March 2022

By Sue Cox BSN, RN- BC

Faith Community Nurse Network Manager, Advocate Aurora Health

Rachel Garrison, R.N., Patient Navigator for the Advocate Post COVID-19 Recovery Clinic, gave a comprehensive overview of the clinic that opened at Advocate Christ Medical Center, Oak Lawn, Ill., in June 2021.

Hospital administrators responded to a growing population of patients struggling with debilitating symptoms following COVID infection, and assembled an excellent team of physicians and practitioners to address these unique needs.

Patients can experience fatigue, exhaustion, chest pain, cough, shortness of breath, brain fog, confusion, muscle pain, depression, headaches, speech deficits, and loss of taste and smell.

The clinic's multidisciplinary team includes a pulmonologist, rehabilitation medicine physician, a neurologist, nephrologist, hematologist, cardiologist, and RNs to guide and support patients through treatment regimens.

Rachel shared that "post COVID patients can be similar to oncology patients in that they can be so lost at times and need great compassion and support." She described the sometimes emotional intake process for patients who experience being heard and validated for the first time in their struggle with unrelenting symptoms post COVID.

One interesting observation made by clinic staff is that those patients with the most severe post COVID symptoms were usually non-hospitalized with their initial COVID infection. In other words, mild disease can sometimes translate to more severe long term problems.

In this new field of care there is not much research from which to draw so Advocate's Post COVID-19 Recovery Clinic is on the cutting edge of collecting data, providing care, and bringing hope and healing to those affected by chronic post COVID symptoms.

Mental Health Check-In & Update

Amy Mcnicholas, Illinois Manager, Advocate Aurora Health Faith & Health Partnerships

Understanding Basic Islamic Principles

Nancy Romancheck, FCN

Health Resources for your Wellness Programming:

Walking With Ease program, Arthritis Foundation

CaptionCall program, captioned service for hearing loss

Pain Management; Current Trends in Care

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83885064222

By: Mariann Hisel, Ed.D.; MSN; MBA; RNC-OB; RNC-EFM; LCCE

Everyone on this earth has been affected by COVID-19. COVID-19 has changed the world. COVID-19 changed the world in how people interact with each other, how we treat science, how we respect public health, our political views, and our faith. We have gone from “We are all in this together” … to “taking sides and not budging from our point of view.” Faith (and knowledge) over Fear (and misinformation) is a good motto to live by. In fact, it is the only truism that helped me get through my personal journey with COVID-19.

My journey with COVID-19 started before I even developed symptoms. My journey started with me retiring from hospital nursing. I retired in 2016 after obtaining a doctorate degree in Organizational Leadership in Healthcare. My focus post “retiring” was to serve my community. I serve by becoming a Faith Community Nurse and serving as the Health & Wellness Director at my church. I also serve as a volunteer at the McHenry County Medical Reserve Corp, County Health Department, and the American Red Cross. When COVID -19 began to spread throughout the country I was in perfect position to continue serving my community with current information, guidance, and support of Faith over Fear. Then as COVID-19 intensified, the hospital called me out of retirement to help the hospital’s Employee Health COVID-19 Testing and Contact Tracing Team.

In November of 2020, I realized that I could not taste my Thanksgiving dinner. I was tested for COVID-19. Even before the results came back as COVID-19 positive, my health started to deteriorate. Symptoms included cough, headache, nasal congestion, nausea, loss of smell and taste, fatigue, fever, muscle pain, dizziness, runny eyes, and shortness of breath (SOB). I could not eat or drink anything. The SOB got worst, and I knew it was time to go to the Emergency Department (ED)- thinking that I just needed IV fluids to hydrate.

Congratulations to Faith Community Nurse Shawndra Ferrell, DNP, APRN, FNPBC, ACHPN, who was featured in the 2021 issue of Loyola Nursing Magazine.

The article describes Shawndra's work, serving as sole provider for Advocate Trinity Hospital's inpatient palliative care program.

The article highlights Shawndra's work in promoting advance care planning with faith leaders through the Conversation Project faith-based tools.

Ferrell told the magazine she hopes to bring the advance care planning message to more faith communities.

“My mind imagined what could happen in my emergency room in five to 10 years if every church, every mosque, every synagogue started doing these trainings,” she said. “It doesn’t need to be a battle between medicine and miracle. If we work hard, we can help people involve their faith experience in their health experience. My life goal is to see it happen in every ethnic background and every faith.”

St. Joan of Arc is a vibrant Catholic community that has had a parish nurse/faith community nurse in their midst since 2002. St. Joan of Arc is very active and supports whole health and welcomes the benefits of a Catholic parish nurse/faith community nurse in their community. This position is a paid, 15-hour per week ministry. Parish nursing/faith community nursing experience is preferred but not required. Mentorship is available if needed. All inquiries can be directed to Kathy Ford at tlcprn22@gmail.com.

The role of Parish Nurse/Faith Community Nurse at St. Joan of Arc:

Ever have a congregational member look to you for a referral for services? Or have a family that needs extra support and you aren’t sure where to send them? Need to know more about programs that are available in the neighborhood you are serving? Advocate Aurora Health recognizes the need for an up-to-date, reliable, tested list of community services that are easily accessed with a click of a button.

The Advocate Aurora Health Local Services Guide, powered by NowPow, allows you to find free and low-cost options for food, safe housing, child care, transportation and more.

This resource can help you support the people you serve and it’s provided free-of-charge to you!

The FCN knowledge sharing platform was created to provide a safe, private community for all faith community nurses and those interested in spiritual care in nursing with the ability to communicate electronically. The platform is free and community member emails are not shared or sold outside of the platform.

Nurses from around the world interact individually and through the many interest groups that make up the FCN Knowledge Sharing Platform.

Subscribe to Faith Community Nurse Journal, Perspectives

Perspectives: Nursing Spiritual Care and Faith Community Nursing Practice is a publication of the Spiritual Care Association Nursing Division and the Westberg Institute. It features research news, educational articles and practical stories about the different aspects of faith community nursing practice along with spiritual care information and resources for nurses in all practice settings. Perspectives is published twice annually with occasional special themed issues and is a free benefit exclusively available to SCA members.

Click here to learn more.

Ziebarth, D. J., & Knighten, M. L. (2021). Wounded healers: Job termination in Faith Community Nursing. Journal of Christian Nursing, 38(2), 108-115.

The Future of Nursing 2020-2030: Charting a Path to Achieve Health Equity explores how nurses can work to reduce health disparities and promote equity, while keeping costs at bay, utilizing technology, and maintaining patient and family-focused care into 2030.

This work builds on the foundation set out by The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health (2011) report.

Faith Community Nurses International offers a growing library of Practice Toolkits on topics like:

Faith Community Nurse International offers continuing education videos on a variety of topics, such as advance care planning, fall prevention, telehealth, mental health and more.

You can enjoy free video offerings, as well. Even though they do not offer CEs, they still offer valuable content.

International Journal of Faith Community Nursing Accepting Submissions

The International Journal of Faith Community Nursing (IJFCN) is the official journal of Faith Community Nurses International (FCNI). The foremost purpose of IJFCN is to support the ministry and practice of faith community nurses worldwide through publication of scholarly articles about innovative faith community nursing practice, current faith community nursing research, and evidence-based practice. In addition, IJFCN supports the development, sustainment, and advancement of health within diverse faith traditions.

Currently, we are accepting submissions for the upcoming spring 2022 issue. Authors may submit manuscripts until April 1, 2022 to be considered for this issue. Address questions regarding submissions to Dr. Liz Sturgeon at liz.sturgeon@wku.edu.

Promoting Health Equity for All:

English and Spanish issues.

Click here to access back copies of the Faith Community Nurse e-newsletter, COVID-19 updates, mental health e-newsletter and other Faith and Health Partnerships publications.