Best Practices for Hospital & Shut-In Visitation

Every good pastor and church will find themselves frequently visiting people in the hospital.  At my church, we visit people who are in the hospital or shut-in every single day. Every church sets up their visitation ministry a bit differently.  I explain how we set church’s visitation ministry here: How to Organize a Church Visitation Ministry. But, what do those individual visits look like?  I recently gave our staff some best practices:

  1. Pray before you arrive.  You are representing Jesus, ask how He wants to use you.
  2. Sanitize your hands.  Observe signs regarding masks and other contact precautions when entering a room. If you have been sick talk with the XP about whether you should actually visit.
  3. Turn off your cell phone or set it to silent.
  4. Have a plan.  Know what verses you are going to read.  Always have anointing oil.  When visiting shut-ins always take communion. 
  5. Introduce yourself.  If you don’t know the person, be sure to identify yourself and the fact you are from Calvary.  If the door is shut when you arrive, knock before entering. 
  6. Complete the visit, but don’t obstruct the flow.  Let the hospital staff do their job, at the same time make sure you do yours, even if you have to be assertive.
  7. Keep it short.  Being a patient can be exhausting.  Keep your hospital visits to about 10-15 minutes.  For shut-ins, a lot depends on the situation, but 30 minutes is a good rule of thumb.
  8. Don’t rush out the door, or even seem rushed.  Take the time to sit down, always in a chair and never on the bed.  Take your coat off and don’t make it seem like you are stopping by just to do a job.  If you sense you should stay, then stay.  Even if that means you are sitting quietly with the person, not even talking.
  9. Be sensitive, but not timid.  Ask questions about what is going on in their life, but if you sense they are being private don’t press.
  10. Pray.  Always pray for the person you are visiting.  Ask permission, but always offer to anoint with oil.
  11. Remember the family.  They often require pastoral care too.  A great practice is to call the family after visiting with their loved one.
  12. Send your report.  You should email a report of your visits to *******@*********.***. 

Please note: I reserve the right to delete comments that are offensive or off-topic.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

775 thoughts on “Best Practices for Hospital & Shut-In Visitation

  1. Have you ever considered about adding a little bit more than just your articles?
    I mean, what you say is valuable and all. But think of if you added some great visuals or videos to give your posts more, “pop”!
    Your content is excellent but with pics and clips,
    this site could definitely be one of the greatest in its field.
    Wonderful blog!

  2. My spouse and I stumbled over here from a different website and thought I should check
    things out. I like what I see so i am just following you.
    Look forward to going over your web page for a second time.

  3. I know this if off topic but I’m looking into starting my own blog and was curious what all is needed to get setup?
    I’m assuming having a blog like yours would cost
    a pretty penny? I’m not very internet smart so I’m not 100% certain. Any recommendations or advice would be greatly
    appreciated. Appreciate it

  4. Admiring the commitment you put into your blog and in depth information you offer.

    It’s good to come across a blog every once in a while that isn’t the
    same outdated rehashed material. Excellent read! I’ve bookmarked your
    site and I’m including your RSS feeds to my Google account.

  5. Your thing regarding creating will be practically nothing in short supply of awesome. This informative article is incredibly useful and contains offered myself a better solution to be able to my own issues. Which can be the specific purpose MY PARTNER AND I has been doing a search online. I am advocating this informative article with a good friend. I know they are going to get the write-up since beneficial as i would. Yet again many thanks.

  6. My brother suggested I may like this web site. He was once totally right.
    This publish actually made my day. You cann’t consider just how a lot time I had
    spent for this info! Thank you!

  7. Hello! Do you know if they make any plugins to help with SEO?
    I’m trying to get my blog to rank for some targeted keywords but I’m
    not seeing very good gains. If you know of any please share.
    Thanks!

  8. I’ve been exploring for a little for any high quality articles or weblog
    posts in this sort of house . Exploring in Yahoo I at last stumbled upon this web site.
    Studying this info So i’m glad to express that I have an incredibly excellent uncanny feeling I found out just what I needed.

    I so much indisputably will make sure to don?t disregard this site and
    provides it a look on a constant basis.