Welcome to St John of God Health Care

St John of God Health Care is one of the largest private providers of health care services in Australia, employing more than 16,000 employees (caregivers). We operate 26 hospitals and services comprising more than 3,300 hospital beds, including home nursing, disability services and social outreach programs.

As a Catholic, not-for-profit group, we invest all  profits to the communities we serve by updating and expanding our facilities and technology; expanding existing services and developing and acquiring new services; and providing Social Outreach services to people experiencing disadvantage to improve health and wellbeing.

St John of God Berwick Hospital has a total of 202 beds, eight operating theatres, a cardiac/vascular laboratory and six birthing suites. The hospital provides a wide range of services caring for inpatients, outpatients and day patients across a range of specialties including cardiology, maternity, medical and surgical, offering state of the art equipment and facilities to our rapidly growing community. The hospital has a 16 bed Critical Care Unit with 6 Intensive Care beds and 10 Cardiac/HDU beds. Our aim is to deliver the very best in health care at our Berwick Hospital.

Your Position at St John of God South-East Melbourne Hospitals

You will work as an integral member of the multidisciplinary team for the provision of holistic pastoral services to patients and clients. You are responsible for the provision of emotional and spiritual support, theological reflection, ritual facilitation, faith/belief integration, establishing pastoral therapeutic relationships, trauma and grief counselling and emotional intelligence.

This is a Permanent Part time role working up to 67.5 hours a fortnight and this position will involve a willingness to work across our 3 sites, Berwick, Frankston and Langmore.

The Position

• Identify and respond to the spiritual needs of patients/clients and families which facilitates spiritual maturity, theological reflection and emotional intelligence.
• Assess and reflect on patient/client’s verbal and non-verbal communication.
• Employ active listening skills to respond compassionately to client’s needs.
• Establish appropriate professional boundaries according to scope of practice.
• Maintain intentional personal reflective practice.
• Prepare and provide appropriate and meaningful rituals with patients/clients.
• Model and promote respect for cultural diversity, faith and belief integration in the provision of spiritual care.
• Promote and engage in orientation and induction of new team members.
• Comply with organisational and regulatory requirements requiring privacy and confidentiality, and storage of confidential information.
• Partner with patients/clients, families and members of the multidisciplinary team to develop a spiritual care plan in accordance with agreed interventions.
• Integrate quality and risk principles into spiritual care practice
• Contribute to department operational planning including leading key Projects.

You will have completed or be working towards a tertiary level qualification/studies in a relevant field (such as Social work, Counselling, Pastoral, Nursing) and/or have prior experience in the provision of pastoral care in a relevant setting. This may include the SJGHC pastoral internship program and/or supervised pastoral field placement and professional development courses relevant to pastoral practice.

To succeed you will demonstrate capability and competence in the establishment of therapeutic pastoral relationships with patients and clients from a variety of faith, cultural and social backgrounds.

Above all, patients will be at the core of everything you do committing to and supporting our Mission and Values.

Both experienced practitioners and those newer to the role are invited to apply.

The Benefits

• Salary: $73,419 to $94,830 per annum (pro rata for part time), plus 11.5% superannuation
• Permanent Part time role up to 67.5 hours a fortnight.
• Salary packaging up to $18,550 on a range of benefits such as mortgage, rent, meal entertainment, holiday accommodation or other everyday living expenses as well as options to salary package benefits above the FBT cap on items such as:
• Novated leasing
• work related expenses
• self-education and
• additional superannuation
• A healthy work-life balance through flexible work options, additional purchased leave & well-being programs
• Employee discount on St John of God Hospital & Medical Services and Private Health Insurance
• Employee support through our dedicated free Employee Assistance Program (EAP)

St John of God Health Care embraces diversity and strongly encourages applications from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and people with disabilities. We are committed to providing a safe environment for all children and vulnerable people in our care and proactively take measures to protect children/vulnerable people from abuse.

For enquiries contact Tracy Medlin, Manager, Pastoral Services, on (03) 8784 5046. Application closes on 10th March 2025