Until recently, the pastoral care committee (comprised of community clergy) handled many of the chaplain responsibilities at Chester County Hospital. But, this past spring, employees welcomed Chaplain Suzanne Roose, who has become familiar face around the hospital.
Roose is not new to Penn Medicine; she started as a chaplain at Penn Presbyterian in 2016 and continues to hold that position two days a week. She considers herself “a listener and a one-on-one kind of person,” a perfect fit for this type of chaplaincy, which requires working within an interfaith model. “Our biggest strength is helping patients discover parts of their own belief systems that can help them cope with their crisis,” she said. “We support them in that discovery mostly by listening, and always with a non-judgmental understanding.”
Because Roose is only at CCH on Mondays, she is focusing on “training volunteer chaplains who can meet the patients’ spiritual and emotional needs face-to-face on the floors,” as well as supporting the pastoral care committee who continue to visit their congregants in the hospital.