When St. Cloud’s first hospital opened in 1886, the Sisters of the Order of Saint Benedict provided health care to a diverse population, including immigrants from Germany, France, Ireland, Norway and Sweden. Today, St. Cloud Hospital provides health care to the descendants of these immigrants and to members of our community who have settled here from many other parts of the world. As the St. Cloud area continues to grow, we have opportunities to welcome and extend acceptance to new members of our community who may view the world from diverse perspectives. At St. Cloud Hospital, our mission to care for our patients, their families, and each other in a manner that reflects the healing mission of Jesus, challenges us to move beyond mere tolerance and to embrace the unique, diverse qualities that reside in each patient, each visitor and in each of us. Sincerely,
Craig Broman, MHA, FACHE St. Cloud Hospital President
for keeping the mission of St. Cloud Hospital alive as our core values of collaboration, hospitality, respect, service and trusteeship are extended to each other and to those we serve.
Photo upper right, from Craig Broman’s mom’s side: Carl Bergseng (1904) and Helga Nereng (1908). Both from Norway. Photo lower right, back row: Abner Broman, Clifford Broman, Ralph Broman, Ester Broman Front row: Helen Broman, Henry Broman, Alice Norman Broman, Allen Broman Henry Broman immigrated to America in 1866 from Sweden.
Hospitality is the virtue which allows us to break through the narrowness of our own fears and to open our houses to the stranger, with the intuition that salvation comes to us in the form of a tired traveler. Hospitality makes anxious disciples into powerful witnesses, makes suspicious owners into generous givers, and makes close-minded sectarians into interested recipients of new ideas and insights. — Henri J. M. Nouwen in Ministry and Spirituality
remember, remember always, that all of us, and you and I especially, are descended from immigrants and revolutionists. — Franklin D. Roosevelt
over twelve million immigrants entered the United States through the portal of Ellis Island, a small island in New York City. Before that, from 1855 to 1890, approximately eight million immigrants arrived in Castle Garden in the Battery, the original entry point for immigrants. These early immigrants came from England, Ireland, Germany and the Scandinavian countries.
I continue to learn about the cultures of the consumers and families served in the program, in particular attitudes towards cultural beliefs and values, health, spiritual and religious practices.
On July 4, 1857, six Benedictine women arrived in St. Cloud. Their motherhouse was St. Walburg Monastery, in Eichstätt, Bavaria. These six had been sent from Eichstätt’s first U.S. foundation in St. Mary’s, Pennsylvania. They’d left Bavaria at the invitation of Father Boniface Wimmer, O.S.B., who had founded a monastery in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. Father Boniface was recruiting Sisters to teach the children of German immigrants, and so safeguard the faith and culture. Photo above left: 1914, ca. St. Raphael’s Hospital Bulletin, page 37: patient statistics. Photo upper right: 1904–1914, ca. St. Joseph’s School, St. Joseph, Minn. Photo bottom right: 1924, ca. St. Raphael’s Hospital — student nurse Marina Schlict with patient Grandma Weidert. Photos courtesy of Saint Benedict’s Monastery
I utilize interpreters for the assessment of consumers and their families whose spoken language is one for which I am not fluent.
Ancestors of Mission and Spiritual Care Bret Reuter: Grandpa Ed and Christina Nelson (upper right) celebrate 50 years of marriage on their family farm in southern Minnesota in a photo taken in 1934. Ed, his parents, David and Servenia, and two brothers, Nels and Ole, traveled from their homeland in Norway to America in 1861. The trip took 13 weeks. Carl Reuter (upper left) is shown outside his house south of Austin, Minnesota, in a photo taken during the late 1920s.Carl came to America in the late 1890s from Germany along with two brothers and two sisters.
Dawn Koeniguer, marketing specialist (back, right) with her parents and brother, and her three daughters. Her father’s ancestors migrated to the United States from Canada.
I REcognize and accept that the consumer and family members make the ultimate decisions even though they may be different compared to my personal and professional values and beliefs. Photo, upper center, shows Carl Ernest (Loivenhaupt) Schwarz, Dawn’s great-great grandfather, from Karlsruhe, Germany, in his candy store. Carl was the youngest son of Baron Von Loivenhaupt, part of King Bismark’s regime in Germany. When King Bismark’s monarchy fell, the Baron took his family and fled from Germany to Holland in approximately 1850. Baron Von Loivenhaupt’s family then went to America, leaving behind the youngest son, Carl, who was too young to travel, was left with a family in Holland. At age 17, he traveled to Philadelphia where the Von Loivenhaupt family had settled. When he got to the U.S. his family was not hospitable to him so he kept the name of Schwarz, the one he’d been raised with.
I intervene, in an appropriate manner, when I observe other staff engaging in behaviors that appear culturally insensitive or reflect prejudice.
I utilize methods of communication, including written, verbal, pictures and diagrams, which will be most helpful to the consumers and their families.
Interventional neurologists Adnan Qureshi, MBBS, and M. Fareed Suri, MBBS, both immigrated to the United States from Pakistan during the 1990s.
Three generations of Khounes are shown recently in their Sartell home. From left: Grandma John Honmoung, grandson Brandon, 7, grandma Vongsone holding Austin, 6 months; Vilayvieng and Kendra,16 months and Fonzie. From Laos, Fonzie Khoune came to the United States in1981 and Vilayvieng in 2005.
I am flexible, adaptive, and will initiate changes, which will better serve consumers and their families from diverse cultures.
I REFLECT on and examine my own cultural background, biases and prejudices related to race, culture and sexual orientation that may influence my behaviors.
I am mindful of cultural factors that may be influencing the behaviors of the consumer and their families.
Anab Ahmed, a medical assistant in the St. Cloud Hospital Emergency Trauma Center, immigrated to the United States from Somalia in 2000.
I attempt to learn basic phrases of the languages spoken by the consumers and families served.