Internships

The department sponsors internships in the Memphis area with religious, social, and health agencies. For a description see Religious Studies 460.

Hospital Chaplaincy Internship

This is the third decade of the joint Rhodes and Methodist Hospital chaplaincy internship program. This program is designed to assist students in experiential learning about patient care and interpersonal pre-professional relationships. Each year from 1 to 12 students work with 2 or more Methodist Hospital chaplains to learn the basic skills of listening to patients and family members. Students are assigned to a specific clinical area at Health South Rehabilitation Hospital and Methodist North Hospital and visit patients for 3 hours per week. In addition to close chaplain supervision, students gain from peer learning opportunities through small group seminars focused on patient care issues and needs. Interns work alongside Methodist nurses, therapists, and technicians. Where possible, the program is tailored to the individual learning needs of students.

Over 100 Rhodes students have benefited from this unusual learning opportunity. Many former interns now serve as physicians, physical therapists, psychologists, counselors, and clergy persons. As graduate health care institutions increasingly seek students with diverse backgrounds and experiences in the humanities and clinical environments, the internship can be a strong building block for students′ admission to graduate and professional schools and future professional effectiveness.

Interested students may contact the Department of Religious Studies (x3664) or Rev. Craig Jordan at Methodist Hospital North (384-5269).

Students Reflect on the Chaplaincy Internship

Stuart Lamkin (′01): Interning as a chaplain for a semester was one of the biggest learning experiences I had in all my years at Rhodes. I wanted to take an internship my last semester, and the Chaplaincy Internship offered through the Religious Studies department was the only one I considered. Since I planned to go into ministry after college, I knew it would be a good experience for me, and hoped it wouldn′t be too hard. Well, it turned out to be a great experience for me and it was extremely hard. It wasn′t hard because of the work load, but because it was so emotionally challenging. It′s not easy to spend a few hours each week at a hospital talking to hurting people. Sometimes you enjoy it, but sometimes you feel like you just can′t do it anymore. If you want an internship that will challenge you and force you to learn about yourself as you learn how to help others, then this is the one to take. It′ll be a bumpy ride, but you′ll come out stronger in the end.

Jeremy Murdock (′02): What can I say about my experience with the internship? It challenged me. I signed up for it because a friend of mine had taken the class a year before, and it looked interesting. Besides, I wanted to be a doctor, and this would be some good hospital experience. I thought that I would talk to patients and observe the hospital environment, but this is only partly true. I quickly learned that every patient I talked to, every room I entered was a different experience. I listened to some patients who would cry out their frustration with disease, and I listened to others just complain about the food. I listened to patients tell me their difficulties about their hospital stay and family life, and I also listened to patients tell me about their progress and accomplishment. I did not gain a clinical experience; I gained a personal, patient, human experience. This internship will not help me treat a disease, but it will help me treat a patient. I was challenged by the other side of the hospital, the living side. I was challenged to learn disease may be typical, but patients are unique, and each patient has a unique story, experience, and context to his life.

Christine Dietz (′02): Throughout the semester I found myself involved in an experience that was unlike anything else I have ever been involved with here at Rhodes. It was a chance to learn about others as well as myself in a way that the typically classroom experience does not provide for. The internship through the Chaplain′s office at Methodist North was an exploration into health care as well as personal development. Over the course of the semester, i visited with patients in the hospital, learning about their experiences of life, pain, happiness, and even at times religion. Not only did I learn more about the patients I was visiting, but with each experience, I learned something new about myself. This internship showed me that sometimes it is O.K. to not have the answer and that sometimes the only thing that we want to hear is that we don′t always know. Knowing is not what is important, but feeling is essential to understanding. Whether my conversation was spoken or sitting in silence, there was an understanding and acceptance that existed. This class showed me more about myself than I was always ready to see, but it was a good thing. I learned about caring from many different perspectives and now have an application to my experience.