Prayers, advocacy and phone calls: the life of a hospital chaplain during COVID-19

As Saskatchewan hospitals are stretched to the limit during this fourth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, chaplains are still finding ways to bring spiritual care to patients. 

Jackie Saretsky is a Catholic hospital chaplain in Saskatoon. She says the pandemic has radically altered the way she does her job. 

"In a time of crisis, you basically throw away your plan," she said. "You throw away your formula for chaplaincy work and you have to completely adopt a new formula. 

"You go from normal, calm visiting from patient to patient to … putting out fires."

From the start of the pandemic, Saretsky says she and the rest of the team of hospital chaplains and volunteers took great precautions to make sure they could keep doing this work. 

"I did definitely have to limit where I was going, especially when the restrictions were a lot tighter," she said. "I didn't want to lose the ability to go into the hospitals, and I didn't ever want to put myself in a place where that would be compromised." 

And Saretsky says many patients — whether or not they have COVID-19 — are extremely lonely and desperate to see their loved ones as pandemic restrictions also limit who can come into the hospital to be with them.