Medieval Medicine: Workshop Review

I was so caught up in the beauty of the snow yesterday that I put aside this review until this afternoon. Victoria snow usually doesn’t last long, so I appreciate it’s beauty while being cautious about icy streets and sidewalks. Saturday, before all the snow, I and a friend attended a  full day of learning about Medieval Medicine. I’m not very good at sitting still and haven’t been in full day classes for a very long time.

Facilitated by Hélène Cazes of Medieval Studies and French, this was the 30^th Annual Medieval Workshop, held on the UVic campus, and was well attended. Started in the living room of one of the founders, interest in Medieval issues has grown so that the venue is now in the Bob Wright Centre at the University. The interest has also been such that a core group of attendees have been returning regularly. The workshop will be taking a new form that will be forthcoming.

Galen and Hippocrates, Master Bartholomaeus and The Black Death. The Balsam Tree, no longer found in this world of modernity, was the panacea of the Medieval world. We learned about the beginnings of medicine. In the foyer on Saturday, there was a Library Presentation, a Silent Auction and demonstrations of various medieval tools, including wool carding, weaving and spinning. Jewelry made and crafted after jewelry from Medieval times were on display and for sale. (I did try on several rings, but didn’t buy anything.) After our lunch break and before the afternoon session, we were treated to music by the Banquo Folk Ensemble playing and singing medieval music. They had a varied selection of medieval musical instruments.

Writing this review cannot encompass all that was presented. Was this fun? Not certain I can say that it was. Was it interesting?  Most definitely. Since medieval times, men like Hippocrates and Galen, have grasped onto questions about the nature of healing. Along the way, the identification of diagnosing and differing treatments have brought us into the sphere of modern medicine.

“Wherever the art of medicine is loved, there is also a love of humanity.”

~ Hippocrates

Day Two - Releasing Time to Care

I heard a saying a long time ago: “Principles above personalities”.  In the last two days, that is what I’ve heard at this conference. Not only have I heard this in theory, but watched it in action as we listened, shared interactive learning sessions and had break away times for each team to discuss, debate and plan for creating order on our own units using these principals. It has been very humbling to recognize that, as a group, we are all in the same boat.

Not spiritual principles, but principles that can be shared among disciplines in any health care setting. Principles that run along lines of organization, ‘time waste’ management, and just cleaner organization of the work place that frees up time for improved more frequent patient/client interactions. We are not learning along the structured hierarchical lines of management, union, team leads or front line workers, but as health care professionals wanting to provide quality time to our clients and patients rather than dedicating our time to the electronic world, paperwork, and running about to find things that have been stuffed in the nearest available corner.

The most fascinating part of this conference is that one hundred and fifty men and women from managers, coordinators, frontline nurses and addiction and mental health workers are discussing and working through the principles that have been established by the Releasing Time to Care program. This program has come from the National Health Service of the U.K. It has been taken globally to Saskatchewan, Ontario, British Columbia all the way to Waitemata in New Zealand, as well as Sweden and Holland.

“We all came in on different ships, but we’re all in the same boat now.”

~  Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Show Up, Be Seen, Live Brave" - Brene Brown

Personal growth does not seem to have an end point. This weekend was filled with two days of learning about the emotional traps of vulnerability and of shame. When the potentials of both of these traps are addressed on a personal level, stepping out of certain ineffective and possibly damaging behaviours is possible. This workshop, developed by Brené Brown, LLC and facilitated by Bryn Meadows, Certified Daring Way Facilitator, was illuminating and challenging. Brené Brown’s research into vulnerability expanded after she read the quote ‘it is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and blood...who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high acheivement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly. - Theodore Roosevelt”

As small group, we were able to discuss and disclose in a safe and well run environment. I appreciated and am grateful to all the attendees and especially to Bryn for this very worthwhile weekend of growth. The vitality in the room waxed and waned with emotions supported and softened by caring and laughter. 

For more information access the websites posted:
brenébrown.com
brynmeadows@me.com
thedaringway.com 

I am attaching a re-post from my blog post from June of this year:

Remembering Shame

This inspiration came from a garbage bag and a toothpick.
An innocent looking, but used, toothpick lay on my kitchen counter.  
Not especially dirty, but used and needing disposal.

The garbage bag? 
Innocent white plastic - a clean liner to my kitchen garbage container.

vivid shaming memories of 

everything done wrong, 
been told I’ve done wrong
even been suspected of wrong doing.

Throwing it in the freshly lined kitchen garbage pail, my hope was that it wouldn’t make a hole in bottom so nasty stuff wouldn’t leak out. As I put my fruit and vegetable peels in a separate container, I quickly dismissed that as an unlikely possibility.

vivid shaming memories of
who do you think you are
you can’t do that
don’t bother trying
you shouldn’t have done that

Memories, shaped like toothpicks, do not grow as we grow.
Forgotten parts of the memory are
youth of the child or teen or young parent............
exciting inspiration like fragile balloons
life experience behind the voice of that memory.
(and that voice may have been my own! using those same words on another!)

vivid self doubt
planted deep and nurtured carefully
fed and watered with shame and tears
roots clinging to the soil around spirit
choking out healthy growth.

Once self doubt is planted 
and if memory is to be believed 100%
can there be any turning back?
Or like the weeds in the garden, 
four foot tall thistles with vicious barbs,
or the undergrowth of an untamed field
are we willing to find tools to tackle this long planted self doubt?

“Shame corrodes the very part of us that believes we are capable of change.”

~ Brené Brown, I Thought It Was Just Me: 

Women Reclaiming Power and Courage in a Culture of Shame

Nurturing Life as It Is

In my many years of nursing, I have taken education days for seminars, workshops and in-services about many areas of health care.

Attending these, sometimes willingly, sometimes not (but don’t tell), they have all been pieces of career development and were often tied to only my current employer.

Some were mandatory, some voluntary.

The workshop I attended this past two days will be useful both

in my career life and in my personal life

in situations that I pray never, ever occur.

However,

I do know that there is potential

as long as people are alive

someone  - a stranger, an acquaintance, a loved one or maybe a close friend -

will wish that they were no longer a part of this earthly community 

will have a plan put in place to relieve whatever emotional turmoil exists within them.

This is suicidal ideation, suicidal thinking.

The word ‘suicide’, not favored by many, is a reality.

World Suicide Prevention Day is September 10.

The practice and information received today begins to develop basic skills enabling assistance every day should they be required.

“In everyone’s life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst 

into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all 

be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit.”

~ Albert Schweitzer

Established in Calgary, Alberta 

the ASIST program was developed by LivingWorks Education Inc.

Information about the ASIST program (Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training)

can be found at www.livingworks.net

The ASIST program has centers in 

Calgary, Alberta  

Fayetteville, North Carolina

Nunawading, Victoria, Australia

Auckland, New Zealand

University Hospital of Northern Norway