A great place to start is with a Health Needs Assessment Survey. We found a
nice one page survey that covers all the bases and has room for folks to put
their comments. We have an English and a Spanish one-page version that we
did 2-sided to save paper. The best way to get a good response is to have the
Pastor make an announcement and have one of the Nurses give a little talk
about what the program is all about. We put the surveys and map pencils at the
ends of each pew and asked people to please take a few moments to fill out
the forms and turn them in on their way out of the church. Unfortunately, if
you let folks take them home and bring them back the next week you don't get
very many returns. If you would like a copy of our survey, let me know and I
will fax it to you.

A couple of the churches that we work with let us put a "Parish Nurse's
Notes..." corner in the bulletin.....we usually base our notes on the monthly
health observances or anything seasonal like sun safety, etc. We have lots of
great little projects going on....like having the Sunday-schoolers make cards
that we send to the homebound for holidays, birthdays, or "thinking of
you"....We collect baby blankets for Christmas to give to a shelter or hospital
(we
have a senior's craft group that makes beautiful blankets)..etc etc...that
way there is giving and recieving that encompasses the whole mind-body-spirit
spectrum.

Sorry for rambling, but I am 2 + years into Parish Nursing and love it!
(Even through the waxing and waning times....lol)

Pam


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