Two ways that Angie Register, BSN, RN, SANE, CEN, keeps her faith flourishing are through meeting monthly with other Christian nurses and coaching a high school girls’ basketball team. “These both keep my walk closer to Christ,” she explained. “When you’re more built up in your faith, you’re more excited to go in to work and be with patients.”
Last year, while sitting at the beach working on a paper, she came across an article describing Nurses Christian Fellowship. “There were only two nurse groups in all of North Carolina. That bothered me. Raleigh (my city) needed one!”
So Angie, an ER nurse at WakeMed in Raleigh, North Carolina, contacted NCF for help to begin a group. Now a year old, the group meets monthly, drawing a wide range of ages and types of nurses. They chat, discuss a journal article, someone shares a short devotional, and the nurses pray for one another.
“Connecting at this level with other nurses has been good,” Angie said. After working for 20 years, she said burnout becomes real. “The ER can end up giving you a hard heart. I also see nurses losing their desire to give compassion and empathy.” Meeting together is a balm of encouragement, a means, through faith, to restore one’s calling and purpose. “Meeting together is refreshing and different—it reminds us to re-focus.”
Hitting the basketball court with a team of Christian high school girls is another way Angie keeps her faith focused. She had started working with the middle school team and enjoyed the experience. “I wanted to step up with the girls to high school varsity basketball,” she said. “It’s been the most amazing time,” she describes. “We were really not very good; it’s a young team with 7 freshmen and 2 sophomores.”
Game stats aside, Angie has relished discipling and mentoring the girls. Team practice starts with a devotional and prayer, then a life-lesson question for the players to think about. They also practice how to apply their faith on the court. “We play teams that aren’t from Christian schools, so we focus on how we’re acting on the court, aiming to be [Christ-like] examples.”
Having been mentored by a Christian coach in her own high school years, Angie’s desire is to be a role model for the players in the same impactful way her coach was for her.
“I see that these students need spiritual guidance. The girls remind me and I remind them of how our walk with God pours over into our family life and our work life.”
NCF helps nurses integrate their faith with their nursing practice. If this interests you, take a look around the NCF website. You can find local nurse groups, resources for personal and group spiritual growth, and encouragement in your nursing.
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