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ANH: “Hey Michael, how are you doing?”
Michael: “to go well! “
Ann: “how was your day? “
Michael: “I’m very busy today.”
Ann: “It was a trip, wasn’t it?”
Michael: “It’s all finished in the last few days!”
Anh Nguyen speaks with heart patient Michael Salter, who is recovering from major surgery at Victoria Heart Hospital.
Nguyen is not a nurse or a pastor, but one of a growing number of spiritual carers.
Ann: “So typically spiritual care conversations focus on what gives you meaning and what gives you strength.”
Michael: “Perhaps it goes back to the family and purpose we all share.”
For Salter, the issue has come into sharp focus in recent weeks.
He was airlifted by helicopter from his home in the NSW/Victoria border town of Albury to undergo life-saving heart surgery in Melbourne following a medical emergency.
“An artery has three components, and the inner two components are just shredded. That’s what happens with an aortic dissection. And I’ve always taken care of myself, and all of a sudden… He’s someone I’ve felt like I’ve lost.”
These are difficult times for the 66-year-old, who is recuperating in a private room with a view of the stadium below his hospital window.
“I think you see people playing soccer and football and everything and realize how fragile it is. Maybe at this point you have to think about and understand that life changes. No need.”
That’s when spiritual carer ANH Nguyen steps in to help Salter and patients like him deal with life’s big questions.
“Oh, sure. It’s about having someone who has a broader perspective on a situation like that than you personally have.”
ANH: “What’s more difficult for you right now?”
Michael: “What’s more difficult? A little sense of the unknown, knowing what happened, what they did. Going forward, the challenge for me is what happens next, what comes back. I think it’s about understanding whether you’re getting the support you need and how much recovery you can make.
At Monash Health, we focus on spiritual care across our 40 locations.
Nguyen is part of a growing team supporting patients experiencing medical crises or difficult diagnoses.
“If they are religious, they usually request that their representative come and pray or bless them. Or, at the end of their life, they need last rites.”
However, in the latest Australian census, nearly 40 per cent of respondents, or 10 million people, marked themselves as having no religion. A significant number of hospitals, such as Monash Health, now offer non-religious spiritual care.
“At the end of life, there is a lot of unfinished business and patients want to re-prioritize so they can focus on the short time they have left. We usually provide psychological and emotional support, which means we talk about what gives meaning, strength, and comfort to the patient during this time. And by listening, we It gives them a safe space to release their pain and emotions and gives them the strength to move forward.”
Nguyen has worked in hospitals and prisons for more than 10 years. The 53-year-old says she developed a sense of compassion since she was a child growing up on the outskirts of Saigon during the Vietnam War.
“There were a lot of hardships and my parents were struggling to get through the day. After the war ended and I was five years old, my father had to move to the countryside, where he built a house made of mud and coconut leaves. The floors of the house were all muddy and muddy. We were always hungry and struggling. My parents went through a lot, and they I have my own problems. So I suppressed a lot of emotions and just tried to support my parents. Then my mother’s parents were executed by the military in front of her. Both of my father’s parents passed away when he was young, about 10 years old. So even though they continue to be traumatized, the only thing they ever touched me with was compassion. .”
After arriving in Australia at the age of 21 with limited English skills, Nguyen built a career in IT. But then his father’s death became a turning point.
“My father got lung cancer in 2000, and that’s when he passed away. I was devastated. He meant the world to me. My parents meant the world to me. And I was silent. I spent a lot of time inside and re-evaluated my life. And I also had the support of a grief counselor who listened to me and shared with me. I share my journey with them. And I realized that there was a lot of sadness for me, the sadness of losing my father, the sadness of leaving my country, leaving everything behind and being here with great anxiety. I came to
Ms. Nguyen earned a degree in Counseling and completed graduate studies in Psychology and Personal Development. She says helping people living through crisis has become her new purpose.
“I see my job as more than just a job, it’s a calling. Holding a patient’s hand during this journey, one of their most difficult, is truly rewarding and more than anything else. And I am so grateful to have been able to be with them in that moment and have the opportunity to witness and nurture their strength, resilience, and hope. doing.”
Monash Health Social Work and Spiritual Care Manager Michael Sprawa-Neyman said Ms Nguyen brings a lot to the role.
“She’s very empathetic. She’s a great listener and she’s very kind. She makes people feel comfortable. And that’s an important skill for a spiritual care worker. Some people have supportive families. Some people don’t have anyone, they don’t have any friends, they’re very isolated. So the role of spiritual care is that the patient may be very afraid, very frightened, very frightened. Visit patients when they are not available and listen to their stories.”
Despite a recent loss of one million believers, Christianity remains Australia’s largest religion, accounting for approximately 44 per cent of the population. However, with increasing immigration from Asia and the Middle East, Australia is becoming more religiously diverse. Sprawer-Neyman says a different approach to crisis management is needed.
“We have an interpreter service within Monash Health that we use on a daily basis to support our patients and provide spiritual intervention even if they don’t speak English. It’s a really non-denominational approach. , it’s not just about treating someone’s physical illness. It’s also about looking at the whole person: their spirituality, their psychological well-being, and their emotional well-being.”
For heart patient Andrew Jackson, who was celebrating his birthday on the ward, talking with Nguyen at his bedside was a blessing.
“I’m not a religious person, but I enjoy talking to people who are considerate and emotionally supportive. It’s very gratifying.”
“I’ve learned a lot from you, a lot of wisdom, and I really feel like you had a lot of strength and courage to get through all of this.”
For Anh Nguyen, providing spiritual care is also a way of giving back to the gifts she received as a child.
“Through my work and my life, I just want to honor my parents because they made me who I am today. And I’m forever grateful for that.”
