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Heart and soul: Parish nurses fill a niche

Nurses provide care.

Doctors provide treatment.

Hospitals provide technology, knowledge and staff.

That’s good for your body, but illness also is hard on your mind and spirit.

Parish nurses understand. For years they have been working quietly to make those connections.

Parish nursing is a specialty branch of nursing.

“The difference is that you’re working out of a faith institution,” said Pat Scott, parish nurse at First Congregational Church, Janesville. “You’re combining the body, mind and spirit.

Scott is a registered nurse with a bachelor’s degree in science, and after years of traditional nursing, studied parish nursing at Marquette University in 1999.

A parish nurse’s job is a complicated mix of nursing, education, advocacy and spiritual support.

-- Education: Parish nurses spread their knowledge through articles in church bulletins and special seminars on topics such as depression, diabetes or coping with cancer.

Karla Tildahl, parish nurse at Faith Evangelical Lutheran Church in Walworth, has written pieces for her parish bulletin on topics ranging from “Finding Joy” to “Eating for Heart Health.”

-- Advocacy: The medical system is complicated enough. Navigating the world of post-hospital medical services is even more challenging. What help is available? Which nursing home or assisted living would be best?

Scott once took a daughter of an ill parishioner around to different nursing homes and assisted-living centers, helping her find the right fit for her parent’s needs.

Parish nurses know where the resources are, understand how to qualify for them and—perhaps most important—know how to communicate with harried medical staff.

-- Nursing. Scott and others stressed that parish nurses don’t duplicate any services already available, and they don’t do any invasive procedures, such as blood draws.

But they might take a blood pressure or a temperature reading. And they inquire about general health, medicines or special diets.

-- Spiritual support: Parish nurses provide shut-ins, nursing home residents and others a tangible connection to their church communities.

“When I’m visiting a shut-in, we often talk about what’s going on in church life,” Scott said.

For many people, the church community is the only family they have left.

Parish nurses have the time, training and understanding to answer tough questions about suffering and loss.

“People with strong faith can have a physical or mental illness and their faith helps them get through it or, at least, live with it,” Scott said.

It’s all about making connections—between body and spirit, patient and services and nurse and sufferer.

When Dorothy Gridley, a member of First Congregational Church, was disabled temporarily because of a back problem, Scott was a regular visitor.

“She mainly provided encouragement and counseling,” Gridley said. “She’s a liaison, a pathway to other services.”

Several other local churches have parish nurses, including Good Shepard Lutheran in Janesville and Seventh Day Baptist in Milton.

Soon, there might be more.

Mercy Health System is considering expanding its support of its current parish nurse program. Officials aren’t ready to roll out all of the details. But Mercy’s Pastoral Care Coordinator, the Rev. Doug Dowling, said he hopes to provide more education to current and prospective parish nurses.

Officials also anticipate being able to cover liability insurance under the health system.

Liability insurance has been a stumbling block for many churches, Dowling said.

Currently, parish nurses meet at Mercy every other month from September to May for education and networking, Dowling said.

Mercy also has helped with scholarships and grant programs and practical items such as stethoscopes and educational materials.

“Parish nurses provide a unique service,” Dowling said.

The Rev. Steve Umhoefer of St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Janesville is determined to establish a parish nurse program in his community, and thinks Mercy’s program can help get it going.

“I’ve always thought it was an important ministry of the church,” Umhoefer said. “I think that it’s really following in the steps of Jesus, who was always compassionate to the sick.”

Faith and the support of a church community can bring peace and strength to the critically ill or the desperately lonely.

Faith isn’t a magic cure, nor does it deny the reality of suffering.

“Think about when you were little, and you weren’t feeling well, and your mom held you in her lap,” Umhoefer said. “She was doing something therapeutic; it made you feel better.”

The “applying the prayer of the church” is sort of like that embrace. It’s not magic, but its effects are tangible.

“People realize that God is in this with them,” Umhoefer said.

Parish nurses understand that, and often their work becomes more of a ministry than a job.

“It’s the best of both worlds,” Scott said. “I get to work with the spiritual elements of people’s lives and with the medical elements. It just seemed like the natural flow of my professional life.”