This past fall, we [faculty members] reviewed our nursing program outcomes with the nursing students. One of our nursing program outcomes is to practice Christian compassion and caring in the provision of professional nursing care. One of my tools in the classroom to this end is the Journal of Christian Nursing: I appreciate how the journal helps me to remain current in evidence-based nursing practice from a Christian perspective. With students, I role model staying current in evidence-based practice by using current JCN articles for required reading related to the concepts we are covering in class.
Recently, while we talked about showing Christ’s compassion to our patients, I read the beginning scenario of McCormick and Painter’s (2021) article on caring for incarcerated pregnant women. I challenged students to see if they had any potential biases toward this type of patient. We discussed the strategies to be compassionate in our nursing practice in all situations, pointing out the strategies listed in McCormick and Painter’s article.
Interprofessional Collaboration
Twice a year, I facilitate an interprofessional collaboration simulation with local first responders and the criminal justice instructor/head security officer; our students and staff participate collaboratively in these simulations. In December, the focus was on pediatric and mental health topics as those were the courses the senior nursing students were in. For this simulation, the senior students were the emergency department staff. Local health care providers joined us simulation to provide orders. The first responder students triaged the patients pre-hospital. The criminal justice students and security staff helped maintain safety as the first responders were triaging. The nursing students were prepared during their fall nursing courses on the types of patients on which they would perform initial nursing assessments, treatment, education, and referrals. One reading assignment for the students was Cole’s (2021) “Recognizing the Trauma of Adverse Childhood Experiences” article. We discussed the article in class and how it could be a reference when creating a plan of care for a child who experienced ACEs.
Spiritual Care Resources
Additionally, I’m thankful for the Nurses Christian Fellowship (NCF) devotionals. I use these prior to class and clinical to start the day focused on God. NCF devotionals engage with topic the students can relate to and guide them to bring God into their practice.
NCF provides resources such as the Spiritual Care Cards (spiritual assessment and care pocket guide) which I print out on card stock and provide to the junior nursing students when they learn about spiritual assessments. The card reminds the students how to do a spiritual assessment and suggestions for interventions. The nursing students are encouraged to carry with the pocket guide with them during clinicals as reference for providing spiritual care for their patients.
Denise Pederson PhD, RN, FCN, is an associate professor of nursing at Crown College. She is also a faith community nurse involved with the Faith Community Nurse Network of Greater Twin Cities.
Access the Spiritual Care Cards and a diversity of other tools and media on the NCF website.
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