Daybreak Dimick, the primary feminine to review in Brigham Younger College’s grasp of arts chaplaincy program, seems to be at a cross within the Chapel of the Good Shepherd at St. Mark’s Hospital in Millcreek on Friday, March 25, 2022. Mengshin Lin, Deseret Information
Daybreak Dimick, the primary feminine to review in Brigham Younger College’s grasp of arts chaplaincy program, meditates on the Chapel of the Good Shepherd at St. Mark’s Hospital in Millcreek on Friday, March 25, 2022. Mengshin Lin, Deseret Information
Daybreak Dimick, the primary feminine to review in Brigham Younger College’s grasp of arts chaplaincy program, poses for a portrait at St. Mark’s Hospital in Millcreek on Friday, March 25, 2022. Mengshin Lin, Deseret Information
Daybreak Dimick, the primary feminine to review in Brigham Younger College’s grasp of arts chaplaincy program, poses for a portrait at St. Mark’s Hospital in Millcreek on Friday, March 25, 2022. Mengshin Lin, Deseret Information
Daybreak Dimick doesn’t just like the label of “first,” nevertheless it’s one which has caught since she turned the primary feminine pupil to enroll as a graduate navy chaplaincy pupil at Brigham Younger College.
Up till not too long ago, this system was accessible solely to males who had been ordained to the priesthood in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Though BYU was her first alternative, Dimick enrolled within the Chicago Theological Seminary to pursue her profession. After two semesters, she acquired phrase that the church’s Workplace of Army Relations modified the enrollment coverage, paving the way in which for her on the Provo-based faculty.
“This has been an enormous witness to me how God works,” she mentioned. “I’m simply the privileged one who will get to be on this house and proceed this work that’s happening on this sphere, which is thrilling.”
What's a chaplain?
Dimick joined the Military ROTC when she was 17 to assist pay her method by means of faculty. As a reserve cargo specialist she labored onerous for “a difficult couple of years.” A self-described “individuals individual,” she loved the collaborative and social parts of service, which have been usually uncommon in her function on the time. At occasions she questioned if she needed to remain within the navy in the long run.
“I felt like a wrong-sized peg attempting to suit into this gap that simply didn’t work,” she mentioned.
Whereas serving as a missionary in Russia, Dimick mentioned she had the phrase “chaplain” distinctly come to thoughts thrice. She was solely vaguely acquainted with the occupation, however mentioned she held the thought at the back of her thoughts till she returned house.
“I simply went about my mission and had an superior time on the market,” she mentioned. “I discovered that I actually love listening to individuals’s tales. ... In a method, it already had change into part of my id in ways in which I didn’t understand till I used to be there.”
Daybreak Dimick, the primary feminine to review in Brigham Younger College’s grasp of arts chaplaincy program, meditates on the Chapel of the Good Shepherd at St. Mark’s Hospital in Millcreek on Friday, March 25, 2022.
Mengshin Lin, Deseret Information
After extra severe consideration, Dimick realized that chaplaincy would offer a chance for her to proceed her service by connecting with different individuals. Though amorphous, Dimick described a chaplain as being “a sojourner in life with individuals.”
“A very good chaplain is simply strolling in wounds with individuals,” she mentioned. “You get to be within the joys with individuals, and in addition life’s most intimate, tougher moments. The entire level is to offer religious care in a method that nourishes the framework of the individual that you’re ministering to, or that you simply’re strolling with.”
Chaplains present care to individuals of all faiths, serving to coordinate particular rites when mandatory. For individuals who should not non secular or with no particular religion custom, chaplains nonetheless play a worthwhile function of help and luxury.
“That’s nearly extra liberating to me as a chaplain in some methods,” Dimick mentioned of working with individuals from completely different religion backgrounds. “You simply exist on this house the place you possibly can navigate that with individuals and assist them kind their very own views when confronted with a extremely troublesome state of affairs.”
As a part of this system, Dimick receives scientific expertise working at St. Mark’s Hospital in Millcreek. The work is barely completely different from that of a navy chaplain — Dimick works as a part of an interdisciplinary crew together with docs and nurses to take care of sufferers and their households.
Whereas docs and nurses have quite a lot of tasks, chaplains are in a position to spend extra time with sufferers, comforting them and strolling them by means of troublesome conversations.
Self-care is essential for chaplains, Dimick mentioned, as they usually assist individuals by means of probably the most traumatic and distressing conditions life has to supply. The scientific expertise permits her to start to implement self-care practices and discover wholesome methods to manage.
Daybreak Dimick, the primary feminine to review in Brigham Younger College’s grasp of arts chaplaincy program, poses for a portrait at St. Mark’s Hospital in Millcreek on Friday, March 25, 2022.
Mengshin Lin, Deseret Information
Earlier this month, a affected person died only some minutes into her first in a single day shift.
“It was a really intimate sort of demise expertise as a result of the household let me into that house to say goodbye,” Dimick mentioned. “It simply struck me another way. ... This isn't going to be straightforward to only neglect about after I get house.”
Dimick mentioned she has targeted on not changing into indifferent from the realities of demise and loss, as an alternative permitting herself to really feel strongly about it.
“The important thing for me has been ... when these experiences do stick with me, integrating them into who I'm and permitting them to inspire me to maintain going ... and giving myself the house to really feel the load of it,” she mentioned.
If it does change into an excessive amount of, Dimick mentioned it’s necessary to have the ability to share these emotions with trusted pals or colleagues.
“Everyone knows we have to communally share it,” she mentioned. “I see it as, once more, a really interconnected factor.”
Breaking limitations
Her acceptance into the chaplaincy program has include its justifiable share of obstacles, in addition to probabilities for alternative and development.
Whereas responding to a sexual assault investigation throughout navy coaching, Dimick was instructed that a male colleague had made sexual feedback about her.
“Once I’m standing in entrance of troopers in a male-dominated world, what number of occasions do they see me as a religious care supplier who can meet their wants and assist them, versus objectifying me?” she mentioned.
It illustrated to Dimick that her expertise within the navy can be completely different than most, however mentioned she has acquired a substantial amount of help and empathy from her crew and classmates.
She mentioned she has heard from many throughout the ranks that they wish to see extra ladies function chaplains. Though she doesn’t wish to be the focal point, she hopes being a voice will assist others observe in her footsteps.
“I wrestle immensely with that as a result of I’m just about a behind-the-scenes sort of individual,” she mentioned. “However as I’ve been in dialogue and dialog with God, it’s been very very like I've had my very own stroll and journey with God. And now I’m on this stunning house the place I get to witness of that to individuals, and that has energy.”
Daybreak Dimick, the primary feminine to review in Brigham Younger College’s grasp of arts chaplaincy program, poses for a portrait at St. Mark’s Hospital in Millcreek on Friday, March 25, 2022.
Mengshin Lin, Deseret Information