Baptism of fire

This week I started a placement as a Pastoral Care Intern at Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre (as part of a Clinical Pastoral Education unit and field education placement for my training).

The Pastoral Care Dept at Peter Mac has a 24 hour pastoral care service, which means there is always at least one pastoral carer physically present at the hospital between 8am and 8pm weekdays, and 8am-1pm weekends, and someone on call at other times. Today (only 4 days into the unit) was my first turn on evening shift/on call, and boy, was it a doozy!

First up, as I was starting my rounds of the wards just after 5pm, an emergency code was called on one of the wards, so I needed to attend that to provide pastoral support to the family of the patient involved (and other patients in that room who were distressed by the emergency). Apparently the hospital normally has 3 or 4 of these codes in an average week, so I guess I was 'lucky' that one happened when I was on my first night shift.

After the emergency passed, and I was satisfied it was ok to leave the ward, I continued on my rounds (after a quick break for a strong coffee back in the department). By the time I finished my rounds, wrote up reports on the work I had done, it was after 9:30 when I headed home.

I just had enough time to heat up some leftover food for a late dinner, and kick my shoes off in front of the TV, before my phone rang. It was the hospital calling me back, as the patient from the earlier emergency had passed away, and the ward staff asked for me to come in to provide some support to the extended family who were now saying their final farewells to their loved one.

I stayed with the family until they were all ready to leave, and the funeral directors arrived to take the deceased into their care. It was 11:30 when I got to leave for home again.

I am now about to go to bed, with my pager and mobile on my bedside table, both set to their loudest and most piercing ring tones, so that if they go off whilst I'm asleep, I'll hear them and wake up.