Salt and Light
Nurse educators have limitless opportunities to influence the knowledge base and character of future leaders in nursing.
In many nursing schools, Faculty Advisors play a crucial role in providing spiritual mentoring, campus recognition, and stability for NCF student chapters across the country.
Nurses Christian Fellowship partners with faculty members who are God's "salt and light" on campus. NCF provides networking with other faculty, encourages the pursuit of Christian scholarship, and offers support and spiritual inspiration for educators in their significant work with nursing students.
Find more resources for nurse educators at http://ncf-jcn.org/nurses/nurse-educators
Benefits of NCF Membership
NCF members now receive a 30% discount from InterVarsity Press (IVP), a leading publisher of excellent Christian books. Find classic and contemporary books, booklets, and Bible studies to refresh your heart, soul, mind, and strength.
Members also receive significant continuing education discounts in more than 40 nursing journals-whatever your specialty! CE and IVP discount codes are available after logging in to the NCF Members-Only webpages.
If you're a JCN subscriber, consider becoming an NCF member and joining a network of Christian nurses who value compassionate care, integrity of the whole person, spiritual development, and integrating nursing with Christian faith. Your JCN subscription is included as part of your membership package along with other great benefits.
Find out more about NCF membership and join our mission to nurses, students, and educators at http://ncf-jcn.org/membership.
On Campus
Nursing students are deeply immersed in learning to care for others, but who will care for them?
As new semesters begin, Nurses Christian Fellowship is on campus to invite nursing students into authentic communities to care for each other, explore the Bible, and offer God's love and healing to others.
"Nursing school is a time for students to understand how Jesus cared for the people he encountered-and how Jesus cares for them today-so they can be equipped to give spiritual care to others," says Bonnie Hann, NCF Campus Liaison.
"Nursing students have unique stressors as they deal with patients dying or getting a difficult diagnosis, and students will be exposed to all of those problems and situations that patients are exposed to," said Elizabeth Van Horn, Associate Professor of Nursing at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro. "Spiritual care is an essential component of holistic care for the patient. And so. NCF helps support students in gaining some of those necessary skills that will help them be excellent practicing nurses."
"We explore the big questions of life with nursing students," said Jane Hall, NCF National Director, "and then we help teach them to understand what their role is in helping patients who want to explore those questions."
The strong emphasis NCF puts on helping students integrate their Christian faith and their nursing practice makes it unique among organizations on campus. See how one NCF chapter cares for their campus in the video, "NCF Nursing Students: Invited to Care" at https://vimeo.com/122042606.
Intersections
I love meeting nursing students with courageous faith, leadership skills, and a big vision for what God can do in their school of nursing-students like Holly. NCF students graduate with more than a nursing degree. Through their NCF experiences, they are strengthened in their faith and equipped to give compassionate, holistic care, and to help others know that Jesus can meet their deepest spiritual needs.
Holly inspires me. Last year Holly was a nursing student who was eager to start a small group Bible study for nursing majors. She shared her vision in a YouTube video and won a grant from Nurses Christian Fellowship to help start a new NCF group at Longwood University (VA).
"God gave me a vision to empower student nurses to have personal experiences with Jesus, so that when we take care of our patients, families, and communities, we're doing it for God's glory," Holly said. She started a Bible study and invited other nursing students, including the whole freshman class, to explore how faith and nursing intersect.
Holly longs for her peers in school to intimately know God's love for them so they are prepared to give compassionate spiritual care as nurses. "Nurses enter into brokenness every shift they work. Every physical, psychological, and emotional ailment has a spiritual component that God wants to enter into," Holly states. "It's my vision for patients to experience God's love, his healing, and his grace through nurses."
Holly graduated in spring 2015 and started her first job as a nurse, but her bold commitment to God is still having an effect on her school's nursing students, who are growing in their faith and inviting others to be a part of their caring community.
As a new semester begins, we are praying for more students like Holly, who have a big, bold vision for what God can do. It's an exciting season!
Jane Hall, MS, RN, is the National Director of Nurses Christian Fellowship.
JCN Problems?
NCF members who need help with their JCN print, online, or iPad subscription should contact LWW Member Services at 866-489-0443 or mailto:[email protected].
Spotlight On...
When God knocks on your heart, it's time to open the door.
For Krista Doan, God's knocking meant applying for a campus staff position with Nurses Christian Fellowship.
"I graduated last year and started working as an RN, but there was always a yearning in my heart for something more," Krista said, "but I didn't exactly know what that was." She began praying for God to show her where he wanted her to serve.
Last November, God's knocking got louder, and Krista wrestled with a lot of fear and doubt about trusting God in this new journey.
"The challenges of my first year of nursing brought me to a place of complete surrender to God and his will for my life," Krista recalled. "I was willing to go anywhere, as long as he was with me."
Doors opened to work on campus with nursing students as part of the NCF and InterVarsity staff team. Krista personally understands the demands of nursing school and the opportunities for spiritual growth in college. She knows that NCF chapters encourage spiritual growth, offer leadership training, and create close relationships in supportive communities.
The decision to join NCF staff wasn't easy, but Krista is excited about working with nursing students. "Sometimes it's hard to feel God's presence in difficult times, but I learned that God hears us and answers us," Krista said. "God is so good."
Krista is currently developing a team of ministry partners, who will pray and give financial support to her campus ministry in Florida. Support NCF work at https://donate.intervarsity.org/donate/to/ncf