According to the New Hanover website, "Clinical Pastoral Education is interfaith professional education for ministry, where learning is derived from the supervised practice of ministry. The foundation of CPE at New Hanover Regional Medical Center in Wilmington is ministry with patients, families and staff; We, as students, function in a pastoral role providing spiritual care to persons in crisis. This ministry is then critically, yet supportively, reviewed by our supervisor and peers in the training program through a variety of focused seminars." We are given the opportunity through reflection papers to review our ministry.
Am I excited about writing more papers? Not hardly, but this experience has been so wonderful. I attend the class portion of CPE on Thursdays and I do rounds on Fridays. I was given the 9th floor which is mostly surgical patients. Most patients are open to visits from student chaplains and will welcome prayer. Sometimes, you just know it's not the right thing at the moment. Learning the "whens" and "when nots" is part of the learning process, but being able to minister in so many different ways to a host of different backgrounds and cultures has proven to be so rewarding.
Next week will be interesting. I will be "On Call" for the first time..... all by myself. As part of your prayer life, please include me. I carried a beeper with me on rounds Friday so I could "shadow" one of the residents in case there was a call, but wouldn't you know it? Not one time did it go off. So, come Thursday afternoon, I will have, what the residents refer to as, the hot beeper for 16 hours throughout the afternoon and night.
The result should make for a great blog entry.
