faith community nurse job description

Deborah Ringen, RN-BC, MSN, FC, a faith community nurse for Visiting Nurses of the Lower Valley in Connecticut and an adjunct professor at Azusa Pacific University School of Nursing, recalls playing a health advocacy role for an older patient, accompanying her to appointments to explain what the doctors were saying and helping the patient ask the right questions. It was the late Granger Westberg, a Lutheran pastor, chaplain and theology professor, who first coined the term “wholistic” for healthcare that encompasses a patient’s body, mind and spirit. Parishioners often seek out faith leaders — whether priests, pastors, rabbis or imams — to share personal problems, which sometimes include health challenges. By Elizabeth Hanink, RN, BSN, PHN, and Aaron Severson, In Country: U.S. Nurses During the Vietnam War. Although faith community nurses work with and sometimes organize non-clinician health promoters, being an RN enables the nurse to provide a broader range of care and advocacy, such as holding weekly “office hours” to answer health-related questions or providing referrals to local health resources. This integration of faith and health underlies the practice of Westberg’s other legacy: parish nursing, now more broadly known as congregational or faith community nursing. Documents client assessment, nursing diagnosis, interventions and outcomes while maintaining confidential client record in accordance with the policy on documentation. Qualifications: The Faith Community Nurse shall; A. However, Knighten, Ringen and Walters-Bible argue that faith community nursing quickly “sells itself” as faith leaders and parishioners see how vital the services can be. Network with nurses & recruiters. A Faith Community Nurse Coordinator manager is an FCN who oversees, educates, and supports practicing faith community nurses while organizing, planning, and sustaining the viability of this health ministry within a congregation or a healthcare organization. Throughout, Ringen was able to apply her intimate personal and spiritual perspective on the patient’s needs. Ringen says that her first patient was a woman in her 90s who lived alone. The latest nursing career advice and opportunities delivered to your inbox monthly. Ringen says she treasured those cards because they symbolized the real bond the two had developed. “Most nurses who come to our courses and learn about faith community nursing love it because it’s like, ‘This is what I went into nursing for,’” explained Maureen Daniels, RN, MN, the Church Health Center’s former international faith community nursing specialist, in a 2013 video. Get article & job updates. In-depth articles on the wonderful world of nursing. Job Description & Information Essential Skills Needed - Ability to take on a wide variety of tasks/patients/situations, independent, excellent interpersonal communication abilities, strong faith, empathy and compassion, ability to work with hands, ability to handle stressful and highly emotional situations, community-oriented The ANA recognizes congregational nursing as a distinct nursing specialty, with its own standards of practice and an American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) board certification program. endobj This type of nursing practice offers several potential advantages: Religious services are a regular meeting place for members of a community, including those who are otherwise isolated by age, low income or linguistic barriers. Congregational nursing can also play an important role in maintaining community cohesion, giving congregants another reason to remain part of the faith community. Encourages the client through presence and spiritual support to express their faith beliefs and utilize them regularly especially in time of crisis and despair. Other California Locations You can purchase a copy via the ANA’s publishing website, www.nursesbooks.org. Mary Lynne Knighten, RN, DNP, PN, NEA-BC, serves as director of the health ministry of L.A.’s St. Dominic Catholic Church. Faith community nursing is very much a team effort. 4 0 obj A Faith Community Nurse is a registered nurse (RN) who has had educational preparation in wholistic ministry and who provides special health promotion services within a given faith community. One staff member who treated the patient remarked, “I wish every patient who comes from a nursing home would come with someone like you.” Work like this can lead to deep connections between nurse and patient. Advocates of this type of nursing practice, like Scott Morris, M.D., M.Div., founder and CEO of the Church Health Center in Memphis, Tenn., believe that the health ministry should be a basic part of all faith communities, just like choir or Sunday school. Last, but hardly least, this specialty gives nurses an opportunity to provide the kind of hands-on personal care that many RNs feel has been lost in an increasingly numbers-driven medical industry. endobj Books about nursing and healthcare that we recommend to inspire and educate. Today, there are about 16,000 faith community nurses across the U.S. Many activities are organized around regular services.