Working Life: My job requires an ability to listen and explore difficult emotions

Fr John Kelly, director of pastoral care, Tallaght University Hospital

Fr John Kelly, director of pastoral care, Tallaght University Hospital, Dublin. 

7.30am

When the barrier to the hospital car park lifts, my day begins. From now until the barrier lifts again, I will step in and out of the lives of patients, staff, and visitors to Tallaght University Hospital. As healthcare chaplain, I deal with the whole gamut of human experience: Birth, health, sickness, dying and death.