Hospital Chaplain Rev. Jan Lee of Torrance Memorial Hospital helps health workers to heal spiritually and with compassion. 

Health workers sat in a circle as Rev. Jan Lee handed out ukuleles to the gathering, some of whom wore scrubs with plastic hair caps and booties. Torrance Memorial Medical Center's nondenominational chapel serves as the venue for this ukulele session.

The majority of the students are healthcare professionals taking a break from their hectic schedules. Lee, the hospital chaplain and spiritual care provider is their teacher.

The Impact of the Pandemic on Mental Health

As stress levels increase due to the Coronavirus pandemic, hospitals provide increasingly greater mental and spiritual support to their employees.

According to the Orange County Register, in the wake of the pandemic last year, hospital chaplains such as Lee stepped into the shoes of surrogate family members, delivering messages to patients from loved ones who were unable to visit or say goodbye because of the lockdown. 

Chaplains work this year to serve the needs of health workers who will face a number of stresses, including exposure to the Coronavirus, financial insecurity due to layoffs, separation from loved ones, a shortage of supplies, and witnessing death.

According to a report titled " Lost on the Frontline, " an investigation by the Guardian and Kaiser Health News, the report also revealed that more than three thousand health workers died in the U.S. during the first year of the pandemic, according to a report titled "Lost on the Frontline," an investigation by the Guardian and Kaiser Health News. 

Health workers have been responsible for 20 percent of known Coronavirus cases in some states. They include not only doctors and nurses but also pharmacists and cleaning staff.

As Allison Phillips, who works at Torrance Memorial's pharmacy and runs COVID-19 vaccine clinics, has stated, the pandemic has really affected them all.

Phillips claimed Lee played the ukulele and sang a song for them after a colleague in her unit died.

Lee's Students Love His Music

The clinical director of the operating room at Torrance Memorial, Margarita DeJesus, said music comforts her. She said that the ukulele has helped her cope with stress in the operating room during the past year and a half.

Lee says he carries his ukulele around the hospital with him wherever he goes. This is what happens when someone asks him to play something.

"I see that people are spent. There's so much pain, and I do absorb a lot of it. Sometimes I find myself sitting alone in my car, crying. I also see healthcare workers angry sometimes because they see that the disease could've been prevented with a vaccine," Lee stated, as quoted in the report. 

Orange County Register also reported that originally from Fullerton, Lee served as a Baptist church pastor for 25 years before becoming a hospital chaplain. 

Staff members can turn to him for spiritual and theological guidance. Additionally, he provides emotional support and healing. A hospital staff member recently lost a patient in her 30s who had developed a close bond with nurses and doctors.

Lee said that there are often no questions about religion or spirituality asked. It's just a matter of figuring out how to cope. The chaplain believes it's crucial that the heart remains soft and vulnerable and not become calloused.