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Parish Nursing

Parish Nurses participate in a holistic approach to wellness from within individual faith communities. Parish nursing, in it’s simplest description, involves working within faith communities to provide health education, knowledge of community resources, counseling on health issues, training and organizing volunteers, and supporting the religious growth of fellow congregational members.

Today’s parish nurse programs are based on several different functional models unified by the ideal that the "Parish nurse" is not a denominational title, but a holistic healing role taken on by nurses within their various faith communities.

Parish nursing programs can be vastly different from one setting to the next. The makeup of the program depends on the size of the congregation, the parishioners’ needs and the resources available.

There are four basic models for parish nurse practice in use today.

Community health center directed or hospital directed model - The program is under the control and direction of the center or hospital and follows the corporate goals.
Parish directed model - The nurse is hired directly by the parish and follows the goals of the parish alone.
Regionally directed model - The program is directed from the religion’s regional organizational level and delivered at the local parish level. Decisions are made at the organizational level as to whether to make services uniform throughout the region or individualized to each congregation.
Coalition model - A network, consisting of varied denominations, social organizations, health and educational institutions, work jointly to coordinate parish nursing services.

Educational Requirements

There are no specific requirements at this time for educational preparation for the parish nurse. However, due to their largely autonomous role, individuals must be prepared to bring a high level of skill to their position as well as knowledge of the spiritual aspect of healing. According to a study done by Janet K. Kuhn, published in the Journal of Christian Nursing (Kuhn, 1997), the majority of parish nurses are Diploma prepared with the next largest category being a tie between AD and BSN.

Salary Ranges

Many parish nurses work as volunteers while others work in paid positions. Each church setting that utilizes parish nurses has developed a certain model for practice, and this model is what determines the guidelines and policies for practice as well as the salary issue.

Associations