by
Barbara Brumleve, SSND, Ph.D.
Alegent Health, Omaha NE
NACC Conference 2008

• Explore the process of advancing in one’s pastoral care career. Identify practical steps.
• Identify competencies and language needed especially as related to
– IT - Institutional Technology
– HR – Human Resources
– Finance

Board-certified Chaplain
Director of Pastoral Care – responsible for chaplains as well as others who work in Pastoral Care; e.g. pastoral volunteers, community clergy
Mission Integration Leader – responsible for a number of services including pastoral care

• Serves as member of Management Team and on facility committees.
• Prepares and monitors annual budget.
• Integrates department goals with overall goals of system.
• Interviews, hires, and evaluates performance of department members.
• Implements a program to measure productivity and quality assurance.
• Plans for future needs of the department.

• Serves as member of the leadership team and facilitates the understanding and application of the mission and values in strategic planning, policy development, and operational decisionmaking.
• Collaborates with system leaders to integrate mission and values in substantive and measurable ways into core processes.
• Directs and manages the mission-related programs and services.

“The keys to career management are finding out how successful careers are built, figuring out how far you can and want to go, analyzing what’s getting in your way, exposing yourself to new tasks that build your skills, and getting noticed by decision makers.”
Lombardo and Eichinger , FYI (For Your Improvement), p. 32

To move along this path means . . .
• Pastoral care in a different venue and with a different audience
• Greater responsibilities
• New expectations including that you will be “nimble”
• Possibility of more hours of work
• Higher salary
• Different kind of feedback

• Where do you want to go? Facility size?
Location? Stand alone or part of system? Size of system? One-person place? Multi-person staff?
• Where is your spouse, your family, your significant other, your religious community, your diocese relative to this matter?
• Are you willing/able to re-locate if necessary?
• Can you “roll” with what goes on and at the same time keep your balance?
• Are you open to the Spirit?

To move along this path (1) study the environment/context and where you think it will go in the future
• Study Health Progress (CHA) table of contents for past three years —what issues recur?
• Study Havard Business Review table of contents for past three years – what topics occur?
• What are the issues in your own system?
• Review job openings for position you want.
What qualifications are listed?
• In the light of your study, review your resume.
What do you need to add? What do you need?
• Be a lifelong learner.

To move along this path (2) engage people who are successful
• Talk to your director or mission person; tell them your hope. Ask their help.
• Talk to people who are doing what you want to do. Ask their help.
• Watch people who are successful. What makes them successful?
• Continue being a high performer in your present job. Look at your job as though you were already in the job you want. What would you say to the person currently in your job (i.e. yourself)?

To move along this path (3) get involved in ways that support your plan
• Network with others
• Find a mentor.
• Practice an elevator speech that explains what you do and what you want to do.
• Use opportunities that present themselves.
• Get involved in the work of your unit; e.g. impact of LOS, raising patient and employee satisfaction/engagement scores
• Get involved in NACC groups
• Connect with IT, HR, and Finance.

• Realities
– We live in an electronic age and manage information electronically.
– Increasing competence is assumed in
• Email/calendar use and management
• Word (including tables, tools, etc)
• Powerpoint
• Excel – spreadsheet
• Access – database
– Paper-lite and paperless are values

• SO. . .
– Make friends with your IT people.
– Provide pastoral care as you do to every department
– Learn to understand basic IT language; e.g. hardwire,
EMR (electronic medical record), etc. Keep a list of new words/acronyms and find out what they mean.
– Use IT help but go to them prepared
• Keep data on things that are happening and make you curious/concerned
• What do you want to do now and in the future?
• Pre-planning is as important in IT building as it is in brickand-mortar building.
• Allow sufficient time.

Human Resources works with . . .
• Job descriptions
• Resumes
• Recruitment, interviewing, and hiring – there are processes to follow and legal ramifications to be aware of
• Employee benefits
• Performance review to include coaching, discipline, and termination
• Policies: departmental, organizational

You represent your organization to the employees.
Employees interpret your words and actions as the belief of your organization.
Leaders are legally responsible for their actions, regardless of whether they have been authorized or not.

• Be responsive.
– Do follow-up with employees when they ask a question.
– Do give straightforward information concerning the company’s policies (don’t guess).
– Do be a good listener and observer.
– Do respond immediately to any potentially violent situation
• Often, employee dissatisfaction can be traced not to wages or benefits, but to their feelings about how the organization or the management team treats them.

• So. . .
– Make friends with your HR people.
– Provide pastoral care as you do to every department.
– Learn to understand basic HR language; e.g. human capital, onboarding, throughput . Keep a list of new words/acronyms and find out what they mean.
– Caution: If you tend generally to advocate for the underdog or rescue the victim, get some coaching from your HR person for your own growth.

• Realities
– Without a bottom line, we cannot practice our mission.
• In the United States, women and men religious built education and health care on a combination of financial prowess and faith.
– Everything has a cost; e.g. meeting attendance, “unit” of pastoral care, hospitalization for pneumonia

• SO
. . .
– Make friends with your Finance people.
– Provide pastoral care as you do to every department.
– Learn to understand basic Finance language; e.g. balance sheet, cash flow, budget process, EBIDA, business plan. Understand revenue from side of institution and patient.
– Caution: if money is “dirty” to you or a
“necessary evil,” you will have difficulty.
Money is a resource for the mission.

Gross Revenue
Medicare
Less contractual
Medicaid
Less contractual
PPO
Less contractual
HMO
Less contractual
Self-Pay
Less Charity care
$2,4000,000
$500,000
(300,000)
$200,000
(150,000)
$500,000
(150,000)
$700,000
(350,000)
$500,000
(400,000)
Net Revenue
$200,000
$50,000
$350,000
$350,000
$100,000
$1,050,000

“
Organizations can be complex mazes with many turns, dead ends, quick routes and choices. In most organizations, the best path to get somewhere is almost never a straight line. There is a formal organization —the one on the organization chart —where the path may look straight and then there is the informal organization where all paths are zigzagged. Since organizations are staffed with people, they become all the more complex.
There are gatekeepers, expediters, stoppers, resisters, guides, good Samaritans and influencers. All of these types live in the organizational maze.

The key to being successful in maneuvering through complex organizations is to find your way through the maze to your goal in the least amount of time while making the least noise. The best way to do that is to accept the complexity of organizations rather than fighting it and learn to be a mazebright person.”
Lombardo and Eichinger, FYI (For Your Improvement, p. 232).

Lombardo, Michael M. and Eichinger, Robert W.
FYI (For Your Improvement): A Development and Coaching Guide for Learners, Supervisors,
Managers, Mentors and Feedback Givers.
Minneapolis: Lominger Limited, Inc., 2000.
-- 67 competencies, based on research
-- unskilled, skilled, and overused skill
-- map: what competency means, why important
-- 10 strategies for gaining the competency
$75.00

• Frankel, Lois P. PhD. Nice Girls Don’t Get the Corner Office: 101 Unconscious
Mistakes Women Make That Sabotage
Their Careers. NY: Warner Business
Books, 2004.
Each mistake chapter (1-2 pages) is followed by some coaching tips.

“The keys to career management are finding out how successful careers are built, figuring out how far you can and want to go, analyzing what’s getting in your way, exposing yourself to new tasks that build your skills, and getting noticed by decision makers.”
Lombardo and Eichinger , FYI (For Your Improvement), p. 32

If you are willing to embark on the journey . . .
• The need is real
• The rewards are great
Welcome to the journey; thanks for embarking on it.