Dobbel identitet og kommunikativt overskudd

Abstract

In this article I attempt to illuminate and discuss elements of the role and identity of healthcare chaplains employed at Norwegian hospitals. I explore how we can understand theologically educated personnel, represented by the healthcare chaplains (mainly from Church of Norway), as a resource in meeting people in public hospitals in a multifaith society. My approach is via a constructed case of a suicidal event in a psychiatric hospital. I formed the case so that I got three groups to explore; the leaders, the nexts of kin and the staff involved. Through two central notions describing aspect of the hospital chaplain, I discuss how the chaplain might be experienced. The first notion is the double identity of the role of the healthcare chaplain, as simultaneously sent from the Church of Norway and employed by the hospital. The second notion is the communicative surplus of the same role. These notions I use analyzing whether the three groups involved could experience the hospital chaplain as a resource or not. I found that in the secular context of a public hospital, the hospital chaplain can be a resource to people by being sensitive regarding the needs and preferences of each person and being aware of her own role in the context as well as what the role as such might communicate to people. Carrying the tradition and applying on new knowledge, hospital chaplains might contribute to the development of the Norwegian multifaith society together with others.