Chat Room helps you dig deeper into JCN content, offering ideas for personal or group reflection with other nurses-great for Nurses Christian Fellowship student chapters on campus or nurse fellowship groups!
Combating Food Insecurity: Addressing Health Beyond an Empty Pantry
Read Wilkinson, 80-87.
1. Compare food insecurity (as defined by the author) with your previous understanding. Where in your nursing practice and everyday life could you be interacting with people experiencing food insecurity?
2. Beyond hunger, what health risks/factors are part of the bigger picture?
3. The author states, "Nurses working in community centers and in faith communities located in underserved areas have an advantage in building sustainable programs with lasting impact." Why? How is trust a factor?
4. Discuss: "Making lasting change in individual behavior involves changing the mindset of the person's perceived barriers. People do what they think they can do." How have you seen this principle at work in health promotion and patient teaching?
5. After assessing a patient using the Hunger Vital Sign(TM) tool, you identify food insecurity. What could you do to initiate intervention?
6. In the context of food insecurity, wrestle with Psalm 147:2-14 (NIV).
The Nurse-Chaplain-Family Spiritual Care Triad
Read Stutzman, Sonemanghkara, & Rozo, 112-118.
1. Nurses in this study reported that spirituality is the quality of engagement in one's emotional well-being, when dealing with end-of-life issues. How do you define spirituality? How does your definition direct your provision of end-of-life care?
2. Have you worked alongside a chaplain? How was your experience? What was helpful? Chat with us at https://www.facebook.com/ncfnurses/
3. The author states: "Family members perceived that the nurses' role was to care for the physical needs of their loved one, whereas chaplains were there to care for the emotional needs of those involved." To what degree do you agree with that statement?
4. Read Isaiah 41:13 (NIV). How might these words offer comfort and hope? What biblical passages do you find to be supportive and encouraging in hard times?
Grief Work
Read Fish Mooney, 124.
1. Read the poem, This Morning. What feelings or thoughts does this poem elicit?
2. Describe grief based on your life experience. The author compares grief to gray skies and pouring rain. What image does grief bring to your mind?
3. What are the various stages of grief? How did your patient/friend/family member work through the stages?
4. Reading the poem, what stage of grief might the author be experiencing?
5. Psalm 6:5-7 (ESV), "I am weary with my moaning; every night I flood my bed with tears; I drench my couch with my weeping. My eye wastes away because of grief; it grows weak because of all my foes." What comfort might you offer when another is awash in this level of grieving? What comfort would you wish for?