A Parish Nursing Model: Applying the Community Health Nursing Process in a Church Community

Abstract

Parish nursing is a community health nursing role developed in 1983 by Lutheran chaplain Granger Westberg. Operating in churches, parish nurses promote wellness by holistically addressing the physical, emotional, and spiritual needs of congregational community members (Beal, 1994; Solari-Twadell & Westberg, 1991; Westberg, 1990). Parish nurses provide education, advocacy, counseling, and screening. Hands-on care is not a focus. Specific activities include volunteer training and coordination, support-group development and facilitation, liaison within the formal health care system, referral to community resources, health education, role modeling of holistic wellness, and health counseling (via individual or group health screening and home or institutional visitation; Solari-Twadell & Westberg, 1991). Although broad functional categories are similar from church to church, four different support models for parish nursing have been described (Solari-Twadell & Westberg, 1991; Striepe, 1989; Westberg, 1990). In the institutional/paid model, the parish nurse is employed by a hospital, community agency, or long-term care facility, which contracts with one or more churches and provides salary, benefits, institutional support, and supervision. In the institutional/volunteer model the nurse volunteers his or her time, but a relationship exists between the church and an institution, which may involve the provision of a stipend to the nurse or congregation and/or education and supervision. The congregational/paid model involves employment of the nurse directly by the congregation with support, benefits, and supervision from the church itself. Nurses working in this model often form resource and support networks with other parish nurses in their geographic areas. The congregational/volunteer model is similar, except that the nurse volunteers his or her time.

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