With each intense and wonderful day I spend doing chaplaincy at the VA hospital, I refine my chaplain survival kit. Sure, it's a pain to carry my bag everywhere, but its contents save me almost daily.
In addition to the patient census, chaplain service brochures, assorted rosaries, and worship bulletins, these are some of the things I've learned to carry:
-Water. And a mental map with the locations of the hospital's staff bathrooms.
-Protein bars. Fun fact: if you don't let yourself get really hungry, hospital smells aren't as nauseating.
-Little packs of tissues
-Hand sanitizer
-Chocolate, a powerful mood stabilizer
-Ibuprofen, useful against the I'm-too-tired-for-this headaches
-Waterproof makeup and a hairbrush. I might feel like a mess in a whirlwind of intense visits, but there's no excuse for looking like one. :)
-My little black notebook, where I record significant milestones, powerful encounters, and words of encouragement... and the text of psalms and prayers I am prone to forgetting. This includes Psalm 23, unfortunately.
-Sometimes I carry the 1991 Denson Sacred Harp; I'll sing in the chapel if I need to reset between visits. It can be an important survival tool for me. On days when I don't bring The Sacred Harp or another hymnal, I often carry the little lap harp I've had since I was six; it serves a similar purpose.
Then there are the intangible things I try to carry: an open heart; creative curiosity; an ear for improvisation; a voice for prayer and song; the invisible community of colleagues, friends, and patients who have taught me all I know; the willingness to keep learning.
What would you keep in your survival kit? What have you learned to carry, whatever your work happens to be?
