Recommended Resources

Improving the Lives of Older Adults through Faith Community Partnerships: Healing Body, Mind and Spirit

Elders and Faith Community Partnerships webinar (May 5, 2017)

• View the recording online
• Download the PowerPoint Presentation

Recommended Reading

Blessed Hanna Chrzanowska, RN: A Nurse of Mercy, the first lay registered nurse to be beatified, recounts the extraordinary life of a holy, 20th-century woman whose tireless efforts to serve her patients both medically and spiritually - even in the face of Communist oppression - changed Polish healthcare and the worldwide Catholic Church.
Order the book

CHA Resources

Resources of interest to the Catholic parish nurse

• Health Progress Special Section: Caring for Those Who Suffer
  • Prayer and Hope in Times of Suffering
  • The Nature and Treatment of Human Suffering
  • Loneliness: A Global Pandemic
  • His Name was Liam
  • Virtual Reality Therapy Helps Ease Veterans' PTSD
  • Building a Program for Trafficking Survivors
  • 'Helpers' Learn to Connect, Not Control
  • Catholic Church Walks With the Haitian People
  • Suffering and Happiness: Are They Mutually Exclusive?
  • At Heart, Global Health Draws on Compassion, Solidarity and Justice
  • Suffering Is in the Knowing We Hurt
• ICAN Prevent Diabetes Wellness Program Offer
• Prayer for Parish Nurses
• Benedictine enlists parish volunteers to keep seniors Independent — Catholic Health World, March 15, 2011
• Catholic Health Association: Nursing
• Elder and Continuing Care — Contains links to webinars and resources concerning the spiritual care of the older adult
• Nurses Link Health, Spirituality in the Parish — Health Progress, May-June 2010

Catholic Support

Basis for health ministry in the parish setting and the parish nursing role

• Body and Soul
• A Time to Be Old
• Encyclical — "Caritas in Veritate"
• International Catholic Committee of Nurses and Medico-Socio Assistants
• Seven Themes of Catholic Social Teaching
• USCCB Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services

In the News and Media

Articles pertaining specifically to parish nursing, as well as, Catholic news in general to keep the parish nurse informed

• What RNs Can Do to Improve the Health of Their Communities
• Faith communities are reclaiming their role in preparing us for death
• Age Friendly - Creating Age-Friendly Health Systems
• Mercy Parish Nurse Program to offer 'foundations of faith nursing' prep
• Parish Nurses segment from PBS' Ethics and Religion program
• Professional Issues A Renewed Look at Faith Community Nursing
• Letter to Editor Response to the Article: Professional Issues A Renewed Look at Faith Community Nursing printed in the Online Journal of Issues in Nursing
• Catholic Online
• Catholics on the Net
• Holy Cross Parish Nursing Newsletter
• National Catholic Reporter: Parish Nursing Series (1)
• National Catholic Reporter: Parish Nursing Series (2)
• National Catholic Reporter: Parish Nursing Series (3)
• National Catholic Reporter: Parish Nursing Series (4)
• National Catholic Reporter: Parish Nursing Series (5)
• National Catholic Reporter: Parish Nursing Series (6)
• National Catholic Reporter: Parish Nursing Series (7)

Materials from Previous Networking Calls:
Suicide Prevention from a Faith Community Nurse Perspective
Cari Moodie, RN - Coordinator, Faith Community Nursing 
Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center

Centura Health - Lawrence Seidl, Group Vice President, Mission Integration, South State Operating Group, Penrose-St. Francis Health Services

• Healthy Church Initiative article
• Healthy Church Initiative webinar

Faith Community Nurse Networking Calls

The Catholic Health Association (CHA) is pleased to host networking calls among parish/congregational nurses working with Catholic parishes, Catholic hospitals or other Catholic health care organizations.

Learn more

End-of-Life Ethics Guides

These ethics publications, available in English and Spanish, are designed to help patients, families and caregivers think about end-of-life decisions and prepare an advance health care directive. CHA has developed these in collaboration with physicians, nurses, theologians and ethicists within Catholic health care. Although a reflection of the perspective of Catholic tradition, the information is helpful to persons from any religious tradition.

Teachings of the Catholic Church: Caring for People at
the End of Life
Download the PDF (English | Spanish)
Order in the CHA Store

CHA-Member Resources

A variety of resources to support the parish nurse and his/her many roles (including links to existing programs)

• FCN Self-Care Cards
• Centura - Healthy Church Initiative Webinar Presentation
• Centura - Healthy Church Initiative Article
• Holy Cross Hospital Faith Community Nurse Program
• Mother Angeline Ministries of Care
• Ministry Health Care Parish Nursing
• Pittsburgh Mercy Health System Parish Nurse Program
• Sample Nurse Education Program – Holy Cross Health
• Sample Education Program – St. Francis Medical Center

Other Resources

A variety of resources to support the parish nurse and his/her many roles (including links to existing programs)

• Family Caregiving How-To Video Series
• NAMI FaithNet
• CCUSA A Model for Faith Community Nursing webinar slides
• Video: "The Spirit of Healing: Faith Community Nursing – A Specialty Practice of Nursing"
• Advocate Health Parish Nursing Program information
• Catholic Climate Covenant
• Spread the Catholic message of environmental sustainability and practice "green" health care
• CDC Falls Among Older Adults: An Overview
• The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
• Church Health Center
• The Community Guide
• Duke University Center for Spirituality, Theology and Health
• Emory University Interfaith Health Program
• The George Washington Institute for Spirituality and Health
• Health Ministries Association
• HHS Eldercare Resources
• Maryland Faith Health Network
• Ministry with Veterans, LeadingIdeas, May 23, 2012
• Model Practices Toolkit Flyer
• National Association of Catholic Nurses USA
• Power to End Stroke, American Heart Association | American Stroke Association
• Public Health and Faith Community Partnerships: Model Practices to Increase Influenza Prevention Among Hard-to-Reach Populations
• Signs of Abuse, shared by Carol Jones, RN, Parish Nurse
• United Methodist Church Baltimore–Washington Conference Parish Nursing
• Westberg Institute (formerly the International Parish Nurse Resource Center)

Inspiration for the Journey

Resources to feed the parish nurse emotionally and spiritually

• The Campaign for Nursing's Future Video List
• Loyola Press: Prayer
• Sacred Space Daily Prayer Online
• USCCB Videos

Recommended Reading List

• Faith Community Nursing by Janet S. Hickman
• Faith Community Nursing: Developing a Quality Practice by Carol J. Smucker
• Faith Community Nursing: Scope and Standards of Practice by ANA
• Food for the Journey: Theological Foundations of the Catholic Healthcare Ministry by Juliana Casey (Catholic Health Association)
• Parish Nursing: Promoting Whole Person Health Within Faith Communities by Solari-Twadell and McDermott