With all of the questions about my CPE experience emerging as of late, I thought I would share with the world my random thoughts and musings.. and on any given day, they are quite random.
We are now in Week 5, almost half way through. There are four of us, two episcopal and one non-denominational, and myself, completing this process at a 143 bed hospital in a large baptist area.
For those of you who do not know, CPE or Clincial Pastoral Education, is a requirement for those going towards the ordination route. Although that is not me, my professors and candidacy committee asked me to complete the summer unit for various growth reasons. The experience has been one of growth in the past few weeks as I've learned how to engage people in conversation and to "read" whether they want to talk or not. I was assigned to the surgical and outpatient areas of the hospital so I do receive quite a range of people to talk to from the young to the elderly.
This area is interesting because although it used to once be a thriving mill and textile industries area, the economy has been destroyed as those businesses have shut down since most of our industry is now done overseas. Those older patients remember what the good times were like and the younger patients are frustrated because they cannot find jobs to support themselves and their families. The Hospital Emergency Department provides a lot of primary care to residents of Rutherford County and beyond because many just cannot afford primary care at a family doctor and the policy is that all people will be treated at the hospital.
Most of the people I come across have been born and raised here in Rutherford county, or quite close to it, but once in a while I find people who have moved from the north and have decided to settle here. Today was one of those days as I came across a couple from D.C. who shared their experiences of living in the unsettling times of the 60's.
Rutheford Hospital does not provide treatments for traumas, but rather stablizes patients and then prepares to move them on to Charlotte or Asheville for further treatment. Throughout my on-call experiences I have become aware of the destructive nature that the economy has on this particular community. Thinking about the impact of drugs, of family systems, and of spiritual care has been a large part of the process in the past four weeks.
As for my own particular experiences, I have had some quite interesting ones via living situations and learning how to be engaging in conversation with complete strangers. I am constantly reminded by both patients and volunteers that I am too "young" to be a chaplain and almost everyone is engrossed with the idea that I am a single young lady living in Rutherfordton. As with any type of community, some people are more standoffish than others, but I find that being myself and just engaging people in their life stories helps people to tell their story. I know that I am only a part of it and will continue to learn and grow in the next five and half weeks. Just when I think I become comfortable with introducing myself to patients and carrying on conversations, last Friday I received a reply from a patient that I seemed nervous and unsure... despite the fact that I had purposely gone up to her room since she had visitors from her local congregation all week.. so I still need to work on how I come across to patients :) But, so far so good!
Good Story for a chuckle: a patient who received some meds for a particular stomach issue was told he would have hallucinations throughout the night. He woke up this morning thinking he was Edward R. Murrell's Wife (who was the "Walter Cronkike" of the 2nd World War). His wife definitely got a kick out of that one this morning!
