Dimensions in Learning

Now More Than Ever Before

We Are Called . . .

Our communities--our world--is experiencing acute health disturbance. Nurses, the need for intervention is laid out for us. We are called to capitalize on caring, on collaboration, on leadership skill-building, on continuity, on innovation. We live in a globalized society. We not only can lead in health-related interventions, we share in the world’s woes such as terrorism and rapid transmission of disease, and we see our complexion changing with an increasing stream of several migrating populations. We face significant challenges. And now we, as a country, have been reforming health care delivery. The nursing profession has been preparing for perceived changes to come and trying to imagine what is not yet clear.

So, the door is open to nurses in the church/faith community to create care delivery systems that work. Faith communities reach many individuals in need of education about health and prevention, of consultation about health concerns, of physical assistance, of chronic disease or disability management.

The Faith Community Nurse is the “called” professional servant to a unique service for communities already committed to the ministry of Christ in making man “whole.”

Valuable Resources to Point You in the Right Direction

Viewpoint on the Moral Determinants of Health

Written by Dr. Daniel Berwick, it can be found following this pathway in your library,

JAMA. 2020;324(3):225-226. doi:10.1001/jama.2020.11129

Or here in your browser - https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2767353

"Healers are called to heal. When the fabric of communities upon which health depends is torn, then healers are called to mend it. The moral law within insists so. Improving the social determinants of health will be brought at last to a boil only by the heat of the moral determinants of health."

Impacting Depression in the Homebound Elderly

This is a CEU course posted at the Journal of Christian Nursing website for 1.5 CEU hours. It is based on the CREATION Health model for health behavior change. Click Here

The Brain Academy

The Brain Health Academy is a new series of free online courses developed in partnership with Adventist College of Lifestyle Medicine (ACLM), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the American Heart Association. The Academy is designed to equip healthcare providers and wellness professionals with the knowledge and resources to help people reduce their risk of Alzheimer’s and related dementias, including lifestyle interventions. The first session begins July 23, 2022. Get acquainted with the resources here.

Whole-Food, Plant-Based Approach to Clinical Situations

The American College of Lifestyle Medicine has compiled literature and evidence in a publication series promoting the impact of a whole-food, plant-based approach in multiple clinical situations.

The 10 parts of the series collection cover the following topics:

🍎Dietary quality

🥕Weight management and obesity

🥦Type 2 diabetes

❤️Cardiovascular disease

🍉Chronic kidney disease

🍒Enteral nutrition

🍅Reproductive cancer

🥝Autoimmune disease

🥑Longevity and quality of life

🍇Nutrition recommendations and guidelines

Visit this link to view the whole publication: http://ow.ly/xAr150JRAmh

ELNEC=End-of-Life Nursing Education Consortium

ELNEC is a world-wide organization based in California that, since 2000, has supported nursing practice education needs focused on palliative care for all ages. Visit their website.

Mindfulness and Emotional Intelligence

A presentation to "blow your mind" about the qualities of Emotional Intelligence. Go to the Video on YouTube (skip the ads). How doees that compare to Mindfulness? Download the article from the list at bottom of this page.

The Trilogy Course

The Trilogy of this introspective study is composed of Called, Care and Comfort, and Commitment . It is right here on our website.

Cross-Sector Alliances Among Nurses in Communities

Visit the organization, Align for Health, to learn what role nurses can play in optimizing health care and preventive strategies across geo-political boundaries.

Nurses Christian Fellowship

Another source for spiritual concepts, devotionals, sharing tools, Bible studies, and more from a Christian ecumenical organization supporting nurses. They publish the Journal for Christian Nurses.

Visit there and tell us what you think.

Westburg Institute for Faith Community Nursing

Another source for education as an FCN is the original Westburg Institute, which, under Granger Westburg, began the movement of the then-called "Parish Nurse". Read about its history and mission and learn about its resources.

Adventist Association of Faith Community Nurses

The North American Division of the Seventh-day Adventist Church has formed an association for nurses in churches who desire certification in the fundamentals of practice there. Visit their site to check their schedule for online course sessions. AAFCN

Food for Thought

All the advantages which God has given are His means to throw order into the spirit, zeal into the effort, and vigor into the carrying out of His will.

Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 360

Does your weekly church service provide a window of time to share health-promoting education? A regularly-scheduled moment in time when all are present is a great opportunity to present emerging facts about a healthy lifestyle that support the basis of SDA health concepts.

Find out more

Reflections on Loving God in Nursing

Completely loving God in nursing with all our being becomes

the basis of our calling. What does it mean to love God with “heart, soul,

mind, and strength”?

Spiritual Care: Evangelism at the Bedside?

Dr. Elizabeth J. Taylor explores the “ethics” of providing spiritual care to the patients we serve. She responds to questions of appropriateness, in that, should the subject be raised if the patient has not raised it first? Is it “evangelizing” of one’s own faith? Could it be conceived as manipulative? Is it being arrogant? What is “witnessing”? Guidance is given in the approach, the presentation of spiritual ideas, the attitude and language, the follow-through. Inspiring!

They are below . . .