Chaplaincy Staff

The paid staff Episcopal priest came down to the Emergency Department to hang around. As the on-call chaplain, I had responded to a full trauma code (a family in an automobile accident -- grandma was driving and died, mom/daughter and granddaughter survived but hospitalized) and he just stood near me, observing. Everyone knows him from 1) his collar and 2) his years on the staff, so everyone was talking to him and sharing information with him, not me. The first time or two, he indicated my presence, and that they should really be talking to me, but after awhile he let them talk and just soaked up the attention. I mean, couldn't he have been seeing patients all that time? Shouldn't he have been? He said to me, "You'll probably be here all day" (we couldn't locate the father/husband/son-in-law, so I had to wait to provide pastoral support/counseling) -- and I'm thinking, "Like hell I will [be here all day]!" This priest was down there in the Emergency Department from about 11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. -- as of 4:00 p.m. today, he is in his office reading a newspaper....

On another note, I went into the clergy room (adjacent to the hospital chapel) about 3:30 p.m. to put a patient on the communion list (Roman Catholic eucharist). Lo and behold! The Roman Catholic priest (paid chaplain -- regular staff) is in the room sleeping....I'm not sure if he was disoriented or just groggy! I thought he had been crying (red eyes) but he said he was "just sleeping."

And finally, the department secretary paged me to go see someone on the oncology floor who was allegedly post-op (so I'm assuming cancer surgery). As it turns out, the patient has Alzheimer's and pneumonia, and is just dying of natural causes. So I go in and sound like an idiot to the family, thank you very much! "I understand she just came out of surgery...?" "Um, no..."

And to top it all off, my supervisor wants me to talk about the chair ownership thing in I.S. (individual supervision), as I mentioned it (and my feelings about it) in my reflection paper this week).

Life goes on. Need to plan worship this week (I'm leading in hospital chapel on Sunday) and do a spiritual assessment of a patient (due Wednesday, 2 days from now). On-call tonight -- if it's slow, maybe I can get that all done.... Here's hoping!