In today’s ever fast-paced world, the ability to bring a sense of calm, comfort, and spiritual support into any setting is becoming a rare trait. Now, imagine having that gift within the halls of an active emergency department. This is the calling of a hospital chaplain, who enters the rooms – and the lives – of people amid what could be their highest or lowest points. On any given day, a chaplain may interact with trauma victims, then serve at the bedside for people nearing death or those who have just given birth; all while helping the families of these individuals receiving care. The vocation brings with it an unpredictable schedule and requires exceptional poise and balance, and two Sisters of Providence are celebrated for their ability to serve this demanding ministry with grace.
Sisters Fe Sumalde, SP, and Phuong Ha Nguyen, SP, are building onto the legacy of several Sisters who have served before them as hospital chaplains. Their hospitals are part of differing health systems and separated by more than 1,000 miles, yet they both serve diverse populations who worship in many faiths (or who are not religious). Both Sisters are also beloved presences in their communities for what they bring to the ministry.
Sr. Fe Sumalde: Consistent service among change in Yakima
This spring, Sr. Fe Sumalde was spotlighted in a newsletter shared to the MultiCare Yakima Memorial Hospital staff by hospital president, Tammy Buyok. In the message, Sr. Fe is recognized as a bright spot in Buyok’s day, and who’s chaplain office is “a little space full of peace.”
Sr. Fe works to bring that same sense of peace to every corner of MultiCare’s 238-bed hospital in central Yakima, where she is the only chaplain on the staff. She’s served as a chaplain at four medical facilities in total throughout the city, beginning at the former Providence Yakima Medical Center in 1997.
She started at her current post just before the COVID-19 pandemic took hold, combining the challenges of learning a new health system with a medical crisis that forced her to find new ways to connect with her patients from a distance. Sr. Fe persevered, bringing tranquility to people through a point in time marked by upheaval and fear, and was recognized by her new system as a COVID Hero in August 2021 for being a “ray of light in this dark time.”
“For me, service to others is really the highest human calling,” said Sr. Fe. “You have to have a gift to respond.”
“God understands, and God chooses a person for ministry – your gifts, your talents – and you respond and say ‘yes.’”
Sr. Fe’s also witnessed a great deal of change within her Sisters of Providence community throughout her 29 years in Yakima. When she arrived in the city, she joined a community of 12 Sisters. Currently, only she and Sr. Ana Dolores Orellana, SP, reside in Yakima –although both are well-connected to their supportive Horizon Community, with local leader Sr. Marisol Avila, SP, a relatively close drive away in Grant County, Washington.
In years past, she says late-night calls to minister in her hospitals often overlapped with gang activity unfolding in the Yakima streets.
“I would go outside, hear gunshots nearby, get in the car and drive to the hospital,” said Sr. Fe. On several occasions, she recalls encountering young people on the street: “I’d tell them, ‘Go home – you should be in bed.’”
When asked where she finds her perseverance for her ministry, Sr. Fe says she loves the people she serves and finds her own comfort in classical music and in prayer, reciting this powerful affirmation:
“’Where there is love, there is life.
Where there is life, there is hope.
Where there is faith, miracles happen.
Where there is peace, there is God.
And where you have God – you have everything.’”
Sr. Phuong Ha Nguyen: “A calling and a love” in southern California
There’s a clear theme throughout Sr. Phuong Ha’s Friday morning rounds through the sprawling, 204-bed Providence Cedars-Sinai Tarzana Medical Center: an abundance of smiling faces. Sr. Phuong Ha pauses to make meaningful conversation with hospital staff members in a variety of departments and specialties, equipping them with a dose of positivity to help them through an active day on duty in the rapidly growing San Fernando Valley.
Sr. Phuong Ha’s typical day begins before 6 a.m. and will often continue as she’s needed, in service to the families of patients admitted to the often-full emergency department or in the neonatal intensive care unit. Her six-person spiritual care team, which includes two chaplain residents learning through her example, ministers to a richly multicultural community indicative of the giant metro area that the hospital serves. Despite the scope, Sr. Phuong Ha thrives in making her interactions intentional and personal.
“As a chaplain, you need to observe and use your senses,” said. Sr. Phuong Ha. That starts by meeting her patients and their families at a human level, then sensing how she can be most helpful – whether that’s through religious support or in another form of guidance. “We are there for the patient.”
Sr. Phuong Ha has served in Burbank since 2021, finding a home ministry in spiritual care soon after completing her transfer from the Lovers of the Holy Cross community, whose ministries had initially brought her to the United States from her native Vietnam. She was introduced to the Sisters of Providence when making pastoral visits to Vietnamese parishioners
at Providence Portland Medical Center – and felt a calling to the Sisters’ charism and mission. It’s been a rewarding journey for Sr. Phuong Ha, who relishes the challenges of her calling.
“Every single patient teaches me a lesson,” said Sr. Phuong Ha. “It’s a calling and a love… what I do is a gift from God.”
Sr. Phuong Ha also enjoys the benefits of living in the close-knit Providence SoCal Community made up of Srs. Rosa Sen Nguyen, SP, retired chaplain Teresa White, SP, and local leader Mary Alice Miller, SP – with Sr. Lang Tran, SP, also close by in West Covina, California.
from left to right: Srs. Phuong Ha Nguyen, Mary Alice Miller, Rosa Sen Nguyen,
and Teresa White.
Sr. Phuong Ha is engaged in parish life at St. Finbar Catholic Church in Burbank, where she sings in the choir and is a mainstay in organizing ceremonial events throughout the year (click here to read more about her contributions to the church’s floral offering celebration to Mother Mary).
“I do choir to listen to my own voice,” said Sr. Phuong Ha. “In the hospital, I need to listen to others’ voices.”
