Posted: 3/28/2018
Offers words of encouragement, gentle touch
As the sun begins to glisten off the windows of Parkland Memorial Hospital signaling the start of new day Stacey Merlin heads toward the Pastoral Care department of Dallas’ public hospital. Along the way she greets employees, patients and visitors headed to work, home or for a piping hot breakfast in the nearby cafeteria.
Soon Merlin, who serves as chaplain in Parkland’s Rees-Jones Trauma Center, surgical ICU and trauma inpatient unit, will answer the first of many calls for her service. As she bounds out the department’s back door toward the trauma center she takes a quick glimpse at the sign she’s posted on her wall. It reads in part, “Wake up every day knowing that you won’t fully understand why things happen, just that they do.”
Today may be one of those days. She will soon find out.
As a Level I trauma center, Parkland staff is ready 24/7 to care for the most critically-injured patient. When seconds count, healthcare professionals including physicians, nurses, radiology and respiratory care staff, among others – all told about 15 people – quickly go to work as vital information is relayed in succinct, rapid-fire order by EMS personnel who brought the patient to the hospital.
There too is Merlin, who responds to every Level I trauma activation.
Once a comprehensive medical assessment is complete and she’s given a nod by medical staff, Merlin steps in. She may offer words of encouragement to an injured patient or gently touch the hand of a worried spouse. Or she may sit in silence as family members receive the news that their loved one has died. And she offers a hug to a nurse who quietly admits, “I hate this part of the job.”
“She gives everything she has to patients, families and staff,” said Jessica George, PhD, trauma psychologist manager in Parkland’s Rees-Jones Trauma Center. “One day she went from conducting an employee memorial service to breaking bad news to a family, to singing Christmas carols to dietary staff while wearing a Rudolph red nose.”
Responding to trauma activations, Code Blue calls and helping individuals deal with grief was not something Merlin planned for her life. Rather, her calling was set in motion by a hurricane named Katrina.
“I was in retail for 20 years. People would come in to buy our sugarless delights and before they left I knew all about them – how many kids they had, where they lived, where they went to school, even where they were going on vacation,” she laughed. “I didn’t sell anything, but I knew everything you could ever want to know about everyone who came in the shop!
“And then Katrina hit and I went to work as a volunteer for the Red Cross at the convention center,” she said her voice slowly fading. “I spent days talking to people, listening to them. I would cry and my heart went out to them. That’s when I knew I had found my calling.”
After volunteering at Children’s Medical Center Dallas, completing a Clinical Pastoral Education residency at Parkland, graduating from seminary and becoming a Board Certified Chaplain, Merlin has found her home at Parkland. And though there are days that weigh heavy on her heart, what she wants most is “for our patients and their families to know how much we care about them.”
There’s no doubt about how much Merlin cares, according to Linda Wilkerson, Parkland’s Director of Pastoral Care.
“Stacey is a truly dedicated chaplain who has a huge heart for trauma patients and their loved ones. She has studied to become certified in caring for trauma patients and their families and is able to listen well, attend to the needs of those who are suffering emotionally and spiritually, and still have room left over to offer care to staff who are caught up in the intensity of their nursing care or other types of care offered at Parkland,” Wilkerson said. “She is a marvelous caregiver.”
“Her job is very hard, in fact all of the chaplains have extremely hard jobs, but she retains hope and sees beauty in all aspects of life and death because she values nature, humanity and the connections between us,” George added. “She’s always offering something, whether it’s food, time, a joke, a hug or a prayer. She will drop everything to respond to staff, a patient or a family in crisis.”
As she closes the chapter on another day, Merlin takes a deep breath and once again looks at the sign on her office wall. This time, she stares at the last line: “Accept that sometimes life throws things at you knowing that it’s going to be nearly impossible to overcome – but it will hope that you will try anyway.”
For more information about services available at Parkland, please visit www.parklandhospital.com