Oct 23, 2023
My guest today is J.S. (Joon) Park, a hospital chaplain at Tampa General Hospital, one of the top-ranked U.S. medical facilities with over 1,000 beds. J.S. is the son of first generation Korean immigrants, a childhood trauma and abuse survivor, and now a husband and father to a three year-old daughter of his own (with another baby on the way).
If you've heard of the term hospital chaplain but aren't entirely what it means, a hospital chaplain is a nonjudgmental and compassionate presence who attends every death and Code Blue, helps with end-of-life decision-making, notifyies family members of loved ones in the ER, and advocating for patients and families in crisis, and participates in grief counseling.
J.S. has recently been featured on CNN and the Today Show, sharing his chaplain's perspective on being a "grief catcher" and expanding upon the commons lessons, fears and regrets of the dying. In our 1:1 conversation we go deeper, exploring:
I can't thank J.S. enough for being so generous with his time, open heart, stories and memories. This beautiful conversation is one I'll cherish for a long time.
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