“We make people cry.”

Date July 30, 2007

When someone once asked my CPE Supervisor, “So, what is it that chaplains do?” she responded by saying, “We make people cry.”
And it’s true. I often joke with Sarah when I’m telling her about my day when I say, “Well, it was a pretty good day today. I was able to make 3 people cry.” [...]

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No Words.

Date July 3, 2007

One thing I’ve noticed after working in the hospital for the past five weeks, especially on my Oncology unit, is that I often have no words for patients.
One particular afternoon I walked into the room of a patient who was severely suffering from Crohn’s Disease. Because she was on Contact Precautions, I had to wear [...]

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Being On-Call

Date June 25, 2007

Waiting and Watching: I’m on-call today, and I’m sitting here working on some verbatims, some paperwork and getting caught up on a little email. Yet, I can’t stop looking at the pager. Watching it. Just waiting…waiting for it to beep. I actually like the tone of the alert - it’s not an annoying pager noise. [...]

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CPE: Week 3

Date June 18, 2007

We have completed 3 weeks of CPE and we are just now beginning the fourth. I think you can tell how much of my time it consumes by the amount of blog entries I’ve written recently. I’m finding myself more comfortable in my role as “chaplain” and visiting patients has become easier as well. At [...]

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Posted in Ministry, Random | Comments 7 Comments »

CPE: 24hr On-Call in a Trauma 1 Hospital

Date June 7, 2007

Part of our job description for the summer entails being the On-Call Chaplain 7 times throughout the summer. It’s a 24-hr on-call, and after 5pm, the On-Call Chaplain is the only chaplain in the 600-bed hospital. So, it can be a little intimidating - especially your first time. It’s hard to describe what being On-Call [...]

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Posted in Ministry | Comments 16 Comments »

CPE: Week 1

Date June 3, 2007

I have completed my first week of Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE). So far, I’ve really been enjoying the experience. Granted, getting up at 6am to carpool at 7.15 to get the 7.35 train to New Brunswick and to be at work by 8.30 is not my ideal summer schedule (and shirt/tie/coat is not ideal either); [...]

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Posted in General, Ministry | Comments 7 Comments »