Connecting Faith & Health
Volume 16, Number 2 Summer 1999

Article Summaries

Editorial: Does Believing Make Us Healthy? by Judith Allen Shelly

 

The Healing Power of Prayer by Marylou Rubin

This nurse tells the stories of three patients with whom she shared times of prayer and illustrates how God has answered prayer in the lives of family members, as well.

Breaking the Spiritual Care Barrier by Janice E. Hurley

In her role as a professor of psych nursing, the author recognizes that barriers exist that prevent nurses from assessing for and attempting to meet the spiritual needs of patients. She addresses these eight barriers and proposes ways to resolve them.

Congregational Care: Reaching Out to the Elderly by Mary Ellen Lashley

Lashley feels that parish nurses have a unique role to address the spiritual needs of the older client. As a nursing professor, she has successfully involved nursing students from a local university into the church to learn health promotion and public health principles.

Prayer Research: What Are We Measuring? by Donal O'Mathuna

Studies have shown that more patients would like their caregivers to offer to pray with them, but doctors and nurses aren't doing it. But many define prayer in generic terms, unacceptable to biblical Christians. O'Mathuna cautions readers about basing conclusions about the effectiveness of prayer on scientific research and gives scriptural guidelines for praying for healing.

Dancing with Dianna by Sylvia Aftonomos

A nurse has an amazing opportunity to share God's truth from the Bible when giving one-on-one care to a troubled teenager.

When Hope Comes Hard by Frances C. Hansen

The author gave up her job as a public health nurse to care for her chronically-ill husband. She describes a typical day, sharing her emotions and the comfort only God can give in an exhausting, difficult, long-term situation.

Nursing the Soul: A Team Approach by Kristen L. Easton & Jonathan C. Andrews

With holistic care as the goal, these co-authors present a strong case for bringing the local pastor on as a member of the health care team. They show the benefits of this added perspective for both the patient and the caregivers.

One Body, Many Parts by Beverly White

The author takes the biblical teaching on the various gifts necessary to make up a healthy church in 1 Corinthians 12:14-26 and applies it specifically to the nursing profession.

Give Me Children or I'll Die: Easing the Spiritual Pain of Infertility by Roy Ann Sherrod

Sherrod's observation as both a client struggling with infertility and as a nursing professor is that the spiritual care needs of these couples are seldom addressed or met. She outlines three specific interventions caregivers can use to be used by God in these sensitive situations.

Formula for a Miracle by Parnel Plante

This burn patient was given a zero percent chance of survival. He tells us about the way God met his needs throughout the long healing process and which caregivers were used in a special way in his life.

My Name Is Jim: Do You Know Me? By Nancy L. Wallace

The author's father was struck with a deadly, mysterious disease, and the family felt he was not receiving good care when they weren't at his hospital bedside. They come up with a creative solution that worked.

Where Was Jesus Tonight? By Kathleen A. Simmelink

This emergency-room nurse knows when to offer words of help and comfort, and when it's wiser to enter into a person's pain by offering her silent presence.

Return to the Summer 1999 Issue

Return to the Journal of Christian Nursing