Today was a tough day at the hospital. I found it very hard to engage and to make the first steps to getting to be with people. Fridays are generally tough days as I don't have a specific bunch of things to do. I'm pretty good on days when I'm holding a trauma pager or even the house pager because then I get "called" to come and do something.
But Fridays I'm generally on my own and what I'm supposed to do is just go up to my floor and knock on doors. As an introvert that's just about the most difficult thing for me to do in my life.
I'm working on strategy to make sure this doesn't happen again next Friday. Here's a few things I'm going to try. If anyone has any other advice I'd love to hear it. If any of you have done a chaplaincy I could use some encouragement too.
1. Be prepared by praying and mentally engaging before going to the hospital.
2. When arriving at the hospital after I print out my floor sheets head straight up and knock on the first door on my list. This will force me to get involved right away without going and talking to Doctors or nurses first.
3. Pick one wing of my floor and just work my way down knocking on doors and talking to every patient. If I don't give myself any options I'll probably be better off.
4. Give myself some grace to take breaks throughout the shift and re energize.
