|
Our Sponsors and our Board are committed to a Vision 2017 that fully engages the laity to continue the heritage of our health care ministry. To help assure that the laity can further the ministry, Catholic Health East has developed and is fully immersed in an exciting array of ministry formation programming for all of our core constituents in the ministry. The term “formation” might bring to mind religious formation of a sister; however, our programming recognizes that our colleagues come to CHE with rich talent and experience and they come from all religious traditions. To successfully lead within the Catholic healthcare ministry we need to put their rich background in conversation with the Catholic tradition and the signs of the times in health care. Within a few short years we have developed a robust set of programs for colleagues, including managers, executives, boards and Sponsors. To provide direction we established an advisory board of internal and external experts to consult on the direction of all programs. In collaboration with staff from Bon Secours Health System and Covenant Health, our Mission Integration Department has developed program format and content. For an effort that is still in its infancy, the volume of programs and the numbers of colleagues being served is remarkable. Over the past year we initiated four new programs alone. For our 240 top executives we commenced the Program for Excellence in Ministry. This twelve-day program completed in six two-day sessions over three years enhances the executives’ ability to understand and apply our founding stories and rich Catholic Social Tradition to their daily work responsibilities.Our second new program, called Healthcare Ministry Basics, builds bench strength for future leaders in Catholic Healthcare by focusing on all managers and colleagues. While it might seem that the program is “Catholic Health Care 101” , it is a time to familiarize colleagues with what it means to be a Catholic ministry and to connect their work with the larger purpose of CHE. To date, our system office team has provided this new program at eight of our ministries. Our third program supports Boards and Sponsors. Our Sponsors asked us to develop and provide Sponsorship Education to ensure the continuity of our ministries. Serendipitously, after we developed the program, local boards found the content important and now more than 60% of our local boards have initiated the program for their self-education. This new program complements the Collaborative Formation Program that we have been involved with for five years with five other systems that were interested or have a Public Juridic Person. CHE has sent more than 30 persons from local boards and ministries who can now potentially serve as Sponsors. Our fourth new program this year goes well beyond the territory of CHE and extends to ten Catholic health care systems. We have recognized that some colleagues, such as chaplains, have specialized educational needs. Working collaboratively with these systems we have developed the Spiritual Care Champions Program that this year will offer twenty-four lunchtime webinars at 95 sites across these systems. Most sites have 10- to 20 persons in attendance, so at any one lecture there can be 1000 attendees! The monthly webinars address topics in Spiritual Care and Systematic Theology that are needed to improve the quality of spiritual care in our institutions. The list of ministry formation opportunities does not stop with our new programs. For five years CHE has offered Foundations of Catholic Health Care, a two-day introduction to Catholic health care and by January 2009 all current CHE executives will have attended this program. All our orientations to new colleagues set in motion the ministry formation process. I am always reminded that ministry formation happens when leaders are reflective in the decision-making process and utilize our values-based decision-making tool to discern whether the choice at hand supports our Mission and Core Values. Finally, colleagues who have participated in a Global Health Ministry trip remark that their lives are indelibly changed from the experience. I view these trips as hands-on ministry formation, and the change is the fruit of the endeavor. The volume and depth of programming at the system and local level is something of which we should all be proud. It gives me great hope to see the advances we have made in such a short period of time. Forming people to lead Catholic health care is an ongoing endeavor—learning never stops. With the support of our Sponsors and the willingness of the laity we will continue to develop programming that advance the ministry, and enhance our collective ability to be a transforming, healing presence in the communities we serve.
|
|
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Catholic Health East | About Us | Services | Employment | Regional Health Systems | Outreach | Publications | Contact Us | For CHE Members
Catholic Health East, 3805 West Chester Pike, Suite 100 |
| • | About Us |
| • | Mission and Values |
| • | History |
| • | Holy Memory, Faithful Action |
| • | Sponsorship Heritage |
| • | President's Welcome |
| • | Our Values in Practice |