PlainViews

Chaplain Ron Bradley on the power of brownies and pastoral care

Anyone for a Brownie?

The trauma of 9/11 continued to impact our hospital staff for months after that horrific day. Our pastoral care department responded with the appropriate support, i.e., debriefings, individual and group support, memorial services. What more could I do as a staff chaplain to support our staff in my assigned critical care units?

I discussed the idea of implementing supportive sessions for the critical care units with our department director and one of the ICU nurses. We then consulted the manager of the units. The manager gave her blessing and offered to provide refreshments (brownies) each week. I initiated a supportive process for critical care staff in September of 2002. The weekly meetings are for one hour on the unit, with the understanding that our busy staff will not have the time to stay for the entire one-hour session. The sessions are rotated approximately every four weeks or as needed. I currently have four critical care units on rotation, with the recent addition of oncology. I also meet with the night shift as needed. I always leave brownies for the evening and night shifts.

It is amazing what a few brownies can do for staff morale. The supportive sessions significantly enhanced the relationship between staff and the pastoral care department. I have become a part of the unit culture. I learned through my supportive sessions the specific team dynamics of each unit. This knowledge led to further expansion of my role. I was asked by two unit managers to facilitate their team building sessions.

Utilizing M. Scott Peck’s model of community as presented in his book, The Different Drum, the four stages of community are briefly summarized as follows:

• Pseudocommunity – The group attempts to be an instant community by being extremely pleasant with one another and avoiding all disagreement.
• Chaos – The group centers on well-intentioned but misguided attempts to heal and convert.
• Emptiness – This is the difficult part. It is the crucial stage of community development. It is the bridge between chaos and community. Emptiness means letting go of our prejudices, solutions, our need to fix and control.
• Community – When the group is open and empty, the group enters community.

After facilitating several team-building sessions, I submitted suggestions to the unit managers to address enhancement of team “building.” I was not surprised during the team building process to observe the “best and the worst” of human behavior. Anxious employees “act out.” Some employees engage in fighting, some withdraw, sub-groups materialize, employees pair off, triangles develop, passive-aggressive behavior flourishes, some dependent employees expect mangers to” fix things.” Yet, some are appropriate in their assertiveness and differentiation. Many employees complained that the challenges of coping with hospital systems and interpersonal relationships were as problematic as the challenges of coping with sick patients and their families. My observations and experiences of professional caregivers in our hospital community are not uncommon.

I think Robert Fulghum offers healthy suggestions in his book, All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten. Perhaps cookies (brownies) and milk at 2:00 p.m. on Thursdays are not a bad idea, along with an introduction to family systems theory. Maybe saying you’re sorry when you hurt somebody is good advice. Honesty and confrontation are a little scary but we know it is the right thing to do. No matter how old you are, when you go out into the world it is best to hold hands and stick together. Anyone up for a brownie?

Do you have thoughts about professional practice you’d like to share with your colleagues? Send an e-mail info@PlainViews.org.