More than sleeping. More than eating. More than spending time with loved ones. For most people, more than two-thirds of their lives are spent working. And, like 50 percent of working Americans*, more than half are dissatisfied with their jobs. The question is why?
If Sandy Wyman Johnson were to hazard an educated guess, it might be due to missing a deeper sense of meaning, purpose, growth and appreciation in their work.
After spending 33 years as a nurse, mostly in critical care and more recently in chaplaincy and palliative care, Johnson found her latest calling in the spiritual lives of her coworkers and in the soul of her organization.
"People want to find fulfillment and express themselves in their work," said Johnson, who has worked at San Joaquin Community Hospital in Bakersfield, Calif., for the past decade. "They want their lives to be celebrated in their work and we especially need that in hospitals because people bring their lives to the bedside. They create the healing environment. We have to invest in the healing of our caregivers so they can better heal the community we serve."
And that investment, in Johnson's mind, meant getting to the heart of employees' work life and helping them to live the hospital's mission — to continue the healing ministry of Jesus Christ.
"There are a thousand daily procedures, processes and tasks in a hospital, but at the end of the day, it is all about lives touching lives," she said.
While working as director of pastoral care, Johnson noticed mission posters on the walls and prayers before meetings and the usual week of prayer services that make Adventist Health hospitals unique. "But it never seemed to be a pervasive culture" she said. "I noticed that people's heart for their work was larger than the structure their job allowed."
Inspired by the books Radical Loving Care: Building the New Healing Hospital in America and Sacred Work: Planting Cultures of Radical Loving Care by Erie Chapman, Johnson envisioned making SJCH's culture one of "sacred work." After corresponding with Chapman, a veteran hospital CEO and founder of Baptist Healing Trust, Johnson created a strategic plan to address every aspect of the hospital's healing environment, including the hospital's look and feel, as well as the quality of service provided.
"I've always been interested in how we express ourselves spiritually in the workplace," said Johnson, a 23-year veteran of Adventist Health and a fourth generation Adventist (her father is Lloyd Wyman, ministerial secretary for the Pacific Union). "Sacred Work is about people seeing their work as a spiritual path and the hospital structuring itself to support the spiritual growth and development of the staff, increasing their capacity for service and healing."
To develop the program, Johnson spoke frequently with Bob Beehler, president and CEO of SJCH. "I told Bob we had a lot of hurting staff, people who carried around hurt inside and in turn, hurt others," she said. "Healing happens through us and through our staff. We talked about how we needed to be taking better care of the people who take care of people. So we looked for innovative ways to provide service and to support our staff — to grow our soul as an organization."
After spending the last two years developing an inpatient palliative care program dedicated to end-of-life care — the first in all of Adventist Health — Johnson was appointed executive director of Mission and Service in the fall of 2007. Within that new realm, she developed a program to introduce Sacred Work to SJCH.
It began with intensive orientations and soon involved voluntary staff retreats (for front line employees, not just leaders, Johnson emphasized). The retreats focus on employees growing and developing themselves spiritually, and deepening the sense of meaning and purpose in their work. "It's also a call to leadership to provide true servant leadership as well," stated Johnson.
"Sacred Work is not a customer service program, it is the language that describes the essence of our place and purpose in this community," Johnson commented. "It's about values and attitudes, not just actions."
"The original meaning of medicine is service, not science," said Johnson. "It's not about the bottom line, market share or leverage, as important and real as those things are. We certainly do need to run hospitals with great wisdom, efficiency, integrity, quality and stewardship, and Sacred Work is about all of that as well. But, in hospitals, with all of the demands and busyness, we are, in some ways, farther away from patients than we've ever been."
"I talked to one nurse who told me, ‘I could get my work done if it wasn't for all of these patients,'" Johnson stated, relaying the story with tongue in cheek. "She realized what she said. It was a very serious moment for her."
"Sacred Work is not just about singing ‘kumbayah' in the hallway, although I would love more of that!" said Johnson, laughing. "It's bringing the highest standard of quality and compassion into our work. Jesus calls us to be the best, after all. We must protect and preserve our true calling as a faith-based hospital system — to healing the mind, heart and spirit as well as the body."
According to nationally recognized research company, NRC/Picker, hospital patients frequently comment about the attitudes of nurses and physicians — how there is not enough explanation and information from caregivers.
"There is a cry for kindness, dignity and respect," said Johnson, hoping Sacred Work will answer that cry.
"It's hardwired into all hospital policies, processes and job descriptions. What we do is sacred work. Yet it is important to understand that it's not what we do that brings healing, it is who we are and why we do it. Sacred Work is recognizing that whether we are changing a bed, making an executive decision, giving a medication or waxing the floor, our work is sacred because our lives and the lives of those we serve are sacred."
"The deepest need of every human heart is to feel safe and significant. Those of us who walk by faith in God know that only in Him can we experience that safety and significance. We have the privilege of being God's presence to others—to our co-workers, to our patients and to their families — creating a space of safety and significance for them," said Johnson. "It's Christ's mission really — to meet needs, to heal through love. And as Adventist Health, it's how we are different than every other hospital."
Sacred Work is whole people providing whole person care. "It's recognizing the light of God in yourself and others — honoring it and using it to make some else's journey more gentle."
* According to The Conference Board Consumer Research Center
