A Hippocratic Oath

The other night at a chaplains meeting we were discussing the importance of clear communication when talking to people who had experienced a death of a family member. Specifically it had been the practice of our group to mail out cards on the first anniversary of a family death. There is no need to explain how this practice makes sense, however, it appears that at least one chaplain had frequently mailed out sympathy cards without writing anything in the cards to explain why the recipients were getting them. As you can imagine, this practice has caused a few people some level of distress.
"What does this chaplain know that I don’t?"
"I thought Uncle Joes surgery was a simple out patient procedure."
"I wonder if they mailed this to the wrong Obadiah Maiefski?"

The conversation completely fell apart when my wife shared that she too had received a sympathy card about a week after the one year anniversary of her father’s death. She explained that at first she assumed it was a mistake and then looked through the church directory to see if there was someone with a similar name. When that search didn’t provide any clue, she then checked the post mark date to see if it had been lost in the mail for a year!

The lesson to be shared with everyone is no matter what you do, it should be a goal to Make No New Victims!

What's new with the Flu

So today I watched the live webcast from the Department of Public Health and Human Services. The topic of the moment is still the H1N1 virus and what is currently being done at the federal level. HHS Secretary Sebelius, DHS Secretary Napolitano and Education Secretary Duncan joined the panel to say…….absolutely nothing new at all. As questions poured in from viewers the canned response of “that will be determined on a case by case basis” could have been written on a white board and after every question the camera could have cut away to the whiteboard.
“What recommendations will the Federal Government make on when to close schools?”…..cut to whiteboard.
“Who will have top priority to receive a vaccine?”…..Mr. Whiteboard answers that one too.
“What will be the process used to make the determination to cancel public events?” …and again pan over to the white board.

I can understand that it is a difficult task to predict the severity of a pandemic months in advance, but that being the case why not just come right out and say that Public Health is monitoring the situation and until something new is know our best advice is wash your hands, don’t touch your face, & cough/sneeze into your elbow, not your hand?