{"id":13216,"date":"2011-04-11T09:55:49","date_gmt":"2011-04-11T14:55:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/?p=13216"},"modified":"2011-04-11T09:55:49","modified_gmt":"2011-04-11T14:55:49","slug":"hospital-as-a-melting-pot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/2011\/04\/hospital-as-a-melting-pot\/","title":{"rendered":"Hospital as a Melting Pot"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>One of the things I love about working in a hospital is the unavoidability of cultural mingling. Watching the news, feeling that there is a \u201cculture war\u201d just simmering and waiting to boil over is something I frequently experience. Looking at bumper stickers sometimes makes me feel that way too. I find solace in the hospitals that I have had the honor of working in.\u00a0 I do not know of any other institution that forces each one of its staff to wade so far outside his or her comfort zone so frequently, nor of a population of staff that so willing endeavors to do so.<\/p>\n

An atheist surgeon stands with a family in a respectful silence as a prayer is said over a dying patient.<\/p>\n

An evangelical nursing manager diligently works to ensure that nowhere in her hospital, will a same-sex partner be denied access from an ill loved one.<\/p>\n

A black social worker provides support for a man adorned in swastika tattoos<\/p>\n

The same black social worker provides support for man who regales her with his misogynistic opinions<\/p>\n

Management of various political persuasions refocuses conversations from \u201cuniversal health coverage\u201d to \u201cgood of the patient\u201d<\/p>\n

A unit of nurses in a homogeneous white, Christian community hospital spend their off-hours learning how to be more aware of the spiritual and social needs of their Muslim patient.<\/p>\n

An oncologist struggles with not being able to provide chemotherapy to a patient with what he considers very treatable cancer because the patient opts for a homeopathic alternative.<\/p>\n

A trauma surgeon watches her patient expire in part because the patient forbade blood transfusions due to her faith as a Jehovah\u2019s Witness.<\/p>\n

A hospital administrator who is also a nun wrestles with a difficult decision before allowing the hospital to proceed with an abortion to protect the health of a mother, and is later excommunicated.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve witnessed all of the above examples save the last, which made headlines last year. The point isn\u2019t that the choices were right or wrong (though I personally commend them all) but that they are all examples of how the day-to-day world of health care prevents any of its providers from living in a black-and-white world. On a daily basis, health care provider\u2019s beliefs and values are challenged and often, made more nuanced. I\u2019m not the first to recognize this quality of hospital life\u2014heck television did long ago \u2013 I am just glad to be a part of it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the things I love about working in a hospital is the unavoidability of cultural mingling. Watching the news, feeling that there is a \u201cculture war\u201d just simmering and waiting to boil over is something I frequently experience. Looking at bumper stickers sometimes makes me feel that way too. I find solace in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13216","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health-care","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13216","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13216"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13216\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}