LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
As a nursing instructor, I appreciate the Journal of Christian Nursing to help me remain current in evidence-based nursing practice from a Christian perspective. I role model staying current in evidence-based practice to nursing students by using current articles for required reading related to the concepts we are covering in class. Additionally, I point out the articles that have continuing education credit and how to find those articles to use once students enter practice.
This past fall, we reviewed our nursing program outcomes with the nursing students. One of our nursing program outcomes is to practice Christian compassion and caring in the provision of professional nursing care. As I talked about showing Christ's compassion to our patients, I read the beginning scenario of McCormick and Painter's (2021) article on caring for incarcerated pregnant women. I challenged students to see if they potentially had any biases toward caring for this type of patient. We discussed the strategies to be compassionate in our nursing practice in all situations, pointing out the strategies listed in McCormick and Painter's article.
Nurses Christian Fellowship (NCF) provides additional resources such as the spiritual assessment and care pocket guide which I print out on card stock and provide to the junior nursing students when they learn about spiritual assessments. The card not only reminds the students how to do a spiritual assessment, but the card also provides suggestions for interventions.
Denise Pederson, PhD, RN, FCN, assistant professor, Crown College
The article, "Faith Community Nursing: Identifying and Combating Social Isolation" (38.4) is very relevant. Because of health issues, I was confined to bed recently. My church elders and pastors and their wives and the head deacon came to my house and anointed me with oil. The congregation provided meals, flowers, cards, and texts. Every few days, a deacon sent texts with flowers, memes, and the like. A member of the church came and washed and cut my hair. People called and spoke words of life and hope to me. I realize what a blessing it is to be part of a supportive community.
Roberta Paige, MA, BS, RN, CCM, Portsmouth, VA
SPIRITUAL CARE FOR NURSES
As nurses, we were taught how to promote spiritual care for individuals, families, and communities. Meeting others' spiritual care needs affects not only spiritual health, but also physical and emotional health.
We nurses have these same needs. We bring all that we are to the work we do-and the work has gotten even more challenging over these past months. Recognizing the unique stresses we each have experienced during the pandemic prompted the Twin Cities NCF professional nurse group to tackle this question: How do we as nurses promote spiritual care for each other?
We also have a series of three webinars. Please join us on May 10, 2022 at 7 p.m. (Central) for the final webinar in this series. Previous videos can be accessed at https://ncf-jcn.org/resources/spiritual-care-nurses. Topics include "Who Is Going to Care for Me? Addressing the Challenges We Face in Our Profession Today" and "Practicing as a Spiritually Healthy Nurse: Thriving Through Today's Challenges."
PRAY AND BE PRAYED FOR
Prayer should be a healing and strengthening resource for every nurse. Nurses Christian Fellowship provides several avenues to be involved in prayer and to receive prayer when you need it.
* Sunday nights (6 p.m. Central), NCF staff connect via Zoom with students and nurses to pray together online. Email mailto:[email protected] to register for the link.
* A monthly prayer calendar identifies prayer needs and ways to praise God related to NCF's ministry to nurses, students, and faculty. Receive this via email each month or look under Resources on the NCF website (http://ncf-jcn.org).
* How can we pray for you? Submit requests at the Prayer Calendar/requests page under Resources at http://ncf-jcn.org.
* Join the NCF Prayer Team. Participate with others in praying for the needs of nurses across the country. You'll receive prayer requests and updates via email. (These requests must be kept confidential.) https://nurses.events.intervarsity.org/ncf-prayer-team-sign-up
Coming soon in JCN
* Instilling Prayer as a Cultural and Spiritual Nursing Intervention
* Nurses Bridging the Racial Divide
* Identifying Mental Health Needs in the Faith Community
* Nursing As Calling: Using the Pedagogy of Reflection While on Mission
* Storytelling: An Educational Intervention for Oral Learners