Parish Nursing can be defined simply as: the concept of promoting health, wellness, and healing within the values, beliefs, and practices of a faith community. Caring for the body and the soul promotes wellness of the whole person.

It started in Park Ridge, IL in 1983, when Reverend Granger Westberg created the concept of Parish Nursing after being challenged by physicians. Reverend Westberg, a hospital chaplain, was also on the faculty of the Department of Preventative Medicine at the University of Illinois College of Medicine. (He went on to serve there for fourteen years and became a pioneer in the relationship between religion and medicine.)

The ongoing dialogue he had with the physicians regarding good health and preventative medicine boiled down to a philosophical difference. The physicians only wanted to be involved with the mechanical aspects of treating the "really sick" and they wanted Westberg to deal with the education and "outlook on life" issues regarding families, morals, and religion as it pertained to being "healthy." Westberg responded with the Parish Nurse Project.

This project was a way to respond to the scientific community's demand for research, which could actually demonstrate the faith community's role in preventative medicine. The experiment involved placing registered nurses on the staff of congregations, who conducted a wide-range of programs in preventative medicine and wellness care. They served a few hours a week in their own congregations, some were volunteers and others were paid. The thought being, according to Westberg, that nurses have "one foot in the humanities and the other in the sciences and have an uncanny ability to act as catalysts in the process."

There were four significant findings of this experiment:

1. Nurses were very interested in combining their religious concerns with their medical education.
2. Interest was not limited to any particular group of society.
3. Catholic and protestant churches, and synagogues, worked extremely well together in this project.
4. Community hospitals, religious or secular, were interested in this model; it was seen as a link with the local community.

The experiment was so successful that in 1984 the Parish Nursing Program was established. Spreading very quickly, Parish Nursing became a viable program throughout the USA and Canada and is now in over 5000 congregations. Many different models have been established as this concept has evolved, some are volunteers, some are paid, some are church based, and others are community based. The model used depends on the needs and resources of the faith community.

The church is the only community-based organization that is found in virtually every community in this country. A nurse in the congregation is seen as a friend and fellow member of the congregation and therefore, more approachable. The Parish Nurse is not in competition with health care providers or other services available through the faith community. It is a complimentary role. It is true, no hands-on care is performed, but the nurse helps people access the systems already in place. There is no duplication of efforts; efforts should be coordinated to maximize whole-health wellness. So, what do Parish Nurses actually do?

The Parish Nurse acts as a health:
Counselor
Educator
Referral source
Support facilitator

The primary interest in a faith-based health ministry is to help people assume responsibility for their own health and develop insight into the many causes of illness. Providing information and making people aware of health risks while maintaining the spiritual component are key functions of parish nursing. In other words, understanding that health care is part of the stewardship of one's life!

The fundamental difference between Parish Nursing and other types of nursing is the connection between spirituality and health. In Bernie Siegel's, book, Love, Medicine, and Miracles, he writes, "We don't yet understand all the ways in which our brain chemicals are related to emotions and thoughts, but the salient point is that our state of mind has an immediate and direct affect on our state of body."

The Parish Nurse can play an important role in the physical, emotional, and spiritual growth of the congregation by:

• Focusing on wellness and disease prevention through education
• Creating a whole-person approach to health involving body, mind, and spirit
• Understanding and promoting the relationship between faith and health.

Historically, caring for the sick has been the church's domain. According to The Health Ministries Association, "All faith communities are filled with examples of kindness, concern, and caring for those who are ill, these faith communities are just reclaiming their right to promote health and healing." Reverend Westberg took that thought a step further when he said, "This is a time in history when the church [faith communities] sorely need to help motivate people to put body, mind, and spirit together and to convince them that the integration of these three can lead to truth, health, and wholeness."

Most health problems are related to lifestyle and are preventable. Research on the immune system and other studies on what keeps people healthy have identified the following important factors:

• Hope (a spiritual energy that activates the human will).
• Religious belief and faith in a higher power.
• Meditation and prayer.
• A sense of meaning and purpose in life.
• Belonging, a sense of connectedness to others (individuals and small groups).
• A sense of responsibility.
• A positive self-image.
• Touch and love.

Therefore:

1. These are spiritual factors and traditional areas for faith community involvement.
2. Faith communities can empower people to make positive lifestyle changes through the understanding that health integrates body, mind, and spirit.
3. The church is a strategic place where all elements of health and healing can be discussed.
4. Here people can learn and be nurtured.

There are now undergraduate and graduate degree programs in many colleges and universities and it is a recognized nursing specialty by the ANA (American Nurses Association). The ANA, in conjunction with The Health Ministries Association, has established Standards of Practice for Parish Nursing along with guidelines to help nurses or faith community leaders create programs for their congregations. This is a growing specialty for nurses, whether as a volunteer or salaried, in a faith community or in a clinical setting, the need is there for nurses who seek to promote wellness with a spiritual dimension.