Pastoral Care

Pastoral Care Hours

Monday—Friday: 8AM–4:30PM
Atrium Health Navicent - 1st Floor

Regular Hours: (478) 633-1461
After Hours: (478) 633-1000

• A chaplain is available 24hrs daily.
• The on-call chaplain can be reached at pager # 1942
• Or call the hospital operator who can page the on-call chaplain for any patient, family, or staff.

About Our Staff

The Pastoral Care team includes five full-time chaplains. Each chaplain is an ordained minister and has received his or her master's degree in counseling. Each chaplain has also received or is pursuing licensure from the Georgia state board in professional counseling.

About Our Internship Program

The Pastoral Care Department is designed to train future students in a holistic approach to counseling. The Pastoral Care Department has 6 available intern positions during the spring, summer and fall semester. Each intern must be working toward a master's degree in counseling. The training is provided by a Certified Professional Counseling Supervisor with the state of Georgia. Some of the benefits that come with our intern program are as follows: free housing for every semester the student is in training, free supervision, and a wonderful diverse clinical experience at a world class hospital. Students who are interested in our internship program can call one of our clinical supervisors at the following number (478) 633-1314.

The following are suggestions as to when to make a pastoral care referral:

• Patient requests a chaplain.
• Patient wants pastor, priest or rabbi notified of hospitalization.
• Patient requests prayer, communion, baptism or other religious rituals.
• Patient/family members has/have emotional and religious concerns about surgery.
• Patient is facing surgery involving disfigurement or loss of function.
• Patient is facing new diagnosis of life-threatening illness (cancer, HIV, dialysis, diabetes, etc.)
• Crisis counseling for a traumatic accident.
• Spiritual support for patient, family, and/or staff.
• Family member, friend or significant other grieving the death of a patient.
• Infant death.
• To interpret and explore the relationship between a person's illness, culture and the expression of spirituality.
• Patient has theological issues as it relates to his/her illness (i.e., angry with God).
• Staff needs pastoral support when sharing bad news with patients and families.
• Staff may need encouragement after dealing with a series of traumatic, stressful, grieving situations.
• Patient is non-compliant to treatment plan.
• Patient does not have strong family support system.
• Patient is dealing with stressful family and/or work situation.

While these are only suggestions for making referrals to Pastoral Care, please remember these are not the only times to call for a chaplain.

The Chaplains in the Pastoral Care Department are available to provide and coordinate pastoral care services for patients and their families throughout Atrium Health Navicent. Chaplains are part of the healthcare team that provides pastoral and spiritual intervention in the medical setting. Caring for the spiritual needs of patients is an integral part of total patient care. Therefore, chaplains encourage patients and families in times of crisis to draw upon their faith for healing, peace and comfort.