Parish nurses learn to link body and soul in their work

Last October, several nurses completed the first-ever Basic Parish Nurse preparation course at St. Joseph's Provincial House in Latham.

The 32 hours of education took place over two weekends for nurses already serving in their parishes and for nurses about to embark on such a ministry. The program was sponsored by Seton Health in Troy.

Fran Zoske, RN, director of Seton's Faith Community Parish Nurse Program and the instructor, said the nurses "ranged from novices to experienced parish-based nurses."

Questions

"How does a nurse promote health and wellness in her parish? What is the role of the parish nurse as a parish staff member? How do you get started as a parish nurse and then what do you do? These are the questions that we asked and then learned how to answer" during the course, Mrs. Zoske said.

"We have nurses in 34 churches in the area. This includes Catholics, Baptists, Unitarians, Episcopalians, Lutherans, Methodists and Jewish congregations."

Although some of the RNs have been working for months or years, Mrs. Zoske noted that it was important for them to participate in the training because it put everyone on the same page when it comes to how nurses serve their parish communities, what objectives they have, and how to connect programs, referrals and healthcare with spirituality in a way that satisfies the needs of those who come to them for care.

Insights

Johanna Flanigan, RN, who has been serving as a nurse at St. Jude's Church in Wynantskill for seven years, decided to become a parish nurse because it seemed to be "a nice way to share parish ministry with my nursing experiences."

With a background in emergency healthcare, "parish nursing seemed the perfect fit for me," she said.

Through the training, she said, she gained insights into how to implement her nursing skills into her ministry, particularly in the area of prayer.

"There were a number of nurses in this course that were of different faith traditions." she explained. "When we gathered for prayer, it was a very rich experience for us all. We welcomed the opportunity to share our faith traditions with each other."

New ideas

Betty Parks, the parish nurse at Immaculate Conception Church in Glenville, said that through the training she gleaned a deeper insight into the spiritual and practical needs of parishioners, and how to more effectively deal with issues that arise on the parish level.

"The first weekend gave us a good exercise in pastoral care issues," she noted, "particularly in finding our own spirituality and learning that we can bring that to our ministry. What was effective for me was seeing how other nurses do that in a practical way.

"The second weekend gave us some new ideas on how to practically minister to those who come to us."

Body and soul

According to Mrs. Zoske, the curriculum provided opportunities for the nurses to interact with each other while challenging their skills at nursing and spirituality.

"We covered such topics as health, healing, wholeness, accountability and ethics," she said. "We talked about the role of the parish nurse as integrator of faith and health -- of mind, body and spirit. We learned how to comfortably pray among ourselves and with others.

"Because nurses are health counselors, it is important to know how to help people maneuver through today's healthcare maze of information and how to effectively deal with the real dilemmas that this often entails."

(Seton Health will provide a Home Study Course for parish nursing later this year. In 2008, a second parish nurse certification program will be offered. Call Fran Zoske at 268-6062.)

(2/15/07) [[In-content Ad]]