Vulnerability: Naked and Unashamed

Yesterday in post clinical conference I decided to talk to the students about vulnerability. The discussion that followed only confirms that I do indeed have a QUALITY group of students. While I cannot do the conversation justice here in this entry I will try to touch on some of the highlights.
As humans created in the image of God, we have a desire to know and to be known. This takes vulnerability. Vulnerability can be frightening. However, it is in our vulnerability that we grow the most. It is also in vulnerability that the 'self' is overshadowed and the One who sustains us becomes more visible to others. Many times it is in our most vulnerable state that we can bare the most powerful witness.

2 Corinthians 12:9 But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me.

Another student discussed how the position of vulnerability should be respected. He also mentioned how we must see it as an honor to be the one who is present with another "when they're on the floor or in the bed."
"When it comes right down to vulnerability is what makes us as followers of Jesus different," replied another. "In other religions, it's all about appeasing an impersonal god. In Christianity, it's about giving yourself over to Him. It doesn't get any more vulnerable than that, it is in this that we have a personal relationship with the Saviour. Jesus even made Himself vulnerable here on earth, He died naked on a cross all for us!"
"When Adam and Eve where in the Garden of Eden the Bible says they were naked and unashamed. But the wanted "knowledge," so they disobeyed God and ate from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Suddenly they realized they were both naked and became ashamed. They hid and sewed together fig leaves to cover themselves. It think that today we have a deep longing to be 'naked and unashamed.' The only way we can do that is through Him."

Adults Say the Darnedest Things...

There is a woman in the secured Alzheimer's unit who is convinced that another male patient is her husband. (Of course this is simply not the case.) At meal times she sits next to him, picks off his plate, and then tries to feed him.
One morning one of the nurses aids was helping the man get out bed and mentioned to him that his "girlfriend" was waiting outside the door. The man leaned over and whispered, "Can you tell me her name? I don't want to offend her!"

Nursing Home Soap Opera

We've survived another week of clinical, but not without some measure of drama. It's comical really... It seems that one of my male students has found a new "girlfriend" in the Alzheimer's unit. A little lady follows him about spouting out comments like "I'll have me a piece of that" and "Isn't he delicious!" This is also the same woman who takes a drink of water and says "There's something wrong with this, it's not spiked." My other male student rescued a dementia patient from out of the bushes where she had lost herself a few hours earlier.
Another one of the student's patients significantly improved after being placed on hospice and taken off of all of his medications. It seems he now talks, walks and eats all of his meals without help. He couldn't do any of these things before he put on hospice care.
One of my young ladies received highest compliments from for the administrator for getting her severely obese patient with anasarca and terrible venous stasis ulcers on her legs into a recliner. This woman had apparently been in her wheelchair almost constantly for several weeks. She even slept in wheelchair refusing to get into bed which of course made it hard to elevate her terribly swollen legs.
It turns out that another students patient had been a medical assistant in a doctor's office. She coached the student through taking her vital signs and testing her blood with great joy and excitement. Ironically it was the sweetest girl you could ever know that was the one who made her patient cry. However, the bout of crying was brought on by a "goodbye" at the end of the day. It's such a privilege to work with the next generation of nurses, the ones who aren't jaded and haven't developed bad habits yet. How refreshing!