As most of you know, I’m a chaplain, which most people would most certainly consider a vocation.
(Image is of Susie King Taylor, known as the first African American Army nurse.)
What is a vocation? Well, according to dictionary.com a vocation is described as:
“A particular occupation, business, or profession; calling.
A strong impulse or inclination to follow a particular activity or career.
A divine call to God's service or to the Christian life.
A function or station in life to which one is called by God.”
In my mind, vocation is high holy work of any kind that we are naturally drawn to and possess passion about.
Ask any pastor about their vocation. Engaged in such service, for the most part they do not become wealthy. There are a number of things they do that most people don’t sign up for – for instance, pastors are largely on call 24/7 for their congregants when an urgent situation comes up. But the intangible benefits outweigh the tangible, the call to serve in this way is irresistible. As a matter of fact, resistance is futile. Although sometimes their work is acknowledged, it is sometimes thankless. But the pull that draws one to this work cannot be ignored. Typically, they would have it no other way.
As most of you know, I’m also a Registered Nurse, and that was considered a vocation at one time. This calling was acknowledged in ritual in the past. I think some nursing schools still have special graduation ceremonies - pinning, capping, and lamp ceremonies, rituals as it were. But the year I graduated, 1996, my school did away with such things. We graduated with everyone else. Nursing was viewed as a profession at my school, not a vocation.
Yet when I think of the risks we take in everyday care as hospital workers, I wonder how can our work as hospital staff NOT be a calling, the high holy work of a vocation?
Of course, we take every precaution to prevent the transmission of disease, but we walk into this work knowing we might at some point have to get testing after an accidental needle stick for HIV. We get TB testing on a regular basis, because we are exposed more than the average person to TB. We learn in school about nosocomial germs, yet we dive right into our work anyway?
We know all this, we are at risk, yet we calmly carry on with our work every day. Surely that takes some level of spiritual backbone, even if it may not manifest necessarily in an outwardly religious life.
I did a little reading up recently on the founder of modern nursing, Florence Nightingale. Spirituality was where her work sprang from. She grew up in a Unitarian family, and Florence found strength in her belief system. At the age of 16, she experienced one of many “calls from God.” This call was to reduce human suffering. In serving to improve the awful conditions in wartime hospitals she herself became sick during the Crimean war, and for 25 years after that had lingering effects from what was called “Crimean Fever.” Yet she carried on, I think no doubt because of that irresistible and undeniable call to reduce human suffering.
This is an odd idea - that of a vocation. It derives from the Latin vocare, or "to call." A call is something that attracts our attention, so I’m not necessarily saying that those of those in the health care providing profession have all heard the voice of God per say. But there is, I think, an Unseen element that draws us to this work. It is irresistible. Resistance is futile! Although sometimes this work is acknowledged, it is sometimes thankless. But the pull that draws one to this work cannot be ignored.
American writer Jeff Goins has this to say on the topic of vocations, ““If you are going to find work worth doing - a vocation to fulfill and challenge you - you will have to encounter a reality bigger than yourself. It may not be what others say it should be or what you think, but it will come if you are looking for it... At times, the work you're called to do will be hard and confusing, but if you press in, you will see the purpose behind the pain.”
When I studied the topic of epidemiology in nursing school, we were told sooner or later it’s going to happen - some sort of pandemic. It’s inevitable. And quite honestly, when we studied this, is was unsettling to me.
Is the Corona Virus that inevitable disaster that will come our way? We don’t know yet for sure, do we? We do know to stay calm and adjust to changing circumstance as needed.
We must do all we can to prevent the spread of illness, this is what hospital workers do. And we must use all the scientific information at our disposal, what is seen in order to do so.
And to my mind, what might be very useful in this situation is to reclaim our work as a vocation, to also remember the Unseen in our profession as providers…. even if we are not necessarily the religious type.
Not only are we to use all the scientific tools at our disposal…… but use that spiritual backbone I believe we all possess.
In this way we can also alleviate human suffering, as well as our own.
When life seems senseless, we are called upon to provide sense through our work and how we do it.
We need not proselytize to do this, as a matter of fact, I’d advise against that.
We simply only need only to live our vocation as hospital workers of all kinds to the best of our ability, to give the most compassionate care possible.
I thank you for reading, be blessed this day!
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