Self Care

One theme that contunually pops up during a residency and becomes even more important during the stressful seasons (such as holidays) is self care. The demands of a residency can easily consume our lives if we neglect to take some needed and periodic personal time. The point is we need to fill our own needs too.

Well, today I recieved a lesson on self care in an unexpected place and in a most unexpected way.

The common area of the Behavioral Health unit is one of my favorite places to visit. Most often there are several patients just sitting around talking or watching the large, loud, flat screen enclosed in a glass case. As a chaplain I enjoy walking in and engaging a number of patients in this casual setting.

A very quiet man sat in his chair just beside another patient and I while we talked about regular everyday things in her life. After about 10 minutes this man decided he had a need. He filled this need after slowing climbing from his chair and fraily limping around behind it so he was next to me by covertly pulling down his pants and urinating on the floor!

I went to the nearest nurse, and unable to speak in fear of letting out some of my laughter I was only able to poke her for her attention and point. "Ooh, not again," she blurted out as she s curried his direction. As the man finished he simply pulled up his pants and proceeded to sit back down.

Self care, at its best, I think.

This is actually pretty biblical. As far as I can tell there are at least 8 different verses in the KJV that use the word piss. 1 Sam. 25:22; 1 Kings 14:10, 16:11; Isaiah 36:12 are a few. Most of these references use the phrase "any that pisseth against the wall" as a way of denoting males. I guess this patient was simply excercising his right to pisseth against the floor.


So while I'll be making efforts to do some self care this year, I think I will stick to pissething against the urinals.

They like me, they really like me!

Being a somewhat novice chaplain, there are times when I have questioned my effectiveness and whether or not what I'm doing makes any difference. The fruits of my job are mostly intangible and often unseen by me in the moment. Often times the results of a spiritual conversation or discussion about EOL (end of life) issues are seen later when a patient is discharged or only evidenced internally.

Not so with a recent visit I had to the Emergency Center Psychiatric Ward.

I was called to visit with a patient who refused to eat or drink due to the fact that God had commanded him to carry out a 10 day fast. The medical staff had tried everything short of strapping him down and tube feeding him (which was the plan should I prove unseccesful). Just before I entered the room a nurse informed me that the patient was "hyper-religious" and suffered from schizophrenia.

"What am I going to do?" I thought as I entered the room which felt more like a cell block. Long story short, after a pleasant hour long visit I walked with the patient to the nurses station, because he just wanted them to know that he'd like to eat some dinner.

"Young man! Young man!" I heard as I turned to face a large, burley, stern looking nurse weighing nearly 275lbs standing over me. "You don't know how much money you just saved this department!" (Whew, feelings of relief after being scared half out of my chaplain.)

The nurse proceeded to fill out a form for employees who preform well titled, "Caught you caring," which is passed to my boss. It's a pleasant honor to recieve, and working in a position that returns few tangible affirmations it makes me feel a bit like Sally Field when in 1985 she accepted an Oscar Award saying, "You like me, you really like me!"

What Hospital?

The more I visit it the more I am beginning to enjoy the Geryatric Behavioral Health (that means elderly crazy people to those of you who don't get to work in a hospital and use our secret terminology) unit at the hospital.

Like Forrest Gump's life, the Gery-Psyc ward is much like a box of chocolates. Swiping my key card to open the security locked door with a one way mirror in it and entering covertly is always like sliding the top off a box of assorted mystery candies. When I meet a new patient I never know what I'm getting/biting into.

Many patients are sweet people, grandparents just in need of some help so they can get back to seeing their grandchildren. Others may require a different adjective than "sweet." Some are scared, apprehensive and only occasionally rude or just plain mean.

Some of the things that have been said to me in this unit were surprising, funny or concerning. But one will stick with me, I imagine, for a little while.

As I approached a patient with whom I had spoke before, she greeted me kindly with a smile. I returned the salutation, but quickly noticed her facial expression saying she did not seem to recognize me. Asking if she remembered me, I introduced myself once more as, "Nathan, one of the chaplains here in the hospital."

"What hospital!?" she replied, now with a very concerned look on her face.

Renovating & Renewing

Since I began my residency as a hospital chaplain recently I have been very busy working very hard. However, someone close to me has been working harder: my wife.

Awaiting the fourth and final year of Pharmacy School, you'd think a worn out over-tested student of medications would do well to take some time off, relax and kick back. Not this little rosy Rapunzel of radical renovations. She has spent days and nights working on, fixing up, repairing, cleaning, painting, flooring, and all around improving various parts of her mother's house.

Let's start with the bathroom. There's no completely "before" picture. But the floor was unfinished, uneven concrete, and the sheet rock walls were unmudded and had a number of sizely holes in them. In March we began the lengthy process of mudding the many corners and seems.

After several layers of sheet rock mud she was ready to prime. Accompanied by a friend and fellow pharmacy student they went to work, and before I got home from work one day it looked quite different. (see below)

I'll let the pictures speak for themselves, but you'll see that from there they painted, replaced the shower doors with a tasteful curtain and painstakingly laid laminate flooring. Wow! Put all that together and you've got yourself a new room in the house increasing your property value!




(Happy mother-in-law on right.)

The basement of the house has for some time been mostly unfinished save one cluttered bedroom with an unfinished concrete floor. Again there's no "before" picture, but after a lot of de-cluttering, and some much needed area rugs the basement has become a cozy, 1 bed/1 bath suite with French doors. Not bad for a basement.


The next post will show the outside of the house.

TRANSFORMERS

Here's a movie review without any spoilers.

Last night I went to see Transformers: Rise of the Fallen, a much anticipated sequal to the first film which surprised audiences and box offices with its astounding success and exhilirating visual effects. Director Michael Bay is back in his usual form delivering in one sense the same promised package of action, comedy and CGI as the first film.

Rise of the Fallen brings a plot with slightly more deapth, more robot war action and a few unanticipated emotional moments. However, it fell short of the first movie by offereing less natural comedy than the first, and little to no character development (except for Sam). New robots were introduced on both sides of the autobot battle field, and/but with so many characters I can understand the diffilculty faced in giving each of them adequate screen time. In this way, the movie fell pray to the same problem that hindered Spider-Man 3.

The one stronger criticism which may hold back some measure of success is the kind of comedy the movie makers typically went for. The level of sexual humor and some crudeness increased from it's predecessor making it less appealing to families, especially those with smaller children (though this did not stop an 8 year old in my theater from yelling during most of the movie).

Overall, I enjoyed the movie and will definitly watch it again. Of the summer movies so far released, I would put it at the top right beside the new Star Trek movie, because I can't decide which I enjoyed more. I'll just have to have two favorites.

Resident

After graduating (finally) from grad school, being ordained and moving back to the mountains of North Carolina, I have begun working as a Resident Chaplain at Spartanburg Regional Hospital Systems. This position will last for one full year and from what I hear and am now foreseeing will be no cakewalk.

Above is a picture of the front of the Gibbs Cancer Center, one of more than 6 of the hospitals many interconnected buildings.

The facility has approximately 588 beds, specialy centers for cancer, heart care, neo-natal care, women's health, and the busyest emergency room in both of the Carolinas.

For the last decade or so prime time TV has been populated with dramas taking place in the hospital. From ER to House and Gray's Anatomy viewers have been mezmorized by the seemingly endless debaucles in which medical professions can get tied up.

Recently, I've thought how easy it would be to create a TV show that follows the life of hospital chaplains. In one day a hospital chaplain might talk with patient's suffering from amputation, terminal disease, severe burns, heart problems, those brough to the ER, angrily screaming patients and much more. We talk with families with sick babies and families of patients who sadly and suddenly pass away. And of course there's always inner-office drama that could be played upon.

Yes, I think a drama about hospital chaplains could have limitless opportunities for crowd pleasing drama and sticky situations. You could title the show "Resident."

Anyway, while there's no TV camera following me around these are the kinds of things i'll be running into this year as a Chaplain in Residence in Spartanburg. Wish me luck!

P.S. However, if Hollywood does ever pitch the show I think I should get some kind of compensation for such a good idea.

Cutting Costs

The recession is affecting all of us. If you haven't become a victim of downsizing chances are you know someone who has. People and companies are finding new ways to save money that they had never before thought of. I heard one financial analyst recently say, "People are so scared they're actually beginning to save money." Amazing!

Though there are few, one of the potential good things that has and will continue to come out of these economic hard times is the knowledge of new ways to save money. I have probably heard of at least a dozen different ways that companies are cutting costs in order to keep from cutting jobs.

Some companies are being forced to make such large cuts that down-sizing is inevitable. However, here are some methods other companies are employing in order to retain employees.

I recently read a news article about a New England school system struggling to cut costs without cutting jobs. After making all possible budget cuts they were left with a deficit that would lead to 6 people losing their jobs. In stead of giving them the pink slip (no, not the one for detention) they came up with a better, more inspiring solution. Each employee in the entire school system, from board members to janitors, was asked to work one day for free. They had an astounding surge of support from virtually all employees. The money saved was enough for all 6 people to keep their jobs.

I work part time at a Harris Teeter, and we were recently told that we must now take 40 minute lunch breaks (as opposed to 30 minutes). I saw this as a good thing personally, because I enjoy the extra few minutes to sit peacefully after I've eaten lunch, and the cut in my paycheck is negligible. But the company as a whole saves quite a bit of money.

These two stories teach us something important. If everyone sacrifices a little we can all benefit a lot.

A friend of mine said her company has gone to 4 hour Fridays. She works only a 36 hour week now, but who doesn't want half the day off on Friday? She told me this with a cheery face as she was running some errands on a Friday afternoon.

Some small to midsized companies are making across the board salary decreases. This is difficult on the employees but I think it's a better solution than cutting jobs completely. I would rather make a bit less money than see my office-mate completely lose his or her job.

North Carolina state issued a hiring freeze for management positions. If a manager retires or quits, the position will not immediately be filled. This is one way to save money, and in a lot of cases an office can function for the most part without the manager. I don't say this as a depreciation of any managers out there, because my mother-in-law is a manager for the state, and she's taking care of business!

Other companies are requiring their employees to take some vacation time by a certain date. Who couldn't use a vacation!? Realizing that many people cannot go easily without the pay lost from vacation time, I am trying to see the bright side. At least you still have your job. Hey during your vacation you could work somewhere else a make a few bucks.

Some businesses are considering requiring smokers to pay higher health care premiums. I personally don't have a problem with this. Is it discrimination? No, a smoker chooses to be one.

My neighbor works a very stressful job and it is often obvious on her face. After a tough week recently she paused in our conversation and said something profound, "You know what, as difficult as my job can be, I am sure thankful to have one."

This is a time when we are all stopping to count our economic blessings, and I hope that we don't forget it all when the economy eventually rebounds. It is a privilege to be able to work in the safe and secure work environments provided by this countries freedoms. And it is a privilege to be paid the high amounts of money that we're paid when compared to the rest of the world. Immigrants come to our country with the high hopes that they'll land a job paying as much as 8.50 per hour. That's what I make bagging groceries.

Not ignoring the monetary difficulties of the day, lets try and appreciate what we do have and like an auditor continue to diligently count our blessings.