Spirituality at Work

At Hospital Sisters Health System (HSHS), we encourage spirituality in our work place through the use of prayer, reflection and ritual and storytelling throughout the System.

The System focus on spirituality is based on several underlying premises. We believe that spirituality:

• Encourages persons to understand their own spirituality and its relationship to the Catholic and Franciscan approach to providing health care services;
• Roots Mission Integration in the Catholic experience of Christ and in the Franciscan approach to sharing that experience with others;
• Integrates the various spiritualities and values of individuals into the delivery of health care services;
• Encourages the sharing of each person’s own spirituality in order to create an opportunity to develop a common spiritual background as the foundation for a culture/environment consistent with the Mission and Core Values of HSHS; and
• Inseparably links individual and organizational spiritual formation. While they should be developed in different ways, they are interdependent.

The particular way in which Catholic health care has been expressed within Hospital Sisters Health System has been shaped by the Franciscan tradition within the Catholic Church and the unique mission of the Hospital Sisters of St. Francis, our sponsors. In tandem with Operations and Quality, spirituality-based core competencies are part of the executive model calling our leaders to live with integrity, demonstrate humility and inspire others. Furthermore, our Core Values express the Franciscan spirit and our special charism. We serve with values that are important within our high quality, Franciscan health care ministry:

• Respect means the Franciscan respect for life from conception to natural death and for the dignity of each individual person. Respect is a commitment to freeing and empowering each person to develop his or her own potential.
• Care embodies the concern, compassion and sensitivity with which we care for our patients as individuals on a one-to-one basis. It depicts our way of dealing with patients, clients and colleagues. Many times it is thought of as bedside behavior, but it also belongs in administrative offices, cafeterias and boardrooms.
• Competence means that our work is performed and our institutions are managed with the highest level of skill and ability. We are committed to recruiting and developing people who are competent in their work and whose values reflect our own. Our values are an integral part of our System’s strategic plan, which provides the overall framework for local activities.
• Joy is the manner in which our colleagues and all who join us in our ministry seek to perform their work – the internal fulfillment of caring for others. It is an essential ingredient in bringing a sense of hope to those who suffer.

In order to ensure the integration of spirituality in the work place, we must invite our colleagues to awareness; use ritual and storytelling in the Franciscan tradition; create sacred spaces; influence structures and processes; and select and develop colleagues who are comfortable in our mission-driven, values-aligned environment.