Episode 63: Miracles in life, death, and chaplaincy
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Today our guest is Kate McKey-Dunar. Kate hails from Minnesota but has been living in in New Haven for the past 5 years. She received her Masters of Divinity from Yale Divinity School in 2018. She completed her residency at Yale New Haven Hospital in the spring of 2019, and now is a chaplain at Backus Hospital in Norwich, CT. She is a postulant for the priesthood in the Episcopal Church in Connecticut.
Alli starts off the conversation asking Kate why she chose to go into hospital chaplaincy. When Kate was in college, her grandmother was passing away and Kate visited her in the hospice care and found herself interested in the role of the chaplains. After college, Kate worked at an inpatient hospice care in Madison, Wisconsin, and fell in love with the ministry. Kate chose to go to divinity school. Kate completed her Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) and fell in love with chaplaincy. After seminary, Kate worked in the cancer hospital at Yale New Haven Hospital. After her one year residency, she took the job at Backus Hospital. |
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Alli asks Kate, "What sorts of expectations did you have when you first stepped into a hospital?” Kate’s first expectation walking into the hospice experience was that she would just see a lot of death, and while that is true, she said that working in the hospital was the most alive she ever felt. For the hospital, it was a little different because people are in different stages of health. She was nervous going into the experience, but by the end she said her social skills have improved, and that being in the hospital itself is a trauma for people in and of itself.
There is no typical day for a hospital chaplain, said Kate. Although, she does have a rather typical routine in the morning when she arrives to the hospital, and throughout the day, allowing for the emergency and unexpected to arrive. Kate responds to every emergency code in the hospital.
Kate shares how her relationship with death has changed from working at in hospice and hospitals. Her relationship with death has developed into the understanding that God has never been more present than in that moment. She has seen so much peace given and God’s presence in those moments. The other side of the coin, Alli asks Kate how her relationship with life has changed. Kate says that now she has become more comfortable saying what is on her mind, when it is on her mind, because she feels an immediacy to tell those that she loves that she loves them. She also has found comfort in her daily routine and rituals, which give her joy.
Kate has developed a ritual while she drives to and from the hospital. This includes a particular signal to her husband when she has had a rather trying day — a simple hug. Kate has made it a point to not bring her work home with her, as a way to respect the boundaries established within her work within a medical field, and her husband.
Alli asks Kate to share a story of miracle. Kate said most of the miracles she has witnessed have been in the form of being in the right place at the right time even though she had no reason to be there. She shares a story of visiting a patient on another floor, and how that one encounter came in handy two nights later in an emergency. Kate said stories like this have happened to her multiple times in various forms. There is a fluid line, but a line nevertheless, between chaplaincy work and therapy work. Kate has developed her own boundaries and rules to stand by with this work.
Kate said her spiritual life has changed in a couple of ways: she in constantly listening for God in others, and in her work she lives in a Good Friday at her job, and because of that she is looking forward to Easter.
There is no typical day for a hospital chaplain, said Kate. Although, she does have a rather typical routine in the morning when she arrives to the hospital, and throughout the day, allowing for the emergency and unexpected to arrive. Kate responds to every emergency code in the hospital.
Kate shares how her relationship with death has changed from working at in hospice and hospitals. Her relationship with death has developed into the understanding that God has never been more present than in that moment. She has seen so much peace given and God’s presence in those moments. The other side of the coin, Alli asks Kate how her relationship with life has changed. Kate says that now she has become more comfortable saying what is on her mind, when it is on her mind, because she feels an immediacy to tell those that she loves that she loves them. She also has found comfort in her daily routine and rituals, which give her joy.
Kate has developed a ritual while she drives to and from the hospital. This includes a particular signal to her husband when she has had a rather trying day — a simple hug. Kate has made it a point to not bring her work home with her, as a way to respect the boundaries established within her work within a medical field, and her husband.
Alli asks Kate to share a story of miracle. Kate said most of the miracles she has witnessed have been in the form of being in the right place at the right time even though she had no reason to be there. She shares a story of visiting a patient on another floor, and how that one encounter came in handy two nights later in an emergency. Kate said stories like this have happened to her multiple times in various forms. There is a fluid line, but a line nevertheless, between chaplaincy work and therapy work. Kate has developed her own boundaries and rules to stand by with this work.
Kate said her spiritual life has changed in a couple of ways: she in constantly listening for God in others, and in her work she lives in a Good Friday at her job, and because of that she is looking forward to Easter.
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In Christ and Coffee,
Alli
In Christ and Coffee,
Alli