Deemed Demure and other realizations

I had a really hard time not falling asleep through the day long orientation I endured yesterday. I've been through two days so far of orientation in my new job. Yesterday I was oriented to the hospital at large, along with all of the other new hospital employees. The guy who led the day long orientation, Brett, was extremely energetic. He obviously has not just moved to New York. I had had such a long, exhausting day on Monday and had a hard time going to sleep that night, that I was not super awake on Tuesday. After our lunch break I re-entered the auditorium and Brett hollered "STOKES!!!" as I walked down to my seat. I quietly nodded and said "Hey." He laughed, mimicked me and called me demure. It was quite funny, especially since I don't really think I'm demure. But, perhaps, by NYC standards, I am.

This hospital is so different from the one to which I am accustomed in Atlanta. This hospital is a teaching hospital and a research hospital, which completely changes the focus of the care patients receive. As a chaplain, it's a little troubling.

Today was my first day of orientation to my department and as my supervisor was describing the various departments of the hospital to me I realized how real the threat of mass crisis is here. When he described the protocol for crises, the word was not "if" but "when." This hospital sits on top of four Amtrak tunnels, is 10 blocks from the UN and 9/11 was not that long ago. But they don't just think in terms of violent terrorist crises, they also have dealt with crises like the AIDs pandemic. When it broke out the hospital built an extension building with small apartments and studios so that AIDs patients and their households could move in to receive care through the disease and end of life. That was before the new drugs. Now the building has other uses. But in a city this big, in a hospital this big and an institution focused on learning, chaplaincy seems to be a very different thing. There's more grit to the work here. It's exciting and humbling.