From Hostis to Hospes: Integrating Hospitality into the Care Continuum
Rafael Flores, Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady Health System, Baton Rouge, LA
Henri Nouwen spoke of hospitality as a practice that converts “the hostis into a hospes,” that is to say, the enemy into the guest. While hospitality is not foreign to healthcare, the modern care continuum, marked by a consumerist approach, many times makes the clinical encounter a hostile one in which the patient is not a stranger being welcomed, but rather a stranger entering a clinical, unwelcoming, space. Given this reality, faith-based health systems should explore the rich tradition of hospitality and seek to emulate its wisdom to influence their approach to patient care, organizational language, and operational decisions.
In this paper I will explore the tradition of hospitality, particularly within the Christian tradition, and reflect on how it can, and should, influence modern healthcare systems. The paper’s discussion on hospitality in healthcare will include case studies of how such hospitality is being practiced within the walls of a rural Catholic hospital, which serves at the margins of Louisiana, and in doing so will seek to showcase how hospitality is a practice that , if integrated, can alleviate some of the ways modern healthcare alienates those it serves.
In this paper I will explore the tradition of hospitality, particularly within the Christian tradition, and reflect on how it can, and should, influence modern healthcare systems. The paper’s discussion on hospitality in healthcare will include case studies of how such hospitality is being practiced within the walls of a rural Catholic hospital, which serves at the margins of Louisiana, and in doing so will seek to showcase how hospitality is a practice that , if integrated, can alleviate some of the ways modern healthcare alienates those it serves.