ROME, Ga., Oct. 25, 2023 – As director of Pastoral Services at Atrium Health Floyd, Jason Jordan provides care not only to patients and patient families, but to his fellow teammates and their extended families as well.
Jordan came to Atrium Health Floyd not long before the community's first COVID-19 patient appeared in Atrium Health Floyd Medical Center's Emergency Care Center in March 2020. He immediately established himself as a comforting and encouraging presence at a time when there were many questions and few answers.
Remarkably, Jordan made an incredibly brave and selfless decision in that tragic time. At the beginning of the Pandemic, Jason designated himself to be the lead chaplain who would work with COVID patients and families in order to preserve our other chaplains to serve the remainder of our hospitals and teammates without fear of carrying the virus to others.
In those dark days, he witnessed numerous deaths and critically ill patients, while ministering to their families and to the exhausted clinicians who cared for them.
The first Winter Solstice of the pandemic, Jordan and the rest of the pastoral care team organized a Longest Night observance, giving teammates the opportunity to acknowledge and grieve the losses of the past year. In the solitude of the Floyd Medical Center chapel, teammates could light an electric candle of remembrance and hope as Christmas, Hanukkah and the New Year approached.
This past summer, Jordan built on the success of the Longest Night observance and added a Longest Day observance on the Summer Solstice. The Longest Day was dedicated to performing random acts of kindness for others and to being kind to ourselves.
During the pandemic and continuing through today, Jordan introduced the concept of Compassion Champions to Atrium Health Floyd. Compassion Champions are fellow teammates who first give themselves compassion, as Jordan repeatedly reminds them, and who keep a watchful eye on their co-workers, looking for signs of stress, duress or emotional need.
And a year ago this month, Jordan helped coordinate a grief response to the students, faculty and staff at Chattooga High School, when three football players lost their lives in a tragic wreck.
He has stood beside teammates when they said their last goodbyes to family members. He has performed countless funerals for patients, teammates and family members of teammates. He is a welcome sight on nursing floors as he rounds with a bowl of chocolate, extending, as Jordan would tell you, little moments of grace with each piece of chocolate offered.
It has been said that Jordan should be referred to as Barnabas – named for the encouraging companion of the Apostle Paul. The name Barnabas is translated as Son of Encouragement or Son of Consolation. Jordan has proven himself to be both an encourager and a consoler.