Summer 2008

Most Stanford physicians work to treat their patients’ diseases; Chaplain Bruce Feldstein, M.D., seeks to heal their souls.

Trained as an emergency room physician, Chaplain Feldstein now serves as founder and director of the Jewish Chaplaincy at Stanford University Medical Center. Together with Chaplain D’vorah Rose, R.N., M.A., and a cadre of specially trained volunteers, the Jewish Chaplaincy provides spiritual care to Jewish patients and their families, strengthens Jewish community, and educates doctors, nurses, and volunteers on the value of tending to patients’ spiritual needs. Since 2000, Jewish chaplains have been available to the 1,400 Jewish patients who are hospitalized each year, as well as to patients of other faiths. Most Jewish patients are not affiliated with a local synagogue and so have no rabbi or chaplain to turn to in times of anguish, uncertainty, or loneliness.

Koret has supported Feldstein’s work at Stanford University Medical Center since the inception of the Jewish Chaplaincy, which is organized in the Spiritual Care Service of Stanford Hospital and Clinics. The chaplaincy serves the patients, family, staff, and community at Stanford Hospital and Clinics, Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital, and Stanford University School of Medicine.

“The Koret Foundation is a weight-bearing pillar of the Bay Area Jewish community,” Feldstein said. “It sounds cliché to say it, but we really could not do what we do without the support of Tad Taube and the Koret Foundation.”

Feldstein’s unique background makes him particularly well suited to run the chaplaincy program. Board certified in emergency medicine, Feldstein chose to leave behind the fast-paced treatments required in the ER to move into a field that allows more in-depth focus on each patient. His knowledge of how hospitals and doctors work has allowed him to bridge the gap between physical and spiritual care in a highly effective manner. In just eight years, Feldstein has built a strong network of relationships at Stanford, reaching out to the community through a wide range of programs, and assembling a board of advisors that includes physicians, rabbis, and Jewish community leaders.

To help train the next generation of doctors, Feldstein also teaches at Stanford’s School of Medicine, where he is an adjunct clinical professor. His award-winning course “Spirituality and Meaning in Medicine,” required for all medical students, teaches future physicians how to conduct a spiritual assessment of their patients and how to use that evaluation to promote healing. He also teaches an elective course called “The Healer’s Art.”

In March 2007, Feldstein became the first recipient of the new Isaac Stein Award for Compassionate Care, awarded by the Stanford Hospital and Clinics board of directors in recognition of his outstanding contribution to patient care.