Partners In Care – Nurses Christian Fellowship International World Conference

CNM Delegation - L to R Rose Ball, Tim James, Liz Capper, Steve Fouch and Sue Allen

Try imagining what 300 voices singing and praying in dozens of different language sounds like.  Beautiful and strange, but it is, I think, a faint foreshadowing of what it will be like in eternity when ever tribe nation and tongue will gather before the throne of God. But that was what we experienced in the worship at the NCFI International Conference at the start of November.

Some three hundred nurses from over twenty countries attended the first International Christian nursing conference that NCFI has ever held in Latin America, including delegations from Spain, Nigeria, South Korea, Australia, Canada, the US, Norway, Peru, Bolivia, Columbia, Argentina, Costa Rica, Chile and Uruguay.  There were at least seven delegates from the UK – two from Nurses Christian Fellowship Scotland (NCFS) and five from Christian Nurses & Midwives (CNM is the member body of NCFI for England and Wales).

The opening evening set a very strong note for the conference, with the Chilean Minister of Health speaking passionately about the role of faith in Jesus in the best of healthcare, and that his government has put the right to good spiritual care into national law!  Patricia Bennar followed with a scholarly look at the Biblical idea of the ‘Compassionate Stranger’ as exemplified in the parable of the Good Samaritan.  Both the carer and the cared for in this parable are outsiders – but with which do we identify ourselves?

The theme was ‘Partners in Care’, and we looked each day at themes ‘Partnering with God’, ‘Partnering with Patients and Families’ and ‘Partnering to Change the World’.  Each day started with a Biblical exposition from Raquel Contreras (a Chilean pastor who ministers in the USA), and a professional session that looked at how these scriptural truths impact upon our professional practice.

There were two training tracks in the concurrent sessions – one on Leadership and one on Teaching Spiritual Care.  Both training programmes are geared at giving a distinctly Christian approach to developing the next generation of nurse leaders and equipping nurses to give competent spiritual care to their patients.  We are looking at how we can develop these further for members of CNM.

NCFI presented its Eight Year strategic plan from 2013-2021, and a new structure to take this forward. This includes the development of an Institute of Christian Nursing under NCFI that will develop professional development programmes for nurses and midwives with a strong Christian and professional ethos.  The first two resources are the leadership and spiritual care programmes, but these are seen as the starting point only, the idea being to focus on training trainers in regional and national fellowships with the long term vision of equipping Christian nurses around the world to be agents for change in the culture of care in their own nations.

CNM is very involved with the leadership of NCFI – CNM Council member Sue Allen has been developing the leadership training programme as part of the NCFI International Board, and remains on the board as part of the development team for the Institute of Christian Nursing, while Steve Fouch (CNM General Secretary) is European Regional Chair and European regional Board Rep on the International Board.  Former CNM Chair, Liz Capper was also, until very recently, on the UK Trustee Board for NCFI.  We see involvement with the international movement as a vital part of CNM’s ministry – sharing learning and experience and being part of a wider movement to bring a Christian influence and voice into our profession.

But the main joy of these conferences remains the fellowship with other Christian nurses from around the globe, and learning from their struggles and experiences more of what it means to serve Christ in caring for our patients (one of the main themes of the conference, from the opening address by Patricia Bennar to the closing plenary).

The next NCFI European Conference will be October 2014 in Madrid, with a students’ conference on spirituality and care in Lisbon in 2013.  The 2016 World Conference has yet to be confirmed

Nurses Christian Fellowship International Conference Days 4 & 5

Tomorrow we fly home, but what an exciting week we’ve all had!!! We have greatly appreciated the opportunity of being here and would definitely recommend that everyone come along to the Regional NCFI conference in Madrid in 2014, and the next NCFI conference in 2016 (venue tbc!).

This week Tim and Rose have been attending the leadership track, looking at the leader as shepherd, servant, scholar and steward. Dr Sue Allen (UK) and Dr Kamilini Kumar (USA) taught from the Leadership course that they have developed for nurses exploring the essential leadership role from a Christian perspective.

The excursion took place yesterday and was a wonderful time to relax and see some of the sights of Santiago.
The morning Bible studies have continued to be excellent, challenging and inspiring us to be more Christ like in our nursing practice as well as in our daily lives. Today we were looking at John 4v1-7, where Jesus meets the Samaritan woman at the well. The focus was particularly on verse 7 where Jesus asks the woman for a drink as He is thirsty. Focusing on this specific request led us to question how we can serve Christ by meeting the needs of those we come into contact with, in line with the verse from Matthew 25 v 40 “...whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for Me”.

The UK has been represented well by excellent seminars by Jo Caisley, Tony Kemp, Huw Morgan and Steve Fouch. Jo presented on wise and responsible stewardship in healthcare. Tony and Huw represented PRIME speaking on disaster preparedness and partnerships in international medical education. Steve led two seminars, one on writing publications and challenges and opportunities with keeping the faith amongst nurses in the UK. All were well attended and received positive feedback – well done guys!

In addition Steve attended a three part training of trainers programme in teaching spiritual care from a Christian, nursing perspective. This programme has been developed by Amy Rex-Smith (USA), Tove Giske (Norway) and Grace Morillo (Colombia), and has been developed to equip trainers to help student and qualified nurses develop key skills in spiritual assessment, intervention and evaluation. We are already looking at how we might use both the leadership training and spiritual care training with members in the UK

Prof. Barbara Parfitt (Scotland) spoke on the last day on partnering with the world, using the WHO model (of Partnership through relevance, ownership and community engagement), in order to have a positive impact on global healthcare in the name of Christ.

Bishop Hector led us in Holy Communion to close, with a traditional Chilean evangelical call to worship... Who lives?JESUS!
to His name; GLORY!
to His people; VICTORY!

And on that note adios amigos!

Rosanne Ball

Nurses Christian Fellowship International Conference - Day 2 & 3

We have had another two exciting days out here in Chile; being inspired, challenged and enjoying multinational fellowship! Each morning we have enjoyed Bible studies. So far theses have been on Mark 2v1-12 and Mark 5v40-43, looking specifically at their implications for nurses.

God is so good at revealing in familiar passages new things that will change our practice. For example, in Mark 5v40 we looked at the way that Jesus cared for and involved families in His healing, and were challenged about whether we treat the families of our patients in the same way.

We then met together for professional plenaries, on Tuesday exploring the role of the nurse in partnering with God and on Wednesday exploring the role of nurses partnering with patients and their families. The two points that stood out were the importance of being yoked with Christ and therefore walking in step with Him, not rushing ahead or lagging behind but watching where He wants us to go and partnering with Him.

The second point was a reminder that we need to see our patients as children of God, remembering in our workplaces the verse “everything that you do for one of my little ones; you do it for me” (paraphrased).

This afternoon we went to visit a public hospital in Santiago, which was a fantastic opportunity to get a glimpse at how another country provides care. All the Staff at the hospital, including the patients and families were keen to welcome us and say hello. We were very impressed at the fingerprint recognition equipment used to log in and off shift, and received a talk from the Director of Medicine and saw videos about the evacuation of their hospital during the 2010 earthquake. It was interesting to note that the pressures we experience in the NHS, such as lack of beds, waiting times, particular winter illnesses and infection rates are just as much a problem in the Chile as they are in the UK. Other international delegates in our visiting party could also sympathise. It’s a worldwide challenge!

Right now we’re off to the Nursing Christian Fellowship International Forum – the slightly more boring but equally important part of the week!!!!

Rosanne Ball (CNM Member)

NCFI World Conference Day 1

The Chilean Way

TheNurses Christian Fellowship International conference began Tuesday (5thNovember) in Santiago, Chile, and for all of you reading this in the UnitedKingdom...it is hot here in Santiago with wonderful views of the Andes mountainrange.

Despitehaving only been to the Opening Ceremony today, we have already been blown awayby what we have heard and seen. The evening opened with an introduction by DrBarbara White (NCFI President), followed by a procession of the flagsrepresenting 350 delegates from over 30 nations. This reminded us that despiteall our different backgrounds and cultures we all had two things in common:Jesus & Nursing. Wow!

The moststriking part of the ceremony came straight away when Jose Alvear, director andpolitician from the Chilean Ministry of Health spoke of the need "to show Jesus in the midst of illness".This is so evident within Chilean healthcare that a law has recently beenpassed that states that every person has a right to spiritual care. Howmind-blowing is that?! In the UK it is common place to see spiritual care aspart of the nursing care plan for patients. However, it is not mandatory and inour experience is rarely seen being effectively put into practice. But we havejust heard a politician saying how important Jesus is in the midst of spiritualcare and that he recognises the effect of spirituality on patient recovery. WouldJeremy Hunt (Secretary of Health, UK), if he were a Christian, be able topublicly say the same?

Next weheard from Patricia Benner, author of the Novice to Expert, which has provideda model to many nursing institutions, across the world, with a tool to assesscompetency within nursing practice. Patricia spoke to us about the story of theGood Samaritan, challenging us to identify with the Samaritan and also thebeaten man in the pit. The importance of being a compassionate stranger in theimage of Jesus as the healer was very thought provoking as clinicians. Animportant point that Patricia made, which captured our minds was that if a nurse does not care about what thepatient cares about, then a patient will not feel cared for.

It's beena really exciting day...wish you all were here...we can't wait to update you onwhat God does the rest of this week.

Quote ofthe day: "We need to see that we are human beings helping other Human beings".

Written by: Rose Ball (CNM Member) & Tim James (CNMChairman).