Sustaining Nursing’s Balance

gordon.govier@intervarsity.org — Thu, 04 May 2017 15:27:29 +0000

Gordon Govier

Sustaining Nursing’s Balance

National Nurses Week is May 6-12, and this year’s theme—“The Balance of Mind, Body, and Spirit”—recognizes the spiritual dimension of nursing care. In fact, it suggests that without spiritual care, nursing is unbalanced.

Nurses Christian Fellowship, a ministry of ��ñ��, has been sharing the spiritual dimension of nursing care rooted in the Christian faith with student and professional nurses since its beginning in 1948. Today there are 997 students and 112 faculty members participating in 88 Nurses Christian Fellowship groups at U.S. colleges and universities. There are almost 300 professional nurses involved in 30 NCF local nurse chapters and 1,572 members of the NCF professional organization.

NCF is offering a special Bible study on the Nurses Week theme, and other resources. This year’s theme plus a professional collaboration involving NCF director and JCN editor in chief Kathy Schoonover-Shoffner over the past five years has provided an opportunity to expose NCF to a much broader audience.

The results of the project Kathy has been collaborating on, were published in the February 2017 issue of the American Journal of Nursing (AJN). The project focused on a topic that greatly impacts the spiritual dimension of nursing, moral distress and ways to foster moral resilience. The executive summary for “Transforming Moral Distress into Moral Resilience in Nursing” was published in the April-June 2017 issue of NCF’s Journal of Christian Nursing.

In her own editorial column in that same issue, Kathy reported that the spiritual aspects of moral distress are inescapable: “Spiritual, as in that search for what is right action, is how we figure out what is right, what helps us do right, and how we deal with the distress of not doing right. As Christian nurses we have a Source to go to for wisdom and moral courage.”

Former NCF director Mary Thompson assessed the significance of this project, which had been initiated by NCF. “The articles, which probably will be part of reading lists for nursing ethics classes in universities, can be an avenue for discussion that can lead to considering sources of ethical behavior and how nurses can deal with dilemmas they face,” she said. “The visibility of JCN and NCF through the articles can help to guide people to God’s Word and help them see how Jesus can make a difference in what we face.”

This AJN project was described as a “momentous partnership” for NCF and JCN. It will help insure that not only during National Nurses Week but also for many weeks and months to come, there is a ready resource that helps nursing students and nurses understand ways to develop more resilience to support the balance of mind, body, and spirit.

FINAL NOTE:

For the third year in a row, the Journal of Christian Nursing won recognition for both design and editorial quality in the American Society of Healthcare Publication Editors annual awards competition.

Gold Award in the Best Opening Page/Spread: Photo Category “When Sorrow Never Stops: Chronic Sorrow After the Death of a Child” (January/March 2016)
Silver Award in the Best Cover: Illustration Category “Teen Depression and Suicide: A Silent Crisis”(April/June 2016)
Bronze Award in the Best Feature Article Category “Teen Depression and Suicide: A Silent Crisis”(April/June 2016)
Bronze Award in the Best Cover: Photo Category “Trauma-Informed Care: Helping Patients with a Painful Past” (October/December 2016)

News Keywords

Health Care

Journal of Christian Nurses

National Nurses Week

Nurses Christian Fellowship

spirituality

Mobilized to Serve

AD-16225 — Fri, 06 May 2011 19:09:59 +0000

News

Gordon Govier

Mobilized to Serve

“Trusted to Care” is the theme of National Nurses Week (May 6-12). Polls show that nursing is one of the most trusted professions; nurses offer care and comfort to people during some of the most difficult times of their lives. It is a huge responsibility.

Questions

A nursing student attending the National Student Nursing Association convention last month wanted to know, “Can we talk about God with our patients?” Another student said, “I have so many questions about how to help my patients. I see they have spiritual questions and are afraid.”

Kathy Schoonover-Shoffner, the editor of the Journal of Christian Nursing was able to share with these two students, and many others, answers to their spiritual questions about nursing. The Journal of Christian Nursing is published by Nurses Christian Fellowship (NCF), a part of ��ñ��. As Kathy shared on the NCF Nurses Blog, many students that she talked with were not aware of NCF. “They were thrilled to learn of an organization whose mission is to bring the good news of Jesus to nursing and healthcare.”

Answers

The nursing approach taught in many schools values wholistic care but leaves God out of the picture. “In NCF we’re mobilizing students to be committed to whole person care,” said NCF director Jane Hall.” We want students and nurses to understand that they need to be very ethical in their approach to spiritual care, and not to impose their own beliefs. But there’s more that they can do.”

She explained, “We work very hard to help students and nurses understand the basic principles of giving spiritual care but also to be prepared. If they ask a patient whether the patient would want prayer, and the response is yes, that they would feel comfortable in giving that, and that they would be able to explain to the patient who they would be praying to.”

A Model of Compassion

Jane Hall believes that a major reason that nurses are “trusted to care,” is because many follow Jesus’ model of compassion and selfless service to others. During National Nurses Week NCF provides online resources for prayer and Bible study that emphasize the spiritual foundation of nursing. Throughout the year NCF provides resources and staff to help students and nurses grow in their faith and their profession.

Audio Extra: Listen to a talk on nursing and shalom, by Grace Tazelaar, NCF Director of Missions

News Keywords

Whole person care

spirituality

Nurses Christian Fellowship

National Nurses Week

Journal of Christian Nursing