45 Reflection and Insight
27:02 Veterans as special population
28:30 Myth Busting
30::31 closing

As we create content on this channel, we encourage you to reach out to us with any specific questions you may have regarding these kinds of topics. Please do not leave any personal information in a public comment. If you are more comfortable doing so, you may email us directly at [email protected]

Trigger Warning:
If the discussion of death, dying, or the end of life process is bothersome to you, this channel is not for you.
If you are made uncomfortable by the discussion of health, hospice, palliative medicine, the end of life process, or medical terminology, you may be made uncomfortable by this video.

You Only Die Once is a virtual place for sharing information, both facts and opinions, about the end of life process. Dr. Bohn and Dr. Tartaglia are both actively practicing osteopathic physicians. Both are dual boarded in family medicine and hospice and palliative medicine. You Only Die Once intends to provide a casual environment to share information about hospice and palliative medicine for the patient, the family, and the practitioner. This channel is not intended to provide medical advice, but rather as an educational resource to allow patients, providers, and families to make informed decisions.


You Only Die Once is created by Dr. Sara Bohn and Dr. Lisa Tartaglia.
You Only Die Once is produced and edited by Auburn Huhmann.