Botswana: Basic medical knowledge for hospital chaplains

By imparting knowledge about illnesses, counsellors learn to respond to patients and to distinguish between illness and spiritual distress.

Because churches play a crucial role in strengthening the work of the Bamalete Lutheran Hospital (BLH) and hospital chaplaincy, it is necessary to equip them with basic medical knowledge. If pastors are to support church members, they need to be equipped with more knowledge, especially on critical issues.

Annual three-day workshops for 40 participants serve this purpose. These are held on specific topics such as trauma and mental illness so that these are not confused with spiritual needs. A group has also been formed at the hospital to provide mutual counselling in many areas.

Such a workshop has already been an "eye opener" for many pastors in the region and has had a positive impact on their work. For example, they learnt the basics of dealing with the needs of patients, carers and their families in palliative care; as well as the role of palliative care counselling in both inpatient and outpatient care. By the end of the workshop, we were confident that church leaders would be able to apply the palliative care approach to the care of patients with chronic illnesses.

In addition, every year in September, a "Mission Week" is held for hospital staff to explore topics such as teamwork and the individual, integrity and professional behaviour of healthcare professionals, faith and medicine or healthy boundaries and to promote team building through exercises.

Thank you for your donation to support the work of the hospital chaplaincy at Bamalete Lutheran Hospital.