- Hello, my name is Cedric Cheatham with Nashville General Hospital.

On today's For Your Good Health, we are going to talk about spiritual care for cancer patients.

The chaplain's job is to provide spiritual care.

We are simply here to offer spiritual care, and we are just simply here to be present with them and to let them know that whatever needs arise as they go through this time in their life, we're available for them.

With such a situation, there is always a myriad of questions, why is this happening to me?

What did I do to deserve this?

What's gonna happen to my family?

Should I take treatments?

All of these are the kind of questions that people have for spiritual care providers.

A physical disease can cause emotional, mental, and spiritual trauma.

And so I see my purpose as being present for people, with people and for people as they go through emotional, mental, and even spiritual trauma that comes from physical conditions.

I seek to help people focus on what is best for their healing.

Quite naturally, prayer.

We can be a liaison between them and the doctors to kind of express some concerns.

We also can just be a listening ear and we can be company.

The importance of it is seen in the disposition of a person changing by the end of a visit, someone who was distraught becoming peaceful, someone who was hopeless having hope, someone who felt alone, feeling as if they had someone to listen to, those are the ways by which we measure the significance of our presence in the life of people as they go through pain, as they go through sickness.

This is not a space of judgment, this is not a space of religious measurement, this is a space of care.

Whatever you say you want, let's make decisions to go in those directions and then whatever kind of conversations we need to have with your family and loved ones, we can proceed beyond that.

Nashville General is a meaningful, significant place in this community that's making a difference in the lives of people from all walks of life.