Message: 3
Date: Mon, 31 Mar 2003 18:08:20 -0800 (PST)
From: Norma Underwood <casiday2000@...>
Subject: volunteer parish nurse


My question is how did you start out...how many days did you have office
hours and how many hours per day. Did you try to be the only one in the
office on those days, or did you have other nurses helping? Any
suggestions you give will be appreciated. God bless you! Norma U.
P.S. I also want to have some time to travel occasionally with my 78
year old Mom.

Norma, I highly recommend the book by Solari-Twadell and McDermott
called: Parish Nursing : Promoting Whole Person Health within Faith
Communities it costs about $35 new on amazon.com so you might see if you
can borrow a copy. The book can tell you how to get started.
I think it is important to keep in mind that being a church staff member
is essentially to be a volunteer coordinator and to try to bring the
gifts that people have to the ministries of the church, in other words,
get as many people involved as possible and don't do everything
yourself. On the other hand, do a few things well to start off. How
about newsletter articles on health and see if some of the nurses will
write them for you? How about a blood drive and see if you can get some
of your bakers to make cookies for it? Starting off one day a week with
office hours and letting people know what you can do for them is a good
way to begin, I've been here 3 years and some people still don't know
that I'm actually an RN and can take their blood pressure (my title is
not Parish Nurse so that is some of the confusion). Best wishes as you
begin this new phase of life!
Whitney Bischoff, DrPH, RN
Congregational Care Coordinator
Emanuel's Lutheran Church, Seguin, Texas
whitneyb@...