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Parish
Nursing
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By
Leigh
Morgan Talk to parish nurses and they’ll tell you it just makes sense—bring health education, screening, and counseling services directly to a religious congregation, and you can improve health awareness. Go further by pooling resources with a host of community organizations, and you can significantly impact public health. Because of their community base, faith-based nursing programs are attracting an increasing number of partnerships with government agencies, community groups, and hospital systems. Experts say these cost-effective arrangements can reach poor or underserved populations who might otherwise slip through the cracks. “I work so hard at continuing to partner because it makes financial sense and it’s a great way to reach the community,” said Lois Peacock, RN, executive director of California Bay Area Health Ministries. Peacock trains nurses and public health educators to launch health ministry programs within their congregations. Healthcare facilities and public health agencies often rely on congregational partnerships for outreach, Peacock said. “People don’t show up at county clinics anymore, and health departments and hospitals need another way to reach people,” she said. In addition to working to create partnerships, a parish nurse’s duties can include providing seniors with transportation to healthcare facilities, organizing screenings and educational health fairs, arranging communion for home-bound patients, teaching parenting skills, and networking to provide meals and child care for a family in crisis. In short, “anything that impacts health from a spiritual, as well as a physical perspective,” said Grace Tazelaav, MS, RN, a regional coordinator with Nurses Christian Fellowship. Government partnerships Government agencies and parish nursing programs are “natural partners,” said Mimi Kiser, MPH, RN, health program coordinator for the Interfaith Health Program at the Carter Center in Atlanta. Her work is partially supported by the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “A congregation can enhance community efforts to ensure health,” she said. “Both the public health sector and the faith community have an agenda, but there are a lot of commonalties.” Legal parameters are in place to guide church-state relations, she added. “Generally, people tend to be way more apprehensive than necessary on this issue. It can be a very manageable and successful partnership, but it usually takes some education and learning from example.” In California, the El Dorado County Public Health Department has trained nine parish nurses and collaborates with at least as many congregations, said Bonnie Nordby, RN, the county’s faith community liaison and coordinator of preventative health care. In addition to facilitating partnerships between faith communities and other local agencies, Nordby has plans to collaborate with a parish nurse in Placerville, Calif., whose church recently received an $85,000 grant from the Sierra Health Foundation, to provide outreach to the isolated elderly. “We’ll be working together to research the impact of health ministries and parish nursing on elders in the congregation,” Nordby said. Hospital partnerships Health facilities are also making an effort to work with faith communities. Since launching its partnership program more than four years ago, St. Joseph’s Regional Health System in Stockton, Calif., has provided funding and training for 41 parish nurses working in some 30 congregations with more than 18 types of religious affiliations, said Dixie Evans, RN, the health system’s director of community health. St. Joseph’s offers a unique grant-funding system to get congregational nursing programs on their feet. In the first year, the health system provides 100 percent of the financing needed to cover a part-time nurse’s salary, liability insurance, and supply costs, which totals more than $8,000 per church, Evans said. The second year, congregations receive 50 percent of the funding, then 25 percent the third year. But sometimes, that’s not necessary. “There are some parish nurses who don’t want to be paid,” she added. Facilities in other parts of the country are also looking for ways to tap into the power of parish nurses. Parkland Health & Hospital System in Dallas is the only public health entity in the country that uses operating money to pay for a congregational nurse coordinator, said Marcene Royster, MSW, area director of community services. Usually, grants or congregations provide the funding, she said. The coordinator is responsible for establishing a nurse-led health ministry within congregations to assess concerns and individualize services. By October, the health system aims to partner with 10 congregations from underserved areas. Five predominantly African-American churches have already signed on, and Parkland is now recruiting Hispanic congregations and a Buddhist temple. “Hopefully we’ll have synagogues, and other faith organizations,” Royster said. What the future holds Mary Ann McDermott, EdD, RN, professor of maternal and child nursing at Loyola University in Chicago, and co-editor of Parish Nursing: Promoting Whole Person Health Within Faith Communities, has studied the movement since its inception. She said partnerships between faith communities and other organizations are key, but growth will boil down to outcomes. “Does the parish nurse really make a difference? Can you show that all this prevention results in less sick time, less institutionalization, and fewer costs?” she said. Although many parish nurses are volunteers, McDermott has high hopes that the field will become a more viable career option. “We pay for what we value,” McDermott said. “As people become more sophisticated about parish nursing, it will really need to be a salaried position. Someone who we now call a volunteer parish nurse might be called a parish nurse associate in the future.” |
