AMEN 2014: Joined Together

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Adventist Medical Evangelism Network (AMEN)

Plenary

Allen Lloyd

Healing Patients for Eternity

Healing Patients for Eternity is the title for tonight, and we've just heard a story that goes along with that that just happened recently.

Also, the subtitle of our conference, the AMEN conference, is Joined Together.

And I noticed this afternoon when I was in a meeting, I was just going through the brochure that many of you have and happened to look at my biography.

And I realized that my bio is old and no longer accurate.

I'm sure Becca probably sent it to me and asked me to review it, but it just didn't get reviewed.

But on there, I did, several years ago, this was probably when I was joining Weimar, when that bio was written, We talked about the souls that had been won as a result of our practice, and of course, that had been souls that had really been solely the result of the practice.

Now as a result of the blended ministry, working with a pastor who loves the blended ministry, we've had many more baptisms.

In fact, it's beyond the ability to, I mean, I should say we probably could count it out if we took the time, but it would be far more that's mentioned in the bio.

And that just gives us an example that when we do team up, a physician and a pastor team up in blended ministry, the results can be exponential over working alone.

A little bit before we begin, as it was mentioned, we are at Weimar Institute and our motto is to heal a hurting world physically, mentally, emotionally, socially, and spiritually.

And we are in a world that is hurting in all of those ways.

And there is more need for the healing ministry of Christ than there ever has been before.

We've had some exciting things happen just within the last month at Weimar Institute.

The State Board of California approved an RN program at Weimar, realizing it was the first alternative medicine nursing program in the state.

And I believe, they think it might also be in the country.

I haven't looked it up to see if there is, and it quotes, an alternative medicine nursing program in the country.

But we submitted our data, I mean, what we were going to be teaching them on the spiritual side, the evangelistic side, as well as the natural remedy side.

And of course, they'll still learn how to put in IVs and NG tubes and Foley's and all of the nursing skills plus and be able to sit for the nursing board.

But the nursing board themselves were excited about Weimar branching out in this new area of training in regards to an RN program.

So if you know of anyone who would like to do this, in fact, 1 of the things we're emphasizing with the blended ministry is we'd like our RNs to also get a bachelor's in theology and have the blended ministry there together.

And so if you know of individuals who might want to take advantage of that, certainly send them the Weimar way.

We also, to our knowledge, are the first self-supporting college to have passed the eligibility phase for regional accreditation.

We just got word of that a couple of weeks ago.

And this is something that we're taking on with CARE.

This is something that will allow us to offer advanced degrees as well and not just a bachelor's type of degrees.

But it's also a step that we wanted to take so thoughtfully that we would never be dependent on this for our existence.

I know some schools, as soon as they lose their regional accreditation, they're out of business, so to speak, and they're gone within a few days or a few weeks.

And whether we lose it or not, I can tell you this.

It is our commitment to never lose it on the basis of lack of our core of 4.

Our core of 4 is academic excellence, and of course we have teachers and students that represent that, as well as health of body, mind, and soul.

We want the student to be healthier when they leave Weimar than when they came to Weimar, both physically, mentally, and all those 5 areas that we've mentioned.

And then it's an evangelistic education where they are actually winning souls as part of their training, and then practical work experience as well, particularly working with the hands.

And so if we do lose it, it'll probably be on the basis of some moral ground that maybe the regional accreditation body doesn't necessarily agree with.

But so far we have not found any ways in which, in fact, the fact that we passed being very open in regards to our standards tells us at this point there isn't any moral discord with the regional accrediting body in regards to Weimar.

And so this is an exciting step and 1 that can advance us further.

I know we're speaking to an Adventist medical evangelism audience.

In fact, I had to tell the audio verse person tonight.

A lot of what I've stated has been sometimes shown on the internet to select groups and then groups that are planning on inviting me to speak to the government or other places.

They don't understand I'm not speaking to them, I'm speaking to maybe a group like this and so they misunderstand some things.

So I had to have a conversation with Audioverse about that before this meeting.

But I do know the audience that I'm speaking to.

It is the Adventist Medical Evangelism Network.

And as a result, I think that many of you have heard, as I have, and I think I would agree with this, that the evidence at the end is here is pretty overwhelming.

There's really only 1 Protestant church left.

A Protestant church is 1 that protests and most of the other Protestant churches are saying the protest is over.

But also 1 of the hallmarks of a Protestant church is the Bible and the Bible only is the rule of faith and doctrine, not tradition and the Bible.

And this is a church, a movement that is based solely on the Word of God.

And there is a lot of worshiping going on, as was mentioned in Revelation 13.

But as we're sitting here tonight, and as I'm standing here, I think we can also state that the right arm of God's church is still withered to at least a large extent.

Well, let's take a look at what prophecy tells us the right arm will be like before Christ comes.

Before I get to that statement, why a healing message for these last days?

Some have decided that this is not really part of our message but as some sort of optional add-on.

The healing message is something like, well in fact, I'll just tell you a few years ago, I was attending my home church on a Friday night that I grew up in, in Troy, Michigan.

And I had to speak in Flint the next day.

And so I came unannounced to my home church and slipped in while there was an evangelistic series going on.

And it happened to be the preacher was a very good preacher and was speaking about the health message.

And when I got out of the church, the head elder came up to me and said, it's too bad that we preach this in evangelistic meetings.

This turns more people off from joining our church than any single message that we have.

We should drop this from our evangelistic series.

In his mind, the health message might have some good.

It's an optional add-on, but it's certainly not really part of evangelism.

But I think it's very clear the healing ministry of Christ will not be bypassed before his coming.

If you remember, Christ did 3 things when he was here on this earth.

He taught, He preached, and what else did he do?

It will still be teaching, healing, and proclaiming.

We shall see the medical missionary work broadening and deepening at every point of its progress because of the inflowing of hundreds and thousands of streams until the whole earth is covered as the waters cover the sea.

The medical missionary work is going to cover this globe.

And that's why, even though we are living in the last days, Christ is not coming tomorrow.

He is waiting for this blended ministry to explode upon the earth, city by city, country by country.

Medical missionary work, no matter what specialty, it involves some aspect of lifestyle change.

And if you're in a specialty where you do not think it involves any aspect of lifestyle change I would encourage you to speak to me after the meeting and I'll help you to see that even your specialty actually can be involved in some aspect of lifestyle change, either on the part of the patient, which is going to be most specialties, or maybe the part of the physician in some specialties.

And this is a change that can be agreed upon by both the physician, dentist, and patient that would be in the best interest of the patient.

So it's not like the doctor is saying, you need to do this, patient, and the patient is saying, no, I don't need to do this.

As a result of the educational session, and by the way, that's what physician means, as a teacher, As a result of the educational session that you've just had with your patient, The patient is convinced.

He doesn't need to go home and look it up and read more studies.

He's convinced that you are right and that he does need to make a change.

But the problem with that change is it often goes against human nature.

And I'll tell you, this is something I had to learn a little bit more about.

I had the advantage of growing up in a Seventh-day Adventist home by godly parents.

I had the advantage of growing up in a home when my father, for instance, who was not in the best health, became educated on health.

He made sudden, significant changes in his life with the Lord's help.

In fact, that's how I got interested in health and healing, when I saw my own father's health significantly improve.

So I went through medical school, I went through residency, was practicing as a physician, and I came across this conference, being interested in lifestyle medicine that I just had to go to.

My son was only a few weeks old, my oldest son.

Eric Nelson

Rachel Nelson

The 6th Competency: Systems-Based (Spiritual) Practice

Well, Rachel and I are very privileged to be sharing this time with you this morning.

As you can see from the screen, the title of our presentation is The Sixth Competency.

And most of you are, I'm sure, familiar with the ACGME and their 6 competencies, things such as professionalism, patient care, medical knowledge, and the sixth 1 is systems-based practice.

The Bible says in Luke 16 verse 8, the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light.

And you remember that comes from the parable that Jesus told about the unjust steward.

And the point he was making is that worldly people spend more time, more energy, more thought on worldly matters, temporary things, than Christians do on eternal matters.

And it might be true that that's true even for medical missionary work.

And we don't want the ACGME to be smarter than we are about things that really matter.

And so what we're going to talk about today is systems-based spiritual practice and try to learn some lessons that hopefully will be helpful to each 1 of us in our individual lives and our individual practice situations in spiritual care.

Why don't we bow our heads for prayer once more before we begin?

Dear God, I ask that your Holy Spirit will be present here and that we will learn lessons, perhaps even lessons from the ACGME, about how we can more effectively win souls for you, be an influence for heaven in the lives of each 1 of our patients.

There's gotta be someone here who knows the name of this painting.

Famous painting by Thomas Eakins in the 1875.

He painted this picture of a 70-year-old professor of surgery at Jefferson Medical College.

This painting is called the Gross Clinic.

Some of you, and Gross Clinic for more than 1 reason, that is Dr.

He was probably the most influential surgeon of his generation.

He was 20th president of the American Medical Association.

He was the father and 1 of the founders of the American Surgical Association.

About 45% of the patients that he operated on died.

Now if 45% of the patients I operated on died, that'd be a pretty big problem.

Can anybody see a systems-based problem from the picture?

That's probably the same coat that he wore in Off the Street.

He was well aware of the work of Joseph Lister, who had been preaching in Europe for over 20 years by the time this painting was commissioned, about Listerism, using carbolic acid to sterilize instruments, wash your hands, wash the area of the incision.

In fact, he wrote in the Journal of the American Medical Association that no 1 on this side of the Atlantic takes listerism very seriously.

And lest you think that systems-based problems were limited to the 1870s, Rachel is going to give you 2 specific examples that she is familiar with that have happened very recently.

So a child presented to the Pediatric Emergency Department with, he was in shock.

He had a known adrenocorticotropic hormone deficiency.

The pediatric hospitalist was immediately contacted, admitted the child, and ordered stress dose solumedrol.

Multiple nurses involved in the care, multiple physicians, child was transported to the pediatric ward, continued to deteriorate, and eventually had to go to the pediatric ICU.

It was discovered that the stress dose of solumedrol had never been administered.

The stress dose of solumedrol was then subsequently given.

Child immediately improved and was actually able to be discharged that evening.

Well, it turns out that it wasn't actually that there were multiple physicians, multiple nurses, although I'm sure that contributed to the problem.

Turns out that the computer that the physician used to order the medication automatically scheduled the stress dose of solumedrol to be given at 6 AM that morning as opposed to 11 PM when it was ordered.

So the system's issue was the computer automatically scheduling the medication for the wrong time.

Second example Nurse on a busy med-surg unit checks her MAR at about 12 p.m.

She notices that the physician has ordered hydralazine to be given for a systolic blood pressure greater than 150.

At 2 p.m., the physician comes by, cancels the order.

At 3 p.m., The nurse goes in to do routine vitals, discovers that the patient's systolic blood pressure is 180, goes to the Pyxis, obtains hydralazine from the Pyxis system, and then administers it to the patient.

It's not until she's charting the medication given that she discovers the order was canceled 1 hour prior.

Well, you could talk about communication and other things, but the bottom line, the Pyxis dispensed a medication that had been discontinued.

In the first case, the hospital fixed the EMR system.

And those types of errors continued to occur.

It's the ability to use system resources to optimize medical care.

Use the system that you're within to improve care.

And those of you who work with EMR systems know how that can be used.

For instance, you can put together order sets to make sure you don't forget critical parts of post-operative orders.

You can put hard stops in the system so you can't order 2 medications that have severe drug-drug interactions.

There's clinical pathways you can put in place.

1 particular example that I like as a surgeon, those of you who know surgeons know all of us think we can operate faster than we really can.

And so when you're scheduling a case sometimes that leads to friction.

In the Kaiser system out in California, in California where I worked as a resident, if I scheduled a laparoscopic cholecystectomy, The computer system would look at my last 10 cases, average the time, and well, that's how much time in the operating room I got.

So those are just a few examples of systems.

What is systems-based practice when it comes to spiritual care for patients?

Well, I guess the ability to use system resources to optimize spiritual care, but here's the problem.

How do you know when you've optimized spiritual care?

We think, I think we need to take a 1 step back.

If you're a family practice doctor trying to evaluate your care for diabetes, maybe you'll look at hemoglobin A1c levels.

If you're a surgeon looking at your outcomes for surgery, maybe you'll look at, I don't know, surgical site infections.

If you're an oncologist, maybe you'll look at five-year disease-specific survival.

We're familiar with outcomes for medical care.

Rachel's actually going to take a microphone around, and I'd like to hear from at least 2 or 3, maybe 4 people from the audience, what are some goals that you have either thought about or maybe you have set for yourself for providing spiritual care, medical missionary work.

Phil Mills

Crowded Waiting Rooms

Before we observe Christ's method, we should look at 1 of the most well-known statements of all of Adventism.

Not long ago, An entire Sabbath school lesson quarterly featured this statement.

Let's look at the quote briefly and then we'll better understand Christ's method.

The quotation, you could say it with me, a revival among us is the greatest and most urgent of all our needs.

In Munich, it used to be the world capital of beer drinking.

However, the consumption of beer has decreased over the last few years.

And so, in an effort to have a revival of beer drinking in Munich, they have Munich Fest in October.

They feel they need a revival as an urgent of their financial needs.

But is that what is being asked for here, a revival?

True godliness among us is our greatest and most urgent need.

Christ gave a perfect representation of true godliness by combining the work of a physician and a minister.

If our greatest need is a revival of true godliness, and true godliness is combining the work of physician and minister, what is our greatest need?

Ministering to the needs of both body and soul, healing physical disease, and then speaking words that brought peace to the troubled heart.

A revival of true godliness among us is the greatest and most urgent of all of our needs.

In triage, what kind of problem must be addressed first?

We have many needs, but what is our most urgent and greatest need?

Because of this, what should be our first work?

Combining the work of the physician and the minister.

Ministering to the needs of the body and healing physical disease.

Ministering to the needs of the soul and speaking words that bring peace to the troubled heart.

And God calls us as physician, dentists, and health professionals and ministers to do both.

Christ was bound up in all branches of the work, we're told, medical ministry.

He did not feel that he was infringing on physicians when he healed the sick.

He proclaimed the truth, and when the sick came to him for healing, he asked them if they believed that he could make them whole.

I thought of this quotation during our early morning devotional by Dr.

He was just as ready to lay his hands in healing on the sick and afflicted as he was to preach the gospel.

He was just as much at home in this work as in proclaiming the truth for healing the sick, read that with me, healing the sick is a part of the gospel.

Seventh-day Adventists have been called to be modern Good Samaritans, extending our helping hand to the robbed and injured lying in our pathway.

Our present-day priests and Levites must not pass by the robbed and the injured lying in their pathway using modern day excuses about being out of their area of specialty.

To take people right where they are, whatever their position, whatever their condition, and help them in every way possible, this is gospel ministry.

To take people right where they are, whatever their position, whatever their condition, and help them in every way possible.

It may be necessary for ministers to go into the homes of the sick and say, did I read that wrong?

It may be necessary, is that a misprint for physicians to go into the homes of the sick?

No, it says it may be necessary for Ministers to make house calls.

Into the home of the sick and say, I'm ready to help you and I will do the best I can.

I'm not a physician, but I am a minister and I like to minister to the sick and afflicted." The next 2 phrases are crucial to understand.

If we would minister to the sin-sick soul, find someone with a sick body ministers.

Those who are sick in body are nearly always what?

If they're sick in soul, who do they need?

And that's a sick person, almost always sick in soul.

When the soul is sick, the body is made sick.

True godliness understands this connection and doesn't take care of the soul or the body, but ministers to both.

The true minister seeks to help the sick, and the true physician seeks to minister to the soul.

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Series

Plenary

D’Sozo, The Theology of Health

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

Parts

Healing Patients for Eternity

1h 22m

The 6th Competency: Systems-Based (Spiritual) Practice

53m

Crowded Waiting Rooms

1h 23m

D’Sozo, The Theology of Health

1h 4m

AMEN 10th Anniversary Panel Discussion

44m

Ellen White Finally Exposed

51m

Wholeness in a Broken World

1h 58m

Reclaiming the Vision: Mission in the LLU School of Medicine

1h 6m

From Broken to Blessed

1h 26m

Sound Doctrine