careers in medical field

[NancyJ]

Good Morning! And thanks for letting me ask yet another question. :)

I read an article awhile ago, and it listed many of the occupations/careers of CS. It didn't include careers in the medical field, and I can understand that. (in the typical hospital not a CS facility).

My question is, if someone follows CS, can they reconcile their beliefs with the daily activities in a hospital/medical facility?

Much of the day revolves around giving medication, doing treatments, etc....If that is someone's career, and income, is it possible to be at peace?
Or is nursing/the medical field in general a career impossibility? (I'm not referring to CS nursing.)

IMO, you could be at work, and while doing your job pray for the patient to experience God's Love. But, it also seems like you would have a foot in two worlds, the material and the spiritual. And it would be a heavy dose of the material senses due to large medication loads, careplans based on the material, etc.

Thank you for allowing me to ask.
Nancy

[LindaK]

Dear Nancy,

It's a fabulous question, and the simple answer is that God is going to be guiding you every moment to an answer that is right for you, that supports your spiritual progress and enables you to be a light in the world.

I have known of RN's who LOVED reading and studying Science and Health--who prayed right there in hospital and saw healing that medicine couldn't explain. Our thoughts really make a difference! I met a man in Central Africa whose life was saved when a nurse in the hospital gave him a copy of Science and Health. Today he is a Christian Science practitioner.

Whether someone can "reconcile their beliefs with the daily activities in a hospital/medical facility" is a question you're going to have to answer for yourself. I think the main thing is to keep growing spiritually, and keep asking God where and how you can do the most good. I love where Mary Baker Eddy says that God "has mercy upon us, and guides every event of our careers." If you are at some point led to practice a different type of healing art, the transition will feel so natural and right.

And thank you for bringing the light of the Christ to a place that really needs it.

Linda

[adyer]

Christian Science treatment begins with the supremacy of Spirit over the suggestion that existence could be material, or that material so-called conditions could be either cause or effect. Medical begins by accepting that matter is real and has life in it...that there is a material cause which the individual experiences as sickness and that there is a material cause to cure it. Genuine CS treatment and medical practice would then be in direct opposition to each other.

[imjim]

My question is, if someone follows CS, can they reconcile their beliefs with the daily activities in a hospital/medical facility?

IMO, you could be at work, and while doing your job pray for the patient to experience God's Love. But, it also seems like you would have a foot in two worlds, the material and the spiritual. And it would be a heavy dose of the material senses due to large medication loads, careplans based on the material, etc.

S&H 198 23-28 A patient's belief is more or less moulded and formed by his doctor's belief in the case, even though the doctor says nothing to support his theory. His thoughts and his patient's commingle, and the stronger thoughts rule the weaker. Hence the importance that doctors be Christian Scientists.

[E100]

You may be interested in a testimony on this site by a hospital supervisor: "Herniated disk healed" (http://www.christianscience.com/blogs/healing-stories/herniated-disk-healed/)

[shelly]

Each one of us is putting the ideas of Christian Science into practice in a way that serves the individual and elevates world thinking.

I have a very good friend who married a Christian Scientist. He is a doctor and began reading Science and Health. He was so taken with this book that he has recommended it to patients and uses the ideas to help quiet fear that may come up in his patents. Although I don't know of any Christian Scientists who have become doctors, there are many doctors reading Science and Health and using the ideas to the best of their ability.

"The doctor's mind reaches that of his patient. The doctor should suppress his fear of disease, else his belief in its reality and fatality will harm his patients even more than his calomel and morphine, for the higher stratum of mortal mind has in belief more power to harm man than the substratum, matter. "

[shelly]

Here's a wonderful article about understanding God as our physician.


http://www.spirituality.com/tte/article_display.jhtml?ElementId=/repositories/shcomarticle/Dec2007/1196710339.xml&ElementName=God,%20the%20great%20physician

[NancyJ]

Thank you for your replies, and the links. They are great.

Nancy

[goodwinh]

Take a look at the value people place on health care!

http://www.nchc.org/facts/cost.shtml

You would have to say that everyone places a lot of value on "Healthcare".

The word "Care" is interesting here and personal health care providers have a lot of compassion for those with "health problems". Finding the spiritual qualities and power associated with honest caring is being discovered as medical professionals explore qualities like "forgivness" (http://preventdisease.com/home/weeklywellness203.shtml) . Finding "the source" of honest caring will perhaps do more than we know. The best Christian Science healers are those who understand Love the most.

Science and Health has a chapter called Science, Theology and Medicine and describes these as modes of thought.

As we progress, our collective thoughts about science and medicine will improve more and more rapidly. Over the last 150 years, this rapidity is easier to see in "science" than perhaps theology or medicine. Obviouisly Christian Science is having an impact on the medical professions as seen by some of the posts in this forum. Perhaps understanding and applying the synonymous relation between Principle and Love, framed in a scientific divine context, as described throughout Science and Health, is what will unify and expand these modes of thought.

In the competitive Health Care Industry there is a trend to "empower" the individual with such things as Personal Health Records (PHR). This is similar to how individuals have been more empowered to manage their own financial affairs with online banking, investing, retirement. Even in the world of business, employees are "taking charge" of their own lives and not being subordinated as much as during the industrial revolution. Perhaps there are other examples that could be given of individuals gaining freedom - the ultimate of which is trending toward freedom from limited matter and a limited material sense of things - or in positive words - discovering more and more of the power of infinite Spirit and spiritual sense that actually underlies reality.

We can help do this no matter what our current career is.

[medic9]

I love Christian Science. But I have found it difficult to be in both the medical field and CS. Sometimes I feel as if I am cheating both. But I am a 40 y.o single parent of 3 children and feel as if this career has provided us much needed financial stability after their father left us 3 yrs. ago. But I do wonder sometimes if our lives are lessened in ways I'm not even aware of. I wish I could get some reconsiliation in my life on this issue. By the way, I am a paramedic. Thank You for reading and your insights would be appreciated.

[adyer]

I love Christian Science. But I have found it difficult to be in both the medical field and CS. Sometimes I feel as if I am cheating both. But I am a 40 y.o single parent of 3 children and feel as if this career has provided us much needed financial stability after their father left us 3 yrs. ago. But I do wonder sometimes if our lives are lessened in ways I'm not even aware of. I wish I could get some reconsiliation in my life on this issue. By the way, I am a paramedic. Thank You for reading and your insights would be appreciated.

I understand where you're coming from. I've been thinking for the past few days about this from the lesson:
Life, Truth, and Love are the realities of divine Science. They dawn in faith and glow full-orbed in spiritual understanding.
In my own experience I have come to the realization that something I was doing needed to change. Or sometimes my thought is drawn to a way of viewing something that I don't understand. It seems crude and undeveloped but eventually over the years I have seen that thought unfold and prove that what I initially saw was correct. It was divine inspiration, God's thoughts to man.

I guess what I'm saying to you is that what you're feeling about your "dual career" is the dawning in faith of an idea and that as you grow spiritually the sun will rise higher in thought about it. You'll see what your next step is and ultimately you will demonstrate your present freedom. The sun at its apex glows full-orbed, and that noon of spiritual understanding is the life-work for each of us.

[imjim]

I have found it difficult to be in both the medical field and CS. Sometimes I feel as if I am cheating both. I wish I could get some reconsiliation in my life on this issue. By the way, I am a paramedic.

As I recall, there’s a writing in “A Century of Christian Science Healing” with similarities to your experience. I don’t remember where it is - I guess that means you’ll have to read it all yourself. ;) But. . .

The lady was in the Armed Services during the war as a nurse in a hospital ward. Not having much choice as to what she was assigned - she did what she could metaphysically. She worked nights and around midnight, she would quietly sit in the middle of the dorm and pray to realize a sense of peace. She records quicker recoveries, changed attitudes from unruly patients, and doctors remarking how peaceful her ward always was.

Keep working on your understanding of CS and let God lead the way.

Jim

[NancyJ]

I have a question for Medic9, if I may ask....do your fellow employees know you are CS?
Thanks for bringing your post to the board. :)

[medic9]

I haven't been very open about my beliefs at my job. I feel I would be a bad example...not to mention a hypocrite. Not only that, the closest Christian Science church/bookstore is about 80mi. from here. Most people around here have no idea the difference between Christian Science and scientology. Seriously. And there are a lot of bad feelings about scientology. Unfortunately my co-workers would probably describe me as "cold" because I keep pretty aloof. They are very nice, friendly people though. I probably answered more than you wanted to know...

[NancyJ]

I really appreciate your honesty, and I understand where you are coming from.
If I started telling staff my interest in CS, I'm doubtful they would understand, and might even be suspicious. Until I started reading about CS, I thought about it the same way they probably do.

But, I also am hopeful that God knows exactly the situation, and will lead the way, wherever that might be. I like the medical field, plus it pays well, but I also anticipate there might be something else in store if I continue on this path of CS. If and when it happens, I think it'll seem natural to do so.

I heard a good chat online the other day about how it's a process, a lifelong one, and that we are all at different places in our lives on the continuum.

For example, some CS may still feel the need for medicine, some wouldn't use any type of medicine....and I apply that to our situation with our careers, we may be at the point where we have to mix the two for awhile. As we continue on, other doors may open for us where there isn't such conflict.

I'm glad you answered, thanks, there is strength in sharing.

Nancy

[shelly]

I have to believe that the leven of Christian Science is needed everywhere. That there is not a single corner, field, subject of study, that it's ideas shouldn't be introduced.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if every doctor read and understood Science and Health! Wow! You are not a hypocrite! Mary Baker Eddy was a homeopath before discovering Christian Science. Step by step

[lindyhop]

Medic9, The qualities that you undoubtedly express and skills you have probably developed in your paramedic career, such as quick thinking, calm in the face of crisis, caring for others and ability to empathize, fast and efficient organizational skills and ability to set priorities, and do triage when needed, etc. etc.) can translate into other careers as well. For example, have you considered working for FEMA (Federal Emergency Manangement Agency) in some operational or field-based capacity?

[goodwinh]

There are a huge number of differing opportunities in the Health Care industry that are less focused on the aspect of material medicine - Health insurance companies for example. Within these are many different jobs that are not directly involved with the application of material medicine - general accounting, benefits, Information technology (IT), employer and group relations.... etc. This might be a path for you. As a CS for years I have worked with/in businesses and insurance company IT departments providing a range of services that have nothing directly to do with material medicine. I find it helpful to focus on those spiritual qualities in these companies asking myself questions like: What is meant by health, wellness and well being? What is my highest concept and expression of heart? What is my highest concept of "health benefits" motives and how are these expressed or improved? What is a spiritual health economy? These questions always lead me back to the Christ ideal of what I learn of God and Man as explained in the Bible and Science and Health. I keep a spiral notebook where I can jot down or transcribe inspriations I sometimes record on my IPOD after having listened to the Bible Lesson Audio while commuting to/from work.

[pattyp]

Whoa, Medic9! No need for a guilt trip here. Already quoted in this thread is the point Science and Health makes that “His [the doctor’s] thoughts and his patient’s commingle, and the stronger thoughts rule the weaker. Hence the importance that doctors be Christian Scientists.”

Science and Health can do a lot to ensure success among those who practice medicine. How? By showing them how to handle their patients’ fear, for one thing. Fear being the “fountain of disease,” disease would naturally begin to diminish on a large scale (instead of increasing) as more and more doctors knew how to lessen their patients’ fear instead of unwittingly increasing it. Science and Health is loaded with helpful instruction on how to do this successfully, and not by “whistling in the dark”.

As MDs and other medical workers grow to understand and practice Christian Science, -- i.e., pray earnestly about their work, seek God’s guidance, pray to see their patients as God’s children, etc. – they will naturally find less need for drugs in their treatment.

When Mary Baker Eddy says, “Dear reader”, as she so often does in Science and Health, she is speaking to doctors, nurses, therapists, medics, etc. as surely as she is speaking to anyone else. This means that the author understands the challenges you face, and deeply desires to help you meet them “in the way of God’s appointing.”

Be patient with yourself as you work through these things. Practice what you understand. Pray silently as you go about your work. It will do wonders for your patients and your practice.

Christian Science gives you the ability to turn things around even when it seems impossible. You will learn not to accept DOA as a final. When all else fails, you will still have something to fall back on, and that “something”, however simple, may be sufficient to save your patients as you so yearn to do.

In the 1990s, the Harvard Medical School began a series of CE conference courses on “Spirituality and Healing in Medicine”. I attended several of these because, as a Christian Scientist, I wanted to be supportive of the medical professionals’ desire to understand and practice spirituality.

There is such a “reaching out” for understanding in this regard and Harvard’s ongoing courses may have largely accounted for the fact that several medical schools now include courses on spirituality (not religion) in the curriculum, whereas such courses had never been offered before the 1990s.

In the conferences I attended, there was always a segment on Christian Science healing practices which were presented by a Christian Science professional. Conference “bookstores” included large stacks of Science and Health that were eagerly bought our by participants after each CS segment.

I recall overhearing an MD who was carrying a copy of S&H tell a fellow doctor, “My son has asthma, and I thought maybe this would help him.” A surgeon in his early 50s told me he had recently retired after a life-changing experience he’d had a few months before.

He also told me of an experience early in his practice where his medical team had struggled to help a patient with a bleeding ulcer. Over one weekend they had done two surgeries, only to have the condition worsen. His team was reluctantly considering a third surgery, despite their fear that the patient couldn’t survive more blood transfusions when the patient’s wife asked if her neighbor – a Christian Science practitioner – could visit the patient.

The surgeon was there when the practitioner came in and sat down by the patient. In 10 minutes the tubes were clear – no more blood loss. An hour or so later the surgeon came into the patient’s room and found him dressing. “I’m well, and I’m going home,” he explained.

The surgeon told me his team was too embarrassed to ask the practitioner what she had done. It had seemed so simple compared to their own efforts. Having a full schedule of surgeries, he went right back to work and, as he put it, “apparently blocked out that experience” until he recalled it during our visit.

Attendees at these conferences include hospital chaplains, therapists and alternative health care specialists as well as MDs, nurses, dentists – plus a few CS practitioners and teachers. Typically there would be 700 or more in attendance, and the Q&A segments following each session were eye-openers for me. They helped me realize just how deeply some in the medical field are hungering to understand spirituality and bring it to bear on their practice.

From time to time, the CS magazines have included interviews with MDs, surgeons, nurses and others who have made a transition from medical practice to Christian Science professionals. But this is not always practical or possible for those who must depend on this work for their livelihood.

So, it’s important for those now working in the medical field to realize there is much they can do as practicing Christian Scientists right where they are. Being “on the ground” so to speak, supplied with God-given wisdom and opportunity, they can care more successfully for the millions of people who rely on their services.

This will result in less guesswork and greater understanding. There will be fewer medical mistakes and failures, less resort to instrusive procedures and drugs, fewer malpractice claims, a lower suicide rate among medical professionals. And, perhaps most important, greater patient satisfaction.

If it is possible that “doctors be Christian Scientists”, as Mary Baker Eddy implies in Science and Health, they should not overlook the opportunity to add Primary Class instruction to their spiritual "arsenal". That, together with annual class association meetings can provide ongoing support in their spiritual development.

Also, not to be overlooked, would be participation as a member of a branch Church of Christ, Scientist. These churches will surely realize the value of embracing those “dear readers" of Science and Health from the medical community as fellow members and thus help to support their progress in demonstration.

Why should those who practice Christian Science in the medical field be expected to “remain outside the camp” when we could all be “emerg[ing] gently from matter to Spirit” by helping one another?

[goodwinh]

Interesting PattyP ...

I wonder if you know of Doctors (MDs) who are currently in the Medical professsion and are Branch Church or Mother Church members?

[LindaK]

One thing I've seen is that God does not leave us to choose between two incomplete or inadequate alternatives. It often looks like that's what life deals us, but it's not what Life offers us. There is a right answer, a complete answer. Sometimes in my prayers I find I need to claim, vigorously, for myself that because I am spiritual and because God is my Mind, I CAN hear His direction and I can know with certainty what I am to do. If I know it's really from God, I trust that He's giving me what I need to follow. I love where Mrs. Eddy says "Be sure that God directs your way; then, hasten to follow under every circumstance." (Misc. 117:31) God loves our families. We never have to choose between following God and doing the right thing for our families. Buit I try never to assume I know what that right thing is until I really hear it from God. There's a peace that comes when we silence our opinions and turn thought to what God is knowing and doing. That peace is unmistakable. You'll know it when you feel it.

[pattyp]

Your question might best be discussed privately, Goodwinh, to ensure we don't distract from the major issues on this thread. Just send me a private message, and we'll have a go.

[mnc6]

that was probably best pattyp. the thread has been very thoughtful and interesting and the compassion heartwarming

btw - I know an RN who works in a medical hospital who is a member of a branch church and TMC and have known others in the past.