Parish Nursing

• Holds the spiritual dimension to be central to its practice.
• Balances knowledge with skill, the sciences with theology and the humanities, service with worship and nursing care with pastoral care.
• Focuses its practice in the faith community into a source of health and wholeness.
• Understands health to be a dynamic process that encompasses the spiritual, physical, and social dimensions of the person.
• Acknowledges that well-being and illness may occur simultaneously.
  “What lies behind us, and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.”

THE PARISH NURSE IS A…

1. Health Educator
   • Seeks to raise the awareness of the relationship between lifestyle, attitudes, faith, and well-being.
   • Provides information and activities to promote health and prevent disease.
2. Personal Health Counselor
   • Provides individual counseling on issues related to health, illness and spirituality in the church, home health care facility.
3. Referral Agent
   • Works within the continuum of care, making referrals to health care providers and agencies, social service agencies and pastoral care resources.
4. Coordinator of Volunteers
   • Mobilizes the faith community’s resources to meet the needs of its members.
   • Facilitates training of volunteers.
5. Developer of Support Groups
   • Identifies common needs in the faith community.
   • Organizes groups for mutual support and education.
6. Integrator of faith and Health
   • Helps individuals and families to discover deeper beliefs and values that affect their health and well-being.
   • Helps the faith community discover and reclaim the historic role of the church in health and wholeness.
7. Health Advocate
   • Works with the patient, faith community and primary health care resources to provide whatever is in the best interest of the individual from a whole-person perspective.