I've worked as a hospital chaplain in a big and well-respected urban teaching hospital.
From a teaching point of view, I'm really glad this article by Dr. Rosenberg is available. For two reasons...
1. I wish I had seen it during training. It's spot on in every respect. Dr. Rosenberg's advice to stay with the bereaved, and enter with them into their grief, is good advice. There's no way to do it without simply doing it.
2. It's good that Dr. Rosenberg is teaching doctors to do this work. Often enough in the past, the Saturday night emergency department staff just said "page the chaplain" when they needed to deliver bad news. We chaplains don't mind doing our jobs, but that leaves the frightened family hanging while we scramble to get to the ED and figure out who / what before sitting with the family. And, there's always some practical decision-making that takes time. For example, a Roman Catholic patient needs a Roman Catholic clergy person. So, "page the chaplain" keeps people waiting.
If you ever have to do this, do everything you can to avoid physically looking down at the bereaved people. Don't stand over them. Sit on the floor if you must. Some waiting rooms have low coffee tables or side tables. That's a good place to sit.
In teaching hospitals, the new residents (fresh-out-of-school doctors) start July 1st every year. And, they staff the ED on weekend nights. So they are getting their first sustained taste of violence, right at the top of the summer heat. They went into medicine to heal people, not to pronounce them. So this is a big shock for them. The ED unit clerk should still page the chaplain, even if the doctor delivers the bad news.
This epidemic of violence is awful. For my part, I count strong narcotics with guns, knives, and cars as instruments of that violence. It's horrible that doctors and other hospital folks have to learn how to do this. But they do. It's horrible that families have to hear this bad news. But they do.
This article should be posted on the wall of every toilet stall in every high school in the country. Why there? Simply because everybody will see it and have a chance to read it in private.
From a teaching point of view, I'm really glad this article by Dr. Rosenberg is available. For two reasons...
1. I wish I had seen it during training. It's spot on in every respect. Dr. Rosenberg's advice to stay with the bereaved, and enter with them into their grief, is good advice. There's no way to do it without simply doing it.
2. It's good that Dr. Rosenberg is teaching doctors to do this work. Often enough in the past, the Saturday night emergency department staff just said "page the chaplain" when they needed to deliver bad news. We chaplains don't mind doing our jobs, but that leaves the frightened family hanging while we scramble to get to the ED and figure out who / what before sitting with the family. And, there's always some practical decision-making that takes time. For example, a Roman Catholic patient needs a Roman Catholic clergy person. So, "page the chaplain" keeps people waiting.
If you ever have to do this, do everything you can to avoid physically looking down at the bereaved people. Don't stand over them. Sit on the floor if you must. Some waiting rooms have low coffee tables or side tables. That's a good place to sit.
In teaching hospitals, the new residents (fresh-out-of-school doctors) start July 1st every year. And, they staff the ED on weekend nights. So they are getting their first sustained taste of violence, right at the top of the summer heat. They went into medicine to heal people, not to pronounce them. So this is a big shock for them. The ED unit clerk should still page the chaplain, even if the doctor delivers the bad news.
This epidemic of violence is awful. For my part, I count strong narcotics with guns, knives, and cars as instruments of that violence. It's horrible that doctors and other hospital folks have to learn how to do this. But they do. It's horrible that families have to hear this bad news. But they do.
This article should be posted on the wall of every toilet stall in every high school in the country. Why there? Simply because everybody will see it and have a chance to read it in private.