Previously published in Rite Up, 2025 – Issue 3
Chaplaincy Care is a meaningful part of life at Scottish Rite for Children, and it is available to everyone. This service provides spiritual, religious, emotional and cultural support to patients, families and staff members. This year, Scottish Rite celebrates its first full-time chaplain, Jerilynn Putnam, MA/TH, MA/PM.
“Through chaplaincy care, I build relationships with individuals,” Putnam says. “By meeting an individual where they are, I learn how they seek and express meaning and purpose and the way their experience connects to the moment, to self, to others, to nature and to the significant or sacred.”
Patient Norah engages in a creative intervention with Jerilynn Putnam as her mother, Julie, observes.
Putnam’s day begins by checking on the Inpatient Unit overnight staff members. Next, she supports the pre-op nurses and those who prepare patients for surgery. She also meets with patients in pre-op, offers hospitality and discerns their needs. “When prayer is important to them, then I pray with them before they go into surgery,” Putnam says.
Putnam loves to share her creativity and spiritual interventions with the patients and caregivers staying in the Inpatient Unit. She builds rapport and trust, fosters a nurturing environment, connects with the child and invites them to examine how they feel about themselves and about being in the hospital. Often, her encounters reveal a patient’s values, worldview and a desire for prayer. “It’s the child’s choice, and I respect what they need on that particular day,” Putnam says. “My role helps ensure that we care for the whole child, not only physically but also spiritually and religiously, when requested.”
In Sunday Chapel Circles, patients and their caregivers may participate in Godly Play. This intervention helps support everyone’s spiritual journey by inviting them to make meaning through story, wonder and play. Putnam also recognizes interfaith religious events and holidays in the chapel by offering a rite, ritual or reflection. Blessing of the Hands is a very special ceremony that Putnam may perform anywhere at Scottish Rite. With outstretched hands, she blesses surgeons, nurses and therapists whose receptive palms face open to the sky.
