Kate Loving Shenk

Dear Goddess, I recently started doing a body scan, as part of my mindfulness meditation practice.

Here are instructions for doing the Body Scan: Lie on your back with your legs uncrossed, your arms at your sides, palms up or down, and your eyes open or closed, as you wish. Focus on your breathing, how the air moves in and out of your body. After several deep breaths, as you begin to feel comfortable and relaxed, direct your attention to the toes of your left foot. Tune into any sensations in that part of your body while remaining aware of your breathing. It often helps to imagine each breath flowing to the spot where you’re directing your attention. Focus on your left toes for one to two minutes.

Then move your focus to the sole of your left foot and hold it there for a minute or two while continuing to pay attention to your breathing. Follow the same procedure as you move to your left ankle, calf, knees, thigh, hip and so on all around the body. Pay particular attention to any areas that cause pain or are the focus of any medical condition (for Asthma, the lungs; for Diabetes, the pancreas). Pay particular attention to the head: the jaw, chin, lips, tongue, roof of the mouth, nostrils, throat, cheeks, eyelids, eyes, eyebrows, forehead, temples and scalp.

Finally, focus on the very top of your hair, the uppermost part of your body. Then let go of the body altogether, and in your mind, hover above yourself as your breath reaches beyond you and touches the universe.

Through the process of doing the body scan, I realized how out of touch with my body I actually am.

For instance, I tend to ignore pain thus causing me to feel separate from all parts of my body.

Feeling pain instead of running away from it makes us stronger.

The same can be said for emotional pain. The more we ignore it, the more insensitive we become. Not only are we out of touch with ourselves, but also with everyone else we come in contact with.

Changing jobs caused me more emotional and physical pain than I ever was willing to acknowledge.  Yet being smack in the middle of the experience taught me to stop comparing, dwelling in the past, and making assumptions about people’s motives.

The result is radical honest surrounding the whole of what is.

Om Peace Amen

–>

We are attracted to nursing in our inner most being because we have the
gift of healing.

So why do most of us deny our innate healing abilities?

The answer to this lies in exploring the belief system we were taught as
children:

< the “I’m not good enough” syndrome
< comparing yourself with other people in your life
< not owning your personal power
< fear of exploring new ideas, new lifestyles
< allowing judgment of another to supersede compassion for
that person’s situation

In order to fully allow healing abilities to flourish, we need to:

< live in the present moment–one way to do this is by learning
to breathe diaphrammatically from breath to breath
< don’t get overwhelmed by the busyness of your life
< appreciate everything that is happening NOW, no matter if it seems “bad”
or if you’ve labeled it a mistake
< that mistakes are a perception, not a reality
< believing in mistakes is a self-imposed prison
< by viewing mistakes as a stepping stone to enlightenment, you nurture
your healing abilities and patients want you to be their nurse

Kate is preparing to publish her Prayer Prescription Series, starting with Prayer Prescriptions For Nurse Healers.

Stay Tuned.

–>

Dear Goddess, Today’s heat allows us to slow down and hang out with Pearl in the air conditioning. She knows the word and loves nothing more than to stretch out in front of the cold air.

Pearlie misses me when I am away orienting at Paoli Hospital. In fact, my schedule interferes with her love of sleeping late in the mornings. All of this change requires great stamina from each of us.

Stamina. Fearless Stamina. That is my Prayer Prescription today.

Stay cool and drink plenty of water. You are loved.

Om Peace Amen

–>

A young woman who  purchased my e-book for nurses at Click Bank several years ago, wrote to me, describing the culture of hostility  where she works.

Synchronically, at the time, I was told about and bought the book by Kathleen Bartholomew, RN, MN, called Ending Nurse-To-Nurse Hostility: Why Nurses Eat Their Young And Each Other. I considered myself blessed because I worked  in a supportive environment with my colleagues. As time went on, our problems in the workplace stemmed from a lack of respect for nurses and what we contribute to health care in America.

The problems described in Kathleen’s book, and by my new friend, outline patterns of behavior that  nurses have developed in recent years due to the ideocyncracies of the profession that point to the subjection of women and nurses by proxy. As much as I don’t want to look, I  see all of this where I used to work, as well.

For instance, the following observations and statistics were eye opening: The United States Justice Department reported 429,100 violent  crimes against nurses on duty from 1993-1999. ( No more recent statistics are available). Given that nurses are an oppressed group, as characterized by in-fighting, back-biting, and the inability to honestly communicate with one another; and that nurses are a subordinate group, as characterized by the fact that Doctors and administrators devalue the caring aspect of nursing responsibilities, this devaluing directly results in burnout, and what is called horizontal hostility, or aggression between nurses.

Nurses are the foundation of the health-care industry. We are losing nurses without replacing them because of this culture of hostility, overwork and alienation, not to mention the corporate take over of medicine.

What are the solutions to this dilemma?

Kate is preparing for the publication of her book:  Prayer Prescriptions For Nurse Healers. This book is a memoir of Kate’s career as a Nurse.

–>

Twenty-eight years ago, as I prepared for my nursing career,
I wrote about what I wanted to do and be in order to
become the health care provider of my highest ideal.
And reading it now, I agree that my ideals in that regard
have not changed at all.

First of all, I knew I had to be true to myself in my work
as well as all areas of my life. I carefully thought
about the science of medicine which fell into the category
of rational thinking, ideas proven with good
research, as well as the things that are experienced
with all five senses.

The science of medicine deals with proven facts and dislikes surprises.

The art of medicine falls into the creative medium
through which all things are possible, in this
existence–and beyond.

Taken from: Prayer Prescriptions For Nurse Healers

–>

Here is where we can get the real skinny on the Affordable Care Act. The whole thing is right here:

http://www.healthcare.gov/law/full/

Don’t let anyone tell you what is in the bill. Read it yourself.

Admittedly, I haven’t had the time to sit down and read it, but the PDF is something we should all read.

You would think the health insurance companies would be easier to work with, since the ACA panders 100% to the Health Insurance Companies. However, I am continuing to hear stories of more expensive premiums and denial of claims.

I hear tell that the possibility exists within the ACA  of the enactment of Single Payer state by state.

I will read the bill and let you know.

–>

 Judging from everything I’ve been reading, there is a tremendous amount of propaganda floating around about the Affordable Care Act, (ACA). Calling ACA “Obama Care” is the first inkling that some falsehood is going to be spewed forth.

I know President Obama is spying on American Citizens like no other President  gone before,  but the rumor that unbeknownst to American Citizens, a microchip delivering vaccinations to every man, woman and child will surreptitiously be applied under the skin- is an absurdity. 

The fact that no one seems to understand the bill or have any idea how or if the bill will help our health care system, shows the amazing lack of communication that exists in our government. Who can you trust to tell you what the bill actually says? We have to read the bill ourselves to be sure.

The fact that healthcare is a political chess game amongst lawyers, politicians and wall street should get us all involved in getting to the root of what the ACA represents.

Right now it feels like a crap shoot. Too many ifs– if this happens, then maybe that will happen– or not. 

Allowing the powers that be define matters pertaining to our health is the biggest problem. 

So much of health care is driven by the fear of death. 

Let us resuscitate new life into our collective destiny.

–>

I was thinking about reading the Affordable Care Act and setting everyone straight as to what it is all about. I would like to do an  in-service about it at my new job. Unfortunately, this would have been impossible at my old job. The powers that be would have wanted to write the script.

Besides, I probably would have been fired.

There is so much anxiety about what the Affordable Care Act will mean for hospitals and their reimbursement. The dumbing down of America has made it very difficult to teach our patients how to take medicines with deadly  side effects if not taken properly. Naturally, I think it best that we teach our patients how to love and care for themselves, and vastly reduce the amount of drugs they are prescribed.

As our population gets sicker, and we prescribe more complicated health regimens, our patients are not grasping what it is they need to do.

More and more people are reading on a 6th grade level, if they are lucky.

When patients fail to comprehend the care plan for their health, they may keep getting readmitted into the hospital, and hospitals will not get reimbursed. New rules in healthcare see re-admissions as a failure in our ability to teach our patients.

In order for hospitals to creatively stay afloat, they must go back to basics.

Much of what  going back to basics requires is some good old fashioned common sense, which people respond to with enthusiasm.

Especially when it comes to their health.

How can we help our patients help them selves, for all the right reasons? Not for politics or money?

–>

Dear Goddess, A nursing colleague and I are orienting together at Main Line Health and our first day was great fun.

We were even served a gourmet lunch, picture here today!

We told  a few war stories from our previous staff nurse experience, and I was happy to hear her say that usually she is very anxious and nervous about change. But from the moment she applied to this new position to now, she feels calm and self- assured about her decision.

This is a great mile stone for her! She is well on the road to knowing who she is in this life time – and beyond.

I told her that I found a picture of the hospital and beamed my energy into it, and silently said, “I AM a three out of four nightshift weekend nurse at Paoli Hospital, with the greatest health insurance in the world!”

The I AM part of that statement is the most important– that, and I AM Love.

I took the two out of four weekend position without benefits. Then I started my visualization exercises and several weeks later, had exactly what I wanted.

I will put the same kind of visualization energy into publishing my Prayer Prescription books.

I believe.

On Peace Amen

–>

Dear Goddess, We had a wonderful farewell party at the job I just left.  It was a very busy night, but I managed to have quite the social event with several people who came to see me. Want to know the one  thing that  drove me crazy about my job? At least 10 times a night I would hear people say, “If I do this or if I do that, I will lose my job. I will get fired.”

Why on earth was everybody always worried about losing their job? People were constantly getting written up, reprimanded, and rarely if ever, was anybody ever given a compliment, a word of praise or a show of love. This attitude created an aura of fear, not to mention a hostile work environment.

So all the empowerment had to come from our fellow nurses with whom we worked. Certainly a little self-love goes a long way, as well.

On my way out of the hospital today, I saw a woman looking at a sign that said, “Attitude is everything.”

I said to the woman, “I believe that Gratitude is Everything.  That is what the sign should say.”

The woman said, “That is a great idea. Maybe I will suggest that to the woman who has the sign outside of her office.”

Then she said, “Oh no I can’t do that! I’ll  get fired.”

That seemed to be a fitting end to that particular  hospital experience.

I believe it was a cosmic joke.

What do you think?

Om Peace Amen

–>