Parish Nurses - extraordinary ministry within Ordinary Time

I married a health care provider. Over a thirty year period in my roles as a caregiver for the elderly, the mother of three children, a frequent flyer as a surgical patient (my major surgery this coming Wednesday will be #18, not counting procedures, scans, blood tests and MRI's, etc.) and as a teacher and pastoral minister, my husband's expertise as a pharmacist, clinical administrator, mentor and advocate has been invaluable. I often wonder who people turn to when they have questions and concerns and really don't know anyone in the health care industry. Navigating the way through the maze of illness and advocacy can get really complex. In our current dilemma of national health care concerns, can a Catholic parish assist a faith community and provide assistance in matters of heath care?  

I believe that the answer to this question lies in Parish Nurse Ministry. 

Parish Nurse Ministry 

Parish nurses serve as conduits of health in physical, mental and spiritual dimensions for a faith community. This triptych mirrors a Trinitarian model of agapic care and incorporates the Christian dimension of holistic or ‘holy’ wellness that presumes self-care and care of others. The ministry of parish nurses is a sacrament of God's love and desire for wellness for all of humanity and an extraordinary gift to any parish and locates its historical roots in early the Christian church (Romans 16:1-2). 

What they do

Parish nurses address health situations in the light of faith and contribute their particular gifts within a faith community by actively using their professional skills to meet the needs of people who struggle with short hospital stays, assist an increasingly elder population, support people with chronic illness and conditions and serve as health care navigators for a wide host of population and concerns. Parish nurses integrate their skills with those of a pastoral staff to assimilate necessary and desired tools that assist a parish community with the myriad of needs that surface within any given population.

In conjunction with their pastoral staff, parish nurses may train care givers to provide emotional, spiritual and practical support for parish communities. Parish nurses may be members of a parish staff or parishioners who volunteer their professional skills on behalf of their community. A parish nurse ministry may include health care administrators, pharmacists, technicians, physicians and anyone who works within health care who wishes to participate in this particular ministry. Within the vast plethora of health care dilemmas that people consistently face, the light of Christ manifests itself in very tangible ways within a parish nurse ministry.

Additionally, those who care for the sick, the aging and the dying can often feel overwhelmed and isolated, especially if they've assumed the burden of care giving and the only one carrying that load. Parish nurses and their adjunct associates may sometimes see with a particular 'eye' what pastoral staffs may miss. Connecting people to health care services, helping them to understand medical language and offering a presence that simultaneously consoles and informs people on any number of needs serves a parish community in many and varied ways. The benefits are innumerable. 

Providing proactive accountability on behalf of wellness

Often, the most economically challenged will sacrifice medicine for food, heat and other basic needs. Addictions and lack of exercise often put people at risk when they lack good mentors to encourage better attention to health concerns and cause illnesses like diabetes, hypertension, joint disorders and clinical depression. Seasonal influenza and other viruses may cause a backlash of poor health for people in fragile physical condition. Parish nurses offer consistent and systematic accountability within an environment of Christian hospitality and professional assistance for people in their faith communities. This particular ministry tenders a proactive approach to wellness. Through regular contact with parish nurses, a faith community assumes a posturing of proactive, preventive measures in behalf of wellness.

Starting up

1. Explain parish nurse ministry in your parish bulletin, on your parish website. Introduce the concept of the ministry to the pastoral staff, the parish and finance councils. Provide references, information and some reading materials for these groups. 
2. Pray and theologically reflect with the pastoral staff and any advisory parish committees. Placing a new ministry within the context of prayer and reflection is an early Christian practice that really helps when discerning the beginning of a new ministry. 
3. Initiate a meeting of nurses and other health care professionals who would like to be a part of this vital ministry. Name a leader to rotate the schedule of volunteers who will staff the weekly blood pressure service after the Saturday Vigil Mass and perhaps after one Sunday morning Mass. Set a private room aside to insure privacy and protect the parish against HIPAA violations. 
4. Create a system that keeps a record of the people who will make use of this service (get ready, they come in droves!). Ask parishioners to bring their record with them each time a parish nurse takes their blood pressure. Tell them to bring their BP record with them when they visit their primary care physicians; doctors love the system and welcome this kind of record-keeping. 

Outcomes

Years ago, when parish nurses was a new concept, I spoke with a parishioner who was nurse manager in geriatrics about beginning this ministry. Diane embraced this new and important ministry and together, we began Parish Nurses with a weekly blood pressure clinic that quickly birthed a robust program. Parish nurses divided the responsibilities and assigned duties according to volunteers’ particular talent, experience and interest. Diane maintained a rotating schedule of nurses for weekend blood pressure and glucose checks. Another nurse who taught nursing to undergraduates in the local university assumed responsibility for parish educational health events, such as advance directives and a stress seminar in the wake of 9/11. A hospital pharmacist answered questions about medications on a regular basis. He procured the hospital system’s health van to visit the parish for a day to give free flu shots and test glucose and blood pressure levels. A member of the parish nurse ministry who ran the blood lab in the local hospital system organized a blood drive in the parish school hall. One retired nurse offered a weekly weight control clinic and successful seminars on healthy eating habits, including offering menu and food samples to parishioners. Another parish nurse ran a weekly AA group in the church hall. A health care administrator volunteered to offer a parish workshop on advanced directives. 

In addition, Parish Nurses worked with the neighborhood elder care agencies to better assess the needs of the local community. We partnered with the local interfaith council to train non-professional volunteers how to provide care giving services for the elderly who lived alone and needed assistance with cooking, bathing and shopping, calling it Caregiver Ministry. Parish Nurses also partnered with the parish bereavement ministry and ministers of the sick to provide presence, prayer and practice through the stages of sickness, death and its aftermath for the living. 

Just begin

We often think of Ordinary Time as a period of time off, especially in the summer months, when life seems to slow down a bit and lures us into its lazy lair. However, the needs of people still exist throughout this time we call 'ordinary.' Parishioners with particular skills in the area of health care can be called upon to serve the Body of Christ. The liturgical dismissal "Go forth to love and serve the Lord" does not add, "But not during Ordinary Time." We can do extraordinary things during Ordinary Time. Parish Nurses is a good place to begin. In this critical period of history in health care, our people's lives our in our hands. 

N.B. I will be away from my desk and unable to respond to comments or write other posts for a time. Please keep me in your prayers on Wednesday and throughout my recovery. I'm grateful for your prayers and your readership. 

Denise