![[ Visit Client Website ]](images/banner.gif)
Learning Objective 1: 1. Describe the practice of Faith Community Nurses.
Learning Objective 2: 2. Explain how the Faith Community Nurse model of community-based practice assists clients in the management of chronic diseases/conditions.
Introduction: Faith community nursing is an innovative community-based clinical practice model. Faith community nursing, originally named parish nursing, began in the mid 1980’s through the vision of a Lutheran Minister. The American Nurses Association recognized faith community nursing as a specialized practice and in collaboration with the Health Ministries Association, developed a scope and standards for practice in 1998, which has been revised twice to reflect this practice in all faith traditions. Faith community nursing, with more than 15,000 nurses, is one of the largest nursing specialties in the United States. Although studies have been conducted to describe faith community nursing, minimal research has focused on the impact of this nursing specialty on chronic disease management.
Research Question: Do faith community nurses work with clients to help them manage a chronic disease/condition? What diseases are managed and what services are provided?
Methodology: This question was part of a larger survey that was placed on Survey Monkey and advertised through the website of an organization that supplies resources for faith community nurses. The survey was conducted for 3 months in the Fall 2011.
Results: A total of 230 faith community nurses answered this question with 166 answering yes and supplying a narrative. A total of 39 chronic diseases/conditions were listed with the most frequent as follows: diabetes mellitus (n=68), hypertension (n=63), heart disease (n=49), cancer (n=26), obesity (n=16), and mental illness (n=14). The most frequent interventions included: blood pressure/pulse checks including medication management (n=61), cardiovascular aftercare (n=45), education (n=18), referrals (n=14), and nutrition/weight loss (n=14).
Conclusions: The results of this study indicate that faith community nurses are a valuable resource in assisting clients to manage chronic diseases. Health professionals should recognize faith community nurses as partners in the management team and refer clients to faith community nurses when appropriate.