Salt & Light
How do you care for the spiritual needs of your patients? Knowing how to assess a person's spiritual health and provide spiritual care interventions are part of caring for the whole person.
Begin with a careful assessment, using these questions:
*Do you consider yourself to be spiritual or religious?
*What importance does faith have in your life?
*Are you part of a faith community?
*What spiritual activities are important to you?
*What sustains you and keeps you going?
*How would you like me to support your faith or address your needs?
Always remember to focus on the patient's needs, not your own. Respect the patient's views and support the person's decision. Ask God to guide your care of patients and be attentive to his presence.
NCF has handy, pocket-size spiritual care cards that include basic assessment questions and spiritual care interventions. See ncf-jcn.org/resources.
Benefits of NCF Membership
Where do you find support for your nursing practice and your faith? Nurses Christian Fellowship is a professional group of Christian nurses who value personal spiritual development and compassionate, whole-person care.
As a member of Nurses Christian Fellowship, you are a part of a large network of Christian nurses devoted to serving God in healthcare. By promoting a biblical worldview and holistic spiritual care, NCF membership fortifies your individual practice and the nursing profession as a whole.
Members get exclusive news and resources. We've added special nursing and spiritual care content to our monthly Members-Only Charting the Way eNewsletter. Members receive significant online CE discounts, covering most nursing specialties from Lippincott's NursingCenter, as well as discounts on books from Lippincott and InterVarsity Press. Take advantage of all of our member benefits at http://www.ncf-jcn.org/members-only.
NCF is the publisher of the Journal of Christian Nursing, so keep JCN coming to your home by renewing your membership when you receive a renewal notice from NCF.
Intersections
I have been a member of Nurses Christian Fellowship (NCF) for several years. NCF has greatly blessed my life's calling to be a nurse, as well as an educator. It is important for nurses to support and be connected to an organization such as this one.
NCF knows nursing is more than a job, more than an occupation, and it is definitely more than a chosen career path. Nursing is a calling from God, which requires a close relationship with our heavenly Father in order to embrace and operate in the fullness of his grace and favor in everything we do.
Last summer I went to Kenya on a medical mission with a team of nurses. I talked to our partners there, the Kenyan nurses and nursing students, about how NCF bridges the gap between healing and total health. I know God uses NCF in the lives of nurses like myself who do cross-cultural nursing.
I recommend joining Nurses Christian Fellowship to become a part of God's family of faithful nurses, serving him in our world. Thank you, NCF!
Wendy Brooks, BSN, RN, shared these words of appreciation with the NCF Facebook community. Join us on Facebook for regular encouragement that boosts your faith and your nursing practice.
JCN Problems?
NCF members who need help with their JCN print subscription or online account should contact LWW Member Services at 866-489-0443 or mailto:[email protected].
If you are a JCN subscriber through Lippincott Williams & Wilkins but not an NCF member, consider joining the NCF professional organization when your subscription is due for renewal. NCF publishes JCN and your subscription is part of your member benefits when you join NCF. Learn more about NCF membership and other great benefits at http://www.ncf-jcn.org/membership.
On Campus
Introducing Timothy Lin, the new NCF Student Ministries Director for Nurses Christian Fellowship.
"I am excited to join the NCF staff team," Tim said. "We are dreaming together about how God can expand the influence of NCF in more nursing schools."
Tim's vision is threefold: "I long for more nursing students to have the opportunity to place their faith in Jesus Christ and to recognize the natural ways their faith impacts their vocation. I long for more nursing schools to host safe spaces, where students can see for themselves how Jesus is not only the Great Physician but the good nurse-for them, for their classmates, and for their patients. And I long for more nurses to live out their faith, beginning in nursing school, so they are prepared to become life-long kingdom people in healthcare."
Tim has a strong history in the spiritual development of nursing students through his work as an InterVarsity Area Director. He brings expertise and knowledge that will grow student ministry in breadth and depth.
Tim appreciates NCF for its razor-sharp focus on preparing nursing students to integrate faith and vocation so they are ready to impact the world as Christian nurses. He sees that NCF offers students a clear and compelling vision for how to love God and serve others by offering competent, holistic care in their nursing practice.
Tim lives in Kansas with his wife and two children. Join us in thanking God for providing Tim to lead NCF ministry among nursing students and nurse educators!
Find out more about what NCF offers nursing students at http://www.ncf-jcn.org.
Spotlight On...
Do you struggle spending time with God? My life has become more complex since becoming the national director of NCF this year. With more travel, I've missed attending church activities. With an increased workload, I've been tempted to cut personal time with God. Although I've participated in a weekly Bible study for decades, I've thought about quitting.
Not good.
I stayed in the Bible study, and God began to speak profoundly through the Gospel of John. In Jesus' first miracle (John 2) of changing water to wine at a wedding, I'm struck with how much the daily concerns of our lives matter to Jesus. He quietly met a need and didn't take credit. Shouldn't Jesus have done a more important first miracle like healing, showing his power more openly? And he didn't create everyday wine, he created the best wine that takes years to produce. Does Jesus care about the shortages in my life? This passage shouts out, "Yes!"
Think, too, about the servants who filled the six water jars. These were 20 to 30 gallon jars (75-110 liters), used for ceremonial washing, not drinking. "Jesus said to the servants, 'Fill the jars with water'; so they filled them to the brim" (John 2:7). Talk about detail work. They had to get the water from a well, going back and forth with smaller jars because they could not carry a full 30-gallon stone jar. We don't know what the servants thought or said, but they filled the jars to the brim. Because they obeyed, they were the first to witness the miracle; the first to observe Jesus' compassion; the first eyewitnesses of his sovereignty over physical matter. Am I that kind of detailed, obedient servant? What does Jesus want to do with my obedience?
More than at any other time in history, nurses need to experience God working in and through us. The most important thing we do is spend time with him, letting him fill us to the brim.
Find free downloadable Bible studies on nursing athttp://www.ncf-jcn.org/resources/bible-study-materials.