Thinking Christianly
About Nursing
Volume 19, Number 3 Summer 2002
Article Summaries
Editorial-
Why Nurses Need to Think by Judith Allen Shelly
This editorial addresses the need for Christian nurses
to consider what and why they provide the kind of care
they do. It is not good enough for nurses to know what
to do; we must also know why we are doing it. Excellence
begins with the hard work of thinking about what
is true and right. This editorial challenges readers to
think on these things.
Divine
Appointment by Patricia Orr
Orr tells of a patient named Henry with whom she has the
opportunity to care for over the process of several years.
During this time Orr has the opportunity to gently ask
Henry about his spiritual beliefs. Gradually, Henry is
introduced to simple booklets about Christianity.
Who
Needs Theories, Anyhow? Critical Thinking About Faith,
Reason and Nursing Theory by Bonnie J. Miller
Miller writes asking nurses to think carefully and critically
about the importance of nursing theories and what is regarded
as truth. Miller attempts to clarify what theorists are
saying by providing an evaluation tool to help students
find the underlying foundational beliefs of nursing theorists.
The tool asks nurses to consider what the theorist believes
about the origin and destiny of humankind, the nature
and character of self/others, the purpose of what exists.
Part of the evaluation focuses on issues related to suffering/disease,
death/dying, right/wrong, sin, hope and joy.
Miller outlines the work
of major theorist such as Martha Rogers, Jean Watson,
Rosemarie Rizzo Parse, and Betty Neuman. Here Miller contrasts
the worldview of each theorist and compares that worldview
with Christian thoughts. Worldviews generally reflect
one of three frameworks: mechanistic, organismic or Christian.
Miller walks reads through the evaluation of each of these
aspects.
Miller leaves readers with
the challenge for Christian nursing scholars to articulate
a clear, consistent Christian philosophy of nursing that
will provide a foundation for further development of nursing
theories.
Faith
and Nursing: Adjusting Nursing Theories to Christian Beliefs
by Diane Stegmeir
Christian students, nurses and faculty need a good working
knowledge of nursing theories. Some theories however may
include concepts that are inconsistent with Christian
beliefs. Many nursing theorists draw from a variety of
philosophies, worldviews and concepts. Stegmeir's article
examines how the concept of spirituality in these nursing
theories compares to Christian beliefs. She suggests that
Christian nurses adjust these theories to reflect Christian
beliefs.
Stegmeir outlines the work
of three theorists: Jean Watson, Margaret Newman and Rosemarie
Parse. Much of the content of their theories deals with
transcendence. They also discuss related ideas such as
spirituality, energy fields and the transpersonal.
Does
"Adjusting" Go Far Enough? by Kathy Schoonover-Shoffner
In this sidebar, Schoonover-Shoffner responds to the Stegmeir
article by saying Christians need to go beyond adjusting
some aspects of Watson's, Parse's and Newman's theories
for our own nursing and faith practices. Shoonover-Shoffner
believes that as Christians we should not utilize theories
with worldviews contrary to the Christian view as taught
in the Bible. The author views Shelly and Miller's Called
to Care: A Christian Theology of Nursing as an answer
to Stegmeir's challenge to develop an appropriate Christian
alternative to the current energy-based and transcendent
theories available in nursing education today.
A
Time-tested Tool: The SWB Scale in Nursing Research by
Raymond Paloutzian
This article explains the development and use of the Spiritual
Well-Being Scale. The Spiritual Well-Being Scale (SWBS)
measures religious well-being (RWB) and existential well-being
(EWB). These combined assess one's overall self-assessment
of spiritual well-being (SWB).
Often asked questions about
the SWBS include: God or Higher Power? People completing
the scale may interpret the word God in whatever way is
psychologically relevant to them. Children? The
SWBS can be used as long as it is done carefully, and
the scores are properly interpreted with the developmental
level of the children in mind. Clinical-Counseling
Use? Probably the greatest practical, applied use
of the SWBS is in clinical-counseling settings with patients
who have low SWB and for whom increasing it is expected
to help the patient improve in other dimensions as well.
The SWB Scale is included
as part of the article.
Reflections
on Nursing:
This four-part series of articles reflects on
various stages and struggles, as well as dreams, of being
a nurse.
Can
I Really Be the Ideal Nurse? by Jill McCullough
This is the first story in the Reflections on Nursing
series. McCullough provides a first-hand account of a
young nurse faced with tough decisions on the job where
she is manager of a thirty-four-bed oncology unit in a
community hospital. With a short tenure, she is uncertain
about returning after her baby is born. She wants to finish
well. The nursing shortage, management concerns, market
and business driven decision often conflict with being
an ideal nurse.
Mentored
into Shalom by Elizabeth Tweedy
The second in the Reflections on Nursing series, a young
nursing student accounts the impact of a woman, who happens
to be a nurse, as this woman serves as a spiritual mentor
and personal encourager to Elizabeth and her family.
Called
to Serve by Julie Kieffer
In this the third story in Reflections on Nursing, Julie
feels honored to be called to a profession as humbling
as nursing. Caring for others brings satisfaction that
she could not find elsewhere. Nursing work is often be
behind the scenes, but Kieffer reminds us that God sees
our efforts and blesses us for them.
I
Want to Be a Nurse! by Kimberly Kipe
The fourth part in Reflections on Nursing tells of a young
woman's dreams to become a nurse. Kipe shares five goals
for her nursing career.
What
Do You Think?
Has nursing been a satisfying career decision for you?
Share your thoughts and feeling about nursing using the
JCN Nursing Satisfaction Scale. Log onto our site
at: www.ncf-jcn.org to participate. On the home page,
see "Survey." The survey will continue through
December 31, 2002. Results will be reported in the Summer
03 issue of JCN.
In
Defense of Life: When Conscience and Career Conflict by
Marianne Linane
"I was given your name by a pro-life group in my
state. I was told at work that I had to participate in
an abortion procedure. Is there anything I can do?"
Although this has become a rather routine question for
me as executive director of the National Association of
Pro-Life Nurses, they are words I always dread. It means
another nurse is paying the price for her pro-life beliefs.
Linane tells the story of
a nurse who is forced to assist in an abortion procedure
and the negative impact this has on her life. Through
legal proceedings this nurse learns that her objections
to the procedure should have been in writing.
Linane says that nurses often find themselves on the unpopular
side of issues since many nurses, by nature, are an altruistic
group who will rise to the defense of the vulnerable and
the defenseless. Often this causes conscience and career
to conflict.
No
Excuses! Consistent Christian Living by Linda Johanson
Author Linda Johanson asks readers to consider whether
a behavior is acceptable or an excuse. She provides four
considerations. The first step is to think about the behavior
itself. Second, consider the behavior from God's perspective.
Third, examine the impact on others. Finally, ask, "What
is my conscience saying?"
Johanson provides several
situations where readers can look at the behavior of the
nurse involved, using the previously mentioned guidelines
to decide if the actions are acceptable from God's perspective
or if they represent excuses.
Clara
Maass: A Young Woman's Lasting Gift by Marcena Walker
This historical account tells the story of young Clara
Maass and her lasting gift to the world. Although three
years too young, Clara applied and was accepted at the
Christina Trefz Training School of Nurses at Newark German
Hospital. In 1895, at age nineteen, Clara graduated from
nursing school. Following graduation, Nurse Maass stayed
on staff at the German Hospital. At twenty-one, Clara's
volunteered for duty in the Spanish-American War. In fall
1899, Clara wrote to the surgeon general asking to be
sent to the Philippine Islands. She was accepted and sent
to the Field Reserve Hospital in Manila, where she cared
for soldiers who had freed the city from the Spanish in
the recent war. Her patients were sick with typhoid, pneumonia,
malaria, and dengue fever and, perhaps the worst, yellow
fever.
Clara offers to be bitten
by mosquitoes suspected of carrying the deadly disease.
By offering herself, she was given a chance to help advance
medical science and to develop an immunity, which would
help in her work with yellow fever victims. The experiments
ended with her death, since the hypothesis about the etiology
of yellow fever had been proved beyond question, and it
was evident the bite of infected mosquitoes could not
be used as a safe way to provide immunity.
Fifty years after her death,
Cuba issued a postage stamp in honor of Clara Maass. Clara's
legacy continued to grow. Today the Clara Maass Medical
Center carries on her spirit of caring and adventure,
administering quality health care in her name.
Camillus
De Lellis: From Gambler to Servant of the Sick by Carol
Harrison
Camillus De Lellis focused his efforts on preparing nurses
to care for the poor, the imprisoned and the dying. After
a rowdy early life, he experienced a major conversion.
Since his mind was preoccupied with the idea of serving
the sick and the desire to enter religious life, he began
to picture what he was doing with the sick as a future
religious order. After completing his studies, Camillus
was ordained and started his order with a small band of
men. The company soon became known as Ministers of the
Sick. They followed Camillus's example of serving the
sick in hospitals, in homes, in jails and on the streets.
In a true sense, Camillus recognized the importance of
whole-person care.
The man who once was a trooper
and a gambler now gave constant nursing care to beggars,
prisoners and anyone in need. When his end came at the
age of sixty-five, forty years after his conversion, the
masses called out that the "father of the poor is
dead.
Susie
Kim: Role Model of Excellence by Carol Findlay
In June 2001, the International Council of Nurses' (ICN)
Congress in Copenhagen, Denmark, awarded Dr. Susie Kim
the International Achievement Award for Nursing Excellence
from the ICN Florence Nightingale International Foundation.
This award is likened to the Nobel Prize of nursing.
In an interview with Susie
Kim, Carol Findlay tells us about Kim's role model of
excellence. Susie views the recognition that accompanies
this award as something that comes from doing what a Christian
nurse should do. In nursing, and among Christian nurses,
we need role models-faithful Christian nurse leaders that
we can look at and say, "So that is what a Christian
nurse looks like." Susie Kim is a role model of a
Christian nurse in South Korea and around the world.
Cyndi Bradbury: Turning Adversity
into Compassion by Dawn Elders
Elders introduces us to Cyndi Bradbury, a nurse with the
remarkable ability to turn adversity into compassion.
In her personal life, Cyndi faced breast cancer while
simultaneously preparing to begin a medical mission outreach
to those in need. The story tells of Cyndi's faith and
determination to help those in need while battling for
her own life.
Today, Cyndi is healthy
and working to open new doors of service for Project Compassion.
She continues to share her vision of reaching others with
the gospel, her passion for providing health care for
the poorest of poor and inspiring those around her to
be open to what the Lord can do.
When
Caring Comes Hard by Kristene Diggins
In this sidebar, Diggins reflects on her attitude toward
a young boy who was always in trouble. One day, he comes
to Diggins in need of medical attention. Diggins finds
her attitude is less than Christlike as she begins treating
the young boy. However, the Lord turned her sense of annoyance
into a love for the boy. Eventually, the boy begins asking
faith related questions. The article serves as a good
reminder that nurses can only treat patients with love
when they allow the Holy Spirit to love others through
them.
Needed:
Christian Presence in Holistic Nursing by Charlotte Eliopoulos
Recent years have brought holistic nursing care into great
visibility, particularly as consumers are increasingly
aware of the relationship of mind, body and spirit to
health and healing. Many of these therapies promote holistic
approaches that address the spiritual dimensions of care.
The spiritual dimensions of health are recognized as significant
in holistic care, but unfortunately, Jesus Christ tends
to have a minor presence when spirituality is considered.
Eliopoulos believes Christian
nurses should not retreat from mainstream holistic nursing
circles but rather view them as ministry opportunities.
She states that Christian nurses must engage with colleagues
so that their lives-and ultimately the lives they touch-can
be changed by hearing the good new of Christ's love. The
messages and practices encountered in holistic nursing
circles may not be comfortable for Christians, yet, they
will not be changed unless Christians enter these circles
and allow the Lord to work through them there.
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2002 Issue
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