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This
issue marks Journal of Christian Nursing’s
20th anniversary. Since spring 1984, we have been
trying to define and encourage Christian nursing—helping
nurses see nursing through the eyes of faith. This
issue of JCN also concludes my tenure as
editor, so it seems appropriate to focus on outcomes.
What
makes Christian nursing different from any other
kind of nursing? Can we measure the outcomes of
Christian nursing? Have we accomplished our purpose
for JCN?
According
to most traditional nurse historians, nursing grew
out of the life and teachings of Jesus Christ.1
If this is so, then we need to look at the
ministry goals and outcomes of Jesus.
According
to the Scriptures, Jesus expressed a three-fold
mission:2
• healing the sick
• restoring the relationship between God and his
people, and
• restoring people to the human community.
In
today’s nursing, we’d call that whole person
care—attending to the physical, spiritual and
psychosocial needs of those in our care. In surveying
the healing accounts in the Gospels and Acts, it
appears that Jesus and the apostles would have no
trouble being accredited as effective health care
providers. Everyone
who sought healing was physically cured. In almost
all of the situations, the biblical accounts indicate
that the healed persons were restored to their communities
as functioning members. Lepers came out of their
legally imposed isolation. Blind beggars went back
to their families. The disabled got up and walked
home.
Interestingly,
not all of those healed were reported as having
their spiritual needs met. Sometimes the issue just
didn’t come up, such as when Jesus healed Peter’s
mother-in-law of a high fever (Mt 8:14-15) or when
he restored a Roman soldier’s severed ear (Lk 22:47-51).
However, when Jesus healed the ten lepers, although
all ten were cured of leprosy, only one came back
to thank him. To that man Jesus replied, “Get up
and go on your way; your faith has made you well”
(Lk 17:11-19). There was a fuller dimension to his
healing that the other nine did not experience.
See www.ncf-jcn.org/jcn/archive/04sp/04sp_jsp3.html
for a full overview of the healing accounts in Scripture.
So
what does this mean for Christian nursing? We, too,
have a three-fold ministry. Excellent physical care
ranks high in the mix, but it is incomplete without
good psychosocial support and spiritual care. We
won’t cure every client physically. Our outcomes
may be even less successful when it comes to patching
up families and communities. Spiritual outcomes
may feel pretty discouraging, but once in a while
God uses us in amazing ways. When that happens,
we are usually taken by surprise.
The
ultimate outcome of good spiritual care is always
restoration of a person’s relationship with God.
That may include better physical and emotional health,
but we may not see those results. Spiritual healing
usually does include reconciliation in human relationships,
the ability to forgive others and accept forgiveness,
to love and to be loved. It brings fresh meaning
and purpose to life and a sense of hope.
In
this issue you will meet some reluctant evangelists
who experienced Christian nursing at its best. Their
stories will surprise and delight you. The outcomes
speak for themselves.
As
Christian nurses, we continue to be Christ’s heart
and hands in today’s hurting world.
Although
I will miss editing JCN, I turn it over into
good hands. Kathy Schoonover-Shoffner has a heart
for the Lord and for nursing. She is bright, perceptive
and prayerful. You will not be disappointed with
coming issues.
My
own efforts will now turn toward the aspects of
my job as Nurses Christian Fellowship publications
director that have been sitting on the back burner
for the past fourteen years—developing NCF’s full
line of publications and directing the new NCF Press.
I will also supervise Kathy in her work with JCN
but give her the freedom to make her unique mark
on JCN. Please welcome, encourage and support
Kathy. She is here to serve you and Christian nursing—JAS
1See,
for example, Patricia Donahue, Nursing, The Finest
Art, second edition (St. Louis: Mosby, 1996):p.
75.
2For Jesus' ministry goals see Mt 9:12-13; Lk 4:18-19;
Lk 10:8-10 and Jn 10:10.
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