Because of her kind heart and faith, Spitznagel has found a calling at Norton Clark Hospital. Individuals who come to visit patients often share their stories with her. Many times, those stories are heartbreaking. She may hear about a son who is battling cancer, a mother who is afflicted with a wound that will not heal or a friend who suffered a heart attack.

In her front desk role, she has witnessed emergencies and alerted staff for help, always checking in with them later to see how they’re doing.

“The visitors and patients that get to know me call me ‘Miss Barbara’ just like my high school teachers used to,” Spitznagel said. “People need prayer. One day while I was in the gift shop at the hospital, I found a book with the words ‘Faith Can Move Mountains’ on the front cover, and I felt compelled to buy it. Since the beginning of the year, I’ve been recording the first names of patients who need someone to pray for them.”

When she has a conversation with someone coming to the hospital who needs a listening ear and an offer of prayer, she writes their name in her prayer book. During a spare moment at work or after work, she will reflect on and pray for those whose names are written in her book.

Spitznagel attends an adult Sunday school. Attendees pass a prayer book around, and Spitznagel adds the names of the people she has spoken with throughout the week. The prayer group prays for each of them.

She keeps the “Faith Can Move Mountains” book close to her and holds it with a reverence reserved for those we deeply respect.

“Prayer is powerful, and the one thing I can do is ask God for the comfort and healing of others,” Spitznagel said. “I am humbled and honored in my belief that if you have faith, nothing is impossible.”

Note: “Faith can move mountains” comes from Matthew 17:20-21. Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”

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“During the Bike to Beat Cancer, I love to ride alongside someone who I can tell just got on their bike not long ago and ask, “Why are you riding?” Ron said. “You know riding is not what they do. They are there for some important personal reason.”

The riders will share their story about why they got on a bike to ride 35, 65 or even 100 miles. Sometimes it is for their mom, dad or another loved one. Sometimes it is for a friend.  Sometimes it is for themselves.
“It’s those folks who inspire me, and I just go, ‘Wow!’” said Ron, who is system vice president, mission and outreach, Norton Healthcare.

Fifteen years ago, Ron got on a bike for the first time since childhood to ride in the first Bike to Beat Cancer. A friend helped him purchase a bike off of eBay and gave him a pair of his old bike shoes.

Ron laughs as he describes his first time on one of the “long” training rides. He had just started using clips that secure a rider’s shoes to the pedals and describes riding up a “hill,” which now, as an avid rider, he says was just a small incline. 

“People were falling over as we went up, and I remember thinking, “I can’t help you. I don’t know what I’m doing myself!”

On that training ride, Ron got separated from the leader, lost his paper that had route instructions and didn’t bring his phone. He eventually made it back to Middletown with a great sense of relief.

Hundreds of miles and many years later, Ron is captain of the Holy Rollers team in Bike to Beat Cancer. He also is one of the ride’s mentors, helping newer riders as they begin their own journey. Several years ago, Ron started and helped organize a rider support team for the day of the ride. This is a group of seasoned riders serving as a presence of support and assistance for all riders as they are out on the Bike to Beat Cancer routes.

I tell new riders, “It’s going to be OK. We’ll take care of you and get you home. It will be worth it. Just keep pedaling to the next stop,” Ron said.  

As a veteran of the Bike to Beat Cancer planning committee, Ron has had a hand in many of the signature pieces of the event that help with the rider experience. He built two large stands for banners that each year riders, volunteers and loved ones can write on to remember and honor friends and loved ones who experienced cancer. These banners have become a beloved tradition at the start and finish line for Bike to Beat Cancer and are filled with names by the end of the ride.

He also established and helps to oversee the ride’s Mile of Silence. This is a section of the route in The Parklands of Floyds Fork in which riders have the opportunity to reflect on why they are riding. Bike to Beat Cancer “I ride for …” signs are placed alongside signs signifying loved ones, friends, patients and colleagues the riders are honoring. Some 25 banners from previous years line the bridge, and soft music plays at the beginning of the experience. This is a beloved part of the Bike to Beat Cancer route, with many participants determined to ride at least 35 miles so they can experience it.  

Whether it is helping to organize one of the special parts of Bike to Beat Cancer or riding alongside the last group of riders to make sure they cross the finish line, for Ron, it is about connecting riders to the experience. 

“It is about the mission. Not the mileage,” Ron said.

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What kind of support does a chaplain provide?

Chaplains mainly provide informed emotional and spiritual support, regardless of faith or belief. Visiting patients and families, while also lending support to our employees throughout the hospital, is a big part of my daily routine. We are available to serve as a calming presence for emergency care situations, too, like codes or traumas. We’ll meet with you in facility chapels or at the bedside, or simply be someone to lean on anywhere when you need an honest, caring, judgment-free conversation, prayer or a silent partner. We help patients, families and staff through end-of-life decisions and advance directives, such as living wills. I think we are reliable, strong leaders and advocates.

What led you to become a chaplain?

I was 40 when God called me to become a chaplain. At the time, I worked for United Crescent Hill Ministries (UCHM) as their interim development director. A friend of mine that I met through UCHM asked me to attend a death and dying seminar with her. By the end of that presentation, I heard God’s calling on my life, and I knew I wanted to become a chaplain to learn how to support and serve people through difficult times. I enrolled in seminary, completed clinical pastoral education and then excitedly began the next chapter of my life with Norton Healthcare, the same organization that provided my training. From seminary to employment, it was about a five-year journey.

What can employees take away from interactions with our chaplains?

Staff care is of the utmost importance to me. I always tell the employees I encounter: We’re always here. Patients and families go home but we’re here together every day, and I’ll do whatever I can to support you in good times and bad. Whether you want to connect to discuss faith, or you need someone to talk to about personal or family matters, I and my colleagues are here to serve you. I hope that anyone who connects with a chaplain, employee or otherwise, comes away hopeful, feeling heard and cared for.

Do chaplains offer nonreligious support?

Yes! Even if people don’t follow a specific religion or denomination, I believe everybody has a spiritual bend on some level. It may just not fit in a particular category. In our assessments, chaplains focus on the person’s individual needs, hopes and resources, mutually finding ways to care that resonate. Similarly, I think we work toward offering culturally-sensitive pastoral care that’s inclusive of all faiths. Whether someone identifies with a certain set of beliefs or not, it’s all about meeting people where they are and offering space to find hope and meaning.

What’s the most rewarding part of your work?

Meeting with someone one on one, listening to them, giving them space to speak their truth and coaching them on how to find their own answers. I think it means more when an idea or solution comes from within. My former clinical pastoral education supervisor says that we already have within us what we need, but sometimes we need help accessing our strengths or skills. I’m just one puzzle piece in the healing process, but it feels really good to be a part of that process.

How do you like to spend your time outside of work?

I love being outside taking care of my garden. Family is incredibly important to me, so if I’m not visiting my sisters or parents, I’m calling or texting to keep in touch. Spending time with my husband, his siblings and my dogs brings me great joy. My husband can sense when I’m having a hard day, so he often tells me one of his corny jokes, which always makes me laugh.

Chaplains are available 24/7 for support. Call (502) 629-8000 and let the operator know you’re calling to speak to a chaplain.

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I boarded the plane for New York clutching the telephone number that would connect me with the next set of instructions for this odyssey. Taking stock of myself, I held on to the hope that my twelve years as a chaplain in a pediatric trauma center would certainly qualify me for the “emotional preparedness A-team.” A little more than a day later, but less than three hours into my assignment as the Family Assistance Center (FAC) Red Cross chaplain coordinator, I heard my own quiet but anxious voice, “I’m in trouble.” I could already sense that every emotional resource and defense I brought to this place would be challenged and possibly even overrun by the omnipresent barrage of pain and need.

The FAC, located in the structure on pier 94, was expansive. Typically used for convention business, the pier had been commandeered by the City of New York and converted into a womb of resources and care for individuals who had lost family members, jobs, and housing. To illustrate the scope, in just one half of one of the three wings, there were over 136 convention-style booths in use. In addition to the many and varied helping organizations using the facility, there were two cafeterias, a childcare center, interpreters, an office supply center, a Ground Zero staging area, and dozens of fax and copy machines. The convention-style design did not disguise what this was really like—a hospital waiting room, albeit one the size of three football fields.

However, unlike a hospital setting where most people actually celebrate good news, these chairs and aisles and tables and lines were filled with suffering people pushing on without that hope. It was the absence of the potential for celebration that cast a pall that permeated the place. The pain was so dense and intense that just being there, walking to the bathroom, or eating in the cafeteria meant that it would seep into one’s being. This grief was like walking through a field of radioactive debris—just being around it meant that you were going to be affected.

While we were cognizant of the obvious needs, what took its toll on me and many of my chaplain colleagues was the awareness that we had no awareness as to what circumstance or what chance encounter would present a story so bizarre and unpredictable that there was no way to be prepared for it:

A mother said to a chaplain, “I am so grateful.” The chaplain, anticipating good news, opened herself up to take it in. The mother continued, “They called me yesterday and told me that they had found my son’s foot.” Grateful for a foot? Whoever could have imagined praying that prayer of thanks?

A lawyer, while filling out a man’s expedited death certificate, said to his widow, “I’ll record his date of death as 9/11.” From the mother’s side a little girl looked at the lawyer and asked, “You mean my daddy’s dead?” The question devastated the lawyer. She didn’t know what to say or do. In anxious desperation, she sought a chaplain.

A chaplain noticed her ex-husband’s wife sitting with a group around a table. Their amicable relationship allowed for an initiative by the chaplain. Moments into the conversation she learned that her ex-husband had died in the collapsing towers. A strange and unwelcomed feeling overtook her. Dazed, she called it a night and headed home.

The Ground Zero site visit had gone well enough. No one collapsed. No one was hurt. Seemingly it had been meaningful for many. As I walked away from the staging area, I let out a “Whew”— an outward signal to lower whatever had been needed to enable me to stand with fifty or more people whose world had just buckled some more. Spontaneously, I turned to face a Red Cross mental health colleague. Tears began to stream down her cheeks. She was able to name her pain, “I’ve got kids. I can’t do this. …” We stood in the aisle, crying, both of us trying to find something that would help us make it through the balance of the day.

As I lay in bed beside my eight-year-old son on the night before I left for New York, he registered his opinion about my going. “Please don’t go, Dad. Why do you have to go?” I told him that I was going because I hoped that I could do something for people who needed help, and I held out this hope, “Nelson, if we ever need help, they’ll come and help us. That’s what we do for one another.” His quick, unequivocal response gave me the bit of the blessing that I needed. “Okay,” he said, and with that he turned over to go to sleep.

My two weeks in New York clarified and fortified that simple commitment I shared with my son—to go and to help when I can, and to live with the hope that others will come if I find myself buried under life’s rubble. For me, right now, this is what the being meaningfully connected to others is about—and in the debris of 9/11, it is so much clearer.

Rev. Oliver is system vice president for mission and outreach at Norton Healthcare.

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Norton Healthcare partnered with houses of worship once again to offer leadership, trust and confidence during the COVID-19 public health crisis.

As COVID-19 vaccination eligibility expanded across our community, questions from the public about the vaccine became a hot topic.

“People often look to their faith community for trusted resources, including health concerns,” said Carol Fout-Zignani, system director, Norton Faith & Health Ministries. “As a health care provider and vaccine distributor with many established faith community partnerships, we reached out to faith leaders to help engage many in the community.”

Carol said that new relationships were developed and existing ones deepened all across our community.

Norton Faith & Health Ministries leaders prioritized faith communities, especially those in hard-hit sections of Louisville Metro, as a way to offer COVID-19 education, address vaccine hesitancy and ease the burden of access to vaccinations.

The team, in collaboration with Norton Medical Group and Norton Healthcare Prevention & Wellness, quickly set up and promoted five church-based vaccination events. Those were followed up by many more. In total, church-based events provided more than 6,000 vaccinations.

For the Norton Faith & Health Ministries team, working with houses of worship is an extension of their everyday operations. Carol added that their longstanding relationships with churches and other places of worship throughout the year allowed them to move so quickly to vaccinate.

“At Norton Healthcare, our faith heritage has been the cornerstone for how we deliver health care in our community,” Carol said. “Providing vaccines within an individual’s trusted place of worship was crucial to removing barriers in underserved areas, helping people receive the health care they deserve, as well as eliminating disparities in care.”

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Good news! There are things you can do, things that are actually pretty easy to do that you’ll enjoy and will help.

Look for heroes

What can we learn from others who faced difficulties? What can we learn from Rosie the Riveter? The Great Depression? Spanish flu? COVID-19 is just the next in a long list of trials and tribulations imposed on human beings.

Here’s one thing for certain, through all the ups and downs, the heartaches and the awfulness, we humans have an amazing capacity to survive. We adapt, we hold on, we get through, we persevere. We have grit. In the lives of others we can see our own capacity for grit and determination Best case, we thrive, not just endure. I recently heard a speaker say that “the goal is not to bounce back, but to bounce forward.”

Look for ways these imposed crises have strengthened and can strengthen you. Force yourself to look at the half-full glass. This is not easy, and it should not be a denial of whatever is truly awful. In the best sense, perspective is a spiritual discipline, a form of mindfulness that settles that anxious soul.

Lean into others

While driving down Interstate 65 after an ice storm I took particular notice of all the trees the ice had pulled down. Notably, interestingly, not all the trees had fallen. It was mainly those at the edge of the forest. The forest stood while the poor trees at the edge were pulled down. When the icy weight pushed on a forest tree it leaned into its neighbor and that tree leaned into its neighbor, and so on. … When the cold winds pushed the ice-heavy trees at the edge of the forest away from the support of the forest, many fell. The forest could endure what an individual tree could not.

We survive when we lean in and allow ourselves to be leaned onto. Needing others and being needed by them is a gift of our humanness, not a weakness.

A case for awe and gratitude

Perry Wilson, M.D., an associate professor of medicine at Yale University, describes awe as “a positive emotion that people feel when they are in the presence of something bigger than themselves that they cannot immediately understand.” In his article, “‘Awe Walks’ Increase Prosocial Emotions, Make Smiles Bigger, and Selfies Smaller,” he cites the research of Virginia Strum, Ph.D., associate professor at the University of California San Francisco, who figured out a way to measure the impact of awe. Those who took regular “awe walks” seemed to enjoy an unexpected positive lift from the discipline. My advice, unplug from all your screens and spend time being awed by nature or art — anything that places your emotional focus outside yourself.

The second discipline: gratitude.

Brother David Steindl-Rast suggested, “It is not joy that makes us grateful. It is gratitude that makes us joyful.”

Joy is not possible without gratitude. Here’s an invitation, start a gratitude journal and every day write down 10 or so things you are grateful for. Once a week, read through your journal. I’m quite sure that after a few weeks you’ll find yourself being changed in ways that you like.

Think about the ‘back to normal’ question

One last suggestion: We need to be asking a different question. During this past year a prominent recurring question has been, “When will we get back to normal?” While it’s a completely understandable question, I believe it’s not the best question for us to be asking.

We can’t focus backward and forward at the same time. I heard someone say, “When you’re looking back, you’ll likely trip over the future.” Truth is, when we’re really honest with ourselves, there’s a lot of the old normal that, well, wasn’t so great.

So here’s the key (that’s a pun that will make sense momentarily), a crisis can unlock things that likely would have been unavailable to us without the crisis. A crisis can force us to use new possibilities, new awareness, new ways. … The goal is to redeem this moment, not merely to restore ourselves to the old one. Certainly, while some of that old normal will become our future, if we don’t make use of what this past year plus has forced us into, we’ve wasted the crisis. And that my friends is making something bad even worse.

The Rev. Ronald C. Oliver, Ph.D., BCC, is Norton Healthcare’s system vice president for mission and outreach.

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Mount Nebo has been part of the Norton Healthcare Faith and Health Ministries network of churches since 2012. Kamala King has been a member at the church for over 20 years. In 2010, she and her mother, Doris King, and friend Shauna Franklin began leading the church’s health ministry.

Both Kamala and Shauna are breast cancer survivors. “A turning point in my life came when I was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2017. I knew I had to give back once I was back on my feet,” Kamala said.

‘Paying it forward’

“I could help people the way people helped me,” Shauna said. “When I had cancer, people helped me. So, call it the Shauna paying it forward movement.”

Kamala and Shauna serve as the co-coordinators of the health and wellness ministry at Mount Nebo. The women organize programs, events, and other activities. In 2018 they held the first

Pink Out Luncheon with events over the entire weekend. Several breast cancer survivors shared their stories, and vendors distributed prevention information. A photo shoot was available to honor breast cancer survivors.

One time a year, they ask the Mount Nebo congregation to wear pink for a “Pink Out” Sunday service in honor of people with breast cancer. Other events include a painting activity, health fair and luncheons with speakers.

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Michele Harbin, R.N., health ministries coordinator, Norton Faith & Health Ministries, was recognized in the CARE newsletter for her exemplary work as a coach with the collaborative.

The CARE Collaborative works with partners throughout Kentucky to train coaches like Michele on blood pressure awareness through an educational encounter. They use simple strategies and resources that can be shared with anyone interested in reducing their blood pressure and risk for cardiovascular disease. Coaches can be anyone from health clinic staff and nursing students to church members, pharmacists and fitness trainers. Regardless of their professional background, they all share a common goal of getting more people to take control of elevated blood pressure by making simple lifestyle changes and modifications.

These “Blood Pressure Encounters” emphasize lifestyle changes (activity, dietary, meditation/mindfulness, medication compliance, reduced tobacco use/smoking cessation). The coach asks participants if they made any recent changes and provides resources if the participant is ready to adopt a lifestyle change.

The Blood Pressure Encounter also includes resource questions asking if the participant has a primary care provider (if no, the participant is provided resources) and does the participant use tobacco products (if yes, provided resources).

Matters of the heart

Michele knows that sometimes the process of healing the heart, and heart-related illnesses, is a little easier when it comes with some faith. In her role as a health ministries coordinator with Norton Faith & Health Ministries, she works to foster relationships among faith-based partners and helps them establish prevention and wellness programs for their communities.

Michele provides educational tools for health ministries to conduct everything from health fairs to mentoring opportunities for faith-based health coaches and ministers. To help the goal of increasing blood pressure awareness, Norton Faith & Health Ministries partnered with the CARE Collaborative.

“The partnership between our faith communities and self-health care just married very well together,” she said. “It’s because the knowledge and awareness are in alignment with the spiritual encounter, or holistic health.”

Michele works regularly in her own faith community as a CARE coach, someone who helps guide parishioners on the path to better health. She has seen improvement among the individuals she counsels on blood pressure management and medication compliance.

Congratulations Michele on your continuing dedication to Kentucky’s heart health!

Learn more about Norton Healthcare Faith and Health Ministries or the Kentucky CARE Collaborative.

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Over 30 years ago, two trees were planted by a sidewalk, part of a group planted in the neighborhood to add beauty and character and to provide many other environmental benefits. As saplings, the two trees were small and cute and had many challenges ahead in order to grow and develop. Those challenges included withstanding the wind, weathering storms and most important, growing their root systems deep and wide enough within the earth to support their growth into maturity. Some 30 years later, they have achieved this hope and over time, the sidewalk in front of my home has been unsettled as a result of the trees’ roots growing deep and wide.

The other side of hope is that hope itself can be a disruptive force, and many times must be because the challenges before it will not simply dissolve in order for hope to have its desire. The other side of hope is experienced when an action or adjustment is necessary for the health and well-being of another, yet it unsettles the way we have done things and how we have lived. The other side of hope is that it can be annoying and even frustrating when we have our own agenda and plans, yet another’s hope is persistent in seeking our attention, our help and our care. The other side of hope is that even when it is our own, it disturbs our peace by pushing us out of our comfort zones, as it knows in order for a new reality to exist we must do what is initially unfamiliar.

Additionally, the other side of hope is that it may require discomfort or pain to be endured for a time. The writer of Lamentations said it this way: “I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall. I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me. Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for [the Lord’s] compassions never fail.” (Lamentations 3:19-22, NIV)

As we tend to the hope of others and our own, may we remember the actions hope calls for may be hard, unsettling, upsetting and more before we are able to experience the results, which in turn become beautiful stories and images of inspiration.

The Rev. Brian K. Wilson Sr., M.Div., BCC, is a chaplain at Norton Hospital.

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“My mom said when I was 6 I told her I wanted to be a nurse when I grew up, so I did!” Elaine said.

Elaine has followed her clear career path for nearly 45 years, serving as a nurse at Norton Healthcare. For the past decade, she has been called to expand her nursing practice to include a volunteer faith community nursing role at St. Andrew United Church of Christ in Louisville.

With enthusiastic support of the church’s pastor, the Rev. Lori Miller-Price, Elaine and a small group of volunteers on St. Andrew’s health ministry team sponsored a Soup, Salad and Smoothie event in partnership with the Norton Faith & Health Ministries team. Nearly 30 members gathered to enjoy fellowship, homemade soups, salads and smoothies. Norton Faith & Health Ministries educators Kathy Bryant, RN-BC, and Regina Bratcher, R.N., demonstrated the art of making the perfect salad and quick and affordable ways to eat healthier. The evening ended with simple smoothie recipes and tastings.

Each health ministry is unique and can include an umbrella of services ranging from writing health-focused articles for the church newsletter to visiting members in the hospital or other care facility. However, what makes faith community nursing distinctly different is the intentional care of the spirit as part of the process of promoting whole-person health and wellness. The faith connection, emphasis on disease prevention and wide variety of service options attract many nurses to the specialty.

One of Elaine’s most memorable moments occurred while visiting a church member who was dying. Elaine and other visitors joined a music therapist to sing songs.

“Although I wasn’t giving her medicine or doing anything ‘nursey,’ I felt the singing was the best medication we could give her! The smile and love on her face is one I will never forget,” she said.

Elaine and other employees serving with their faith community’s health ministry connect with the Norton Faith & Health Ministries team for free education and resources to build healthier lives.

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