Faith Community Nursing

10 Jun 2010

Foot-washing is often associated with Holy Week observances, but Temuka-based Kathryn Starky is offering prayer and regular foot-care as part of a pastoral nursing initiative at St Peter’s Temuka.

Kathryn is one of four registered nurses throughout Canterbury and the West Coast who are currently working as faith community nurses – otherwise known as pastoral or parish nurses. “It’s a scope of nursing that intentionally tries to integrate the practice of faith with the practice of nursing, so that people can achieve wholeness,” says Kathryn, the only parish nurse working within the diocese at this time. She has been licensed by Bishop Victoria to work in the Temuka parish, where her husband Andrew is the vicar.

With the support of St Peter’s pastoral team and a seeding grant from the diocese, Kathryn now runs foot-care clinics and volunteers her care, support and expertise to parishioners and the wider community. “Faith community nurses work as part of the pastoral team of their community of faith,” explains Kathryn, who used to be a practice nurse for a local doctor. She maintains links with the community’s health professionals, who refer people to her. “The Temuka parish’s mission statement is ‘to know Christ and to be known’ and we want to be known out in the community,” she says.

Each church’s nursing ministry – although taking a similar holistic approach to healthcare – varies depending on the needs of the community it serves. In the case of Temuka, a gap was identified in the provision of foot-care to elderly and disabled people. Kathryn also wants to further develop a nursing ministry to families with preschoolers and young children.

Faith community nursing was recognised as a ministry by General Synod in 2004, and is one of the social justice actions identified in Growing Forward, the strategic plan of our diocese. Kathryn and her regional support co-ordinator, Lesley Askin, would like to see more parishes incorporate faith community nurses into their pastoral care teams and, perhaps, employ them along the same lines as youth workers.

A total of fifteen Christian nurses throughout the region are members of New Zealand Faith Community Nurses Association, the ecumenical organisation that supports and trains the nurses. The association, which was established in 2003, has links with similar agencies in Australia and America, and has the endorsement of the NZ Nursing Council. www.faithnursing.co.nz.

WORDS: Megan Blakie