WELCOME to LOYOLA
Our Jesuit Philosophy
SEE ALSO
Following in the footsteps of Ignatius Loyola, we strive to uphold our traditional Jesuit values.
THE JESUIT DIFFERENCE
Loyola University Health System is an academic medical center with a network of ambulatory care sites. Faith and spirituality are the foundations of the care we give to our patients and their families, as well as the Jesuit medical and nursing education we provide to our students.
“I was ill and you cared for me.” This iconic phrase from the Gospel of Matthew (25:36) expresses the commitment of Stritch faculty, staff and, indeed, everyone involved in the Loyola clinical and research enterprise. We believe that our Catholic heritage and Jesuit traditions of ethical behavior, academic distinction and scientific research lead to new knowledge and advance our healing mission in the many communities we serve.
CARE, CONCERN AND RESPECT FOR OTHERS
The Loyola University Health System promise, “We also treat the human spirit,” encapsulates Loyola's Catholic-Jesuit, ethical and spiritual values. These values of care, concern, commitment and respect for others suggest the spirit of generous excellence in which we believe our ministry should be carried forward. These key values form the heart of our Catholic identity and Jesuit mission.
Each of our more than 6,000 employees embrace these values and work to fulfill our promise by fostering an environment that encourages innovation, embraces diversity, respects life and values human dignity. Following in the footsteps of Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Jesuits and great patron of Loyola University Chicago and its health system, we work actively at finding God in all the realities of our professional service and daily living.
A HOME FOR ALL FAITHS
It is out of the best of our Roman Catholic tradition that we understand Loyola University Health System as a “home for all faiths,” as well as a place of welcome for those with no particular faith tradition. Like the prayers of the Roman soldier from Matthew’s Gospel (8:8), this, too, is our prayer for patients and families as they come to Loyola for treatment. We are all in the hands of God, however we name this reality in our lives. We pray that God’s healing presence and peace be with all those who come to Loyola University Health System.
Jesuit Principles
Loyola belongs to an international Jesuit network of service and learning. Five principles of Jesuit education guide Loyola’s direction, as well as the entire experience of teaching and learning at the Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine and Loyola University Chicago Marcella Niehoff School of Nursing.
Passion for quality
We set demanding standards of learning and patient care for students, faculty and all medical professionals. If the enterprise is worth doing at all, it is certainly worth our very best.
A commitment to lifelong learning
Continuing education for Loyola’s medical professionals, along with patient education toward wellness and the prevention of illness, locates Loyola in the heart of the Ignatian tradition. This 450-year old tradition works at finding God in all the ways that knowledge and technology, research and creative problem-solving serve the world and its people.
Preoccupation with questions of ethics and values
Care for the whole person, family support, personal integrity, as well as medical access for those in need, have always been promoted through the Jesuit encounter with medicine. In addition, Loyola actively promotes the strong ethical integrity of Catholic health-care as described in the "Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services." (USCCB, 2001).
The importance of religious experience
The experience of God is vital and must be integrated into the processes of healing and learning so that everyone at the health system has the opportunity to grow in both knowledge and faith, in learning and belief.
Health care and education are person-centered
No matter how large or complex the institution, each individual is important and is given as much personal attention as humanly possible. We believe we must use our learning and leadership, our values and compassion in service to a world so desperately in need of life and hope. For us at Loyola, this is what it means that "we also treat the human spirit."