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Parish Nursing Model
Overview
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Overview
Historically, churchwomen have been attending homes of parishioners and the community to provide health care as far back as the third century. In the United States, they started to implement health ministry programs within congregations by the nineteenth century. The identified need of holistic care has led to the development of an independent nursing practice role called parish nursing. Parish nursing is a specialized practice of nursing and health ministry.
Leaders of the church and nurses share a common thought and goal. The goal is to empower people to reach their full potential. Both believe in the self-care capacity of people and both believe that healing can always occur, even when a cure is not possible (Simington, Olson & Douglass, 1996).
A holistic view of health requires the attention to physicial, psychological, social, and spiritual aspects and their integration to each other. With effective integration the client will experience harmony with self, others, their environment and their spiritual beliefs that give an overwhelming sense of well-beiing. In the practice of parish nursing, spirituality is central and this causes it to be a specialized practice of professional nursing.
Other members of the interdisciplinary framework include clergy and other faith community members. The ministerial team consult and plan for the care of the congregation together. They work interdependently within their own professional expertise while sharing the goal of the 'whole' client within the team.
Parish nurses incorporate the spiritual beliefs of the clients in their nursing process that enables their spirituality to become an integral part of the healing process. Parish nurses develop care plans based partly on the spiritual beliefs of the client. Without the focus of spirituality in the healing process, reduced benefits of nursing intervention to a client's physical and emotional condition might not be optimum. Parish nursing incorporates spirituality (prayers for the client)into the nursing care plan. This plan is shared with the other interdisciplinary ministerial team.
More information concerning Parish Nursing can be found at Canadian Association for Parish Nursing Ministry.
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