Tag Archive for: welsnurses012020

“I Wish I knew” As New Parish Nurse

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Compassion, love, mercy, empathy, and sacrifice are the revealed blessings of a new parish nurse. But what about budget, agenda, servant leader, and building community? How about missed opportunity, grief, or regret? As a new parish nurse these are unspoken areas I struggled with.

I asked a parish nurse friend, Carrie, what she wished she knew as a new parish nurse. Carrie stated, “listening, praying with members, offering prayer support were positive surprises.” She also discovered “becoming part of their family and investing into members lives” impressed her in a special way. Carrie was surprised “by how much I loved the people.”

For example, Carrie shared this story of a mother who came to her after she saved her daughter’s life. The daughter came to Carrie to have her blood pressure checked at church. The daughter’s blood pressure was so elevated Carrie insisted she immediately go to the hospital. Reluctantly, she left and was admitted to the hospital for one week for blood pressure control. Carrie’s quick intervention and genuine concern for her probably saved her life.

Another new parish nurse responsibility I was clueless about was planning and leading a meeting. I certainly sat through plenty of meetings but now I had to navigate it myself. I panicked. I choked up. Then I contacted a teacher friend, Tracy, who educated me on running a meeting. She took time walking me through the meeting process while covering all the details. Clara, a parish nurse friend, had similar challenges. She additionally felt “learning to delegate and taking full responsibility” were new opportunities for growth. Yes, these new things we learn and improve with time but a parish nurse course on meetings and leadership would have produced less stress. As parish nurses, we are able to take it one step further by using prayer, reading God’s Word, and trusting in the Lord as our strongest tools to help us serve Him.

I had all these struggles listed above when I started but what took me by surprise was regret. I didn’t think regret would be on my list of “I wish I knew.” A few years ago, Tara, who was very dedicated parish nurse served at our church. She worked third shift in an inner-city ICU hospital. Tara would come in after work to perform blood pressure screenings or help us with a church health fair. One Sunday, she shared how she was having heart problems and was busy hand-picking the surgical staff for her upcoming surgery. I was impressed with her optimism going into heart surgery. Sadly, that was our last conversation. The Lord called her to our Heavenly home. I felt so disappointed to have missed the opportunity to genuinely thank her for serving. I had to let the rest go. Thankfulness is something I needed to learn as a new parish nurse and wasn’t something I could appreciate from a textbook.

How about you? Tell me about your list of “I wish I knew” as a new or seasoned parish nurse. How would “I wish I knew” motivate you today or next year? What learning experiences or boundaries are you willing to share to mentor a new parish nurse? However long or short your list of struggles might be, we can trust the Lord when he calls us to the ministry that he will equip us (…equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory for ever and ever. Amen. Hebrews 13:21). We can be assured from his Word that he hears and answers our prayers, in his sovereign way, for our good and his great glory (Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. Jeremiah 29:12). Soak up his generous grace. Look to the Lord for your strength, discernment, and source of wisdom, as we minister at church and to the community. Ultimately, let us trust the Lord with the outcome. Lord’s blessing as you serve the members and our Beautiful Savior!

By Heidi Gilbert-Then PN

 

 

 

Lessons from Volunteering with Kingdom Workers

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My name is Elizabeth Zank. I’m a 2016 graduate from Wisconsin Lutheran College with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing. I have been a practicing Registered Nurse for the past three years in the hospital setting—in both medical surgical and intensive care.  I have had multiple opportunities to volunteer with Kingdom Workers since starting my nursing career. I traveled to Malawi for an immersion experience, Panama City Beach, Fla., to help rebuild a church with Builders for Christ, and I have recently gotten involved with the foster family support program. I also traveled to Thailand with Christians Forward Southeast Asia to run a medical clinic for a local village this past April. Volunteering with Kingdom Workers has helped me to broaden my perspective, gain valuable experiences, learn new skills, and meet many different people from different backgrounds.

Simply by becoming a nurse I have learned so much about the human experience and have had the opportunity to help patients and families at some of the most vulnerable moments in their life. Going into these various different volunteer opportunities, my nursing experience has been extremely helpful. As a nurse, you have to be ready for the unexpected and roll with it. It is important to pay attention to the small details, but also keep the bigger picture in mind with constant multi-tasking, prioritization, and time-management.

In March of 2018, I traveled to Malawi with Kingdom Workers. We were mainly led by local Kingdom Workers employees (Allena, Davie, and Tendai) and assisted by the Tyrrell family. As a group we visited local villages where trained volunteers assisted disabled children with physical therapy. This was my second time experiencing a third world country. In nursing school I had the opportunity to travel to Zambia with my nursing class. In that environment, you always have to be ready for the unexpected. You gain that awareness from the moment you arrive in the country. Driving down the road to the guest house, we saw many people walking along the road—children in uniforms walking back from school, mothers carrying a child on their back and carrying a basket on their head, small makeshift roadside markets, packed minibuses, and various types of buildings and housing that you don’t see every day in America. The roads were also very different. There were a few that were paved, but most of the other side roads were unpaved and very rough.  Houses like the one we stayed in are protected by a wall and have hired security. Unless they are very wealthy, many people in Malawi don’t have running water or electricity. Often power outages happened during the day or night.

Visiting local children benefiting from Kingdom Workers volunteers was very eye opening and heart wrenching. Disabled children often are outcast by society in Malawi. It was amazing to hear stories on the progress children made through the program and see the work the volunteers do. We had the opportunity to visit families at their houses and see how they live day to day. We learned our presence and encouragement is very uplifting for the people and volunteers in the program.

Going into the trip the group prepared by reading a book called “When Helping Hurts.” We focused on the purpose for a short-term mission trip and what our perspective of poverty is. Our main goal was to learn and bring fellowship, empowerment, and encouragement to the people. Big changes in developing countries don’t happen in a few days, but they are built over a long time. One of my big takeaways from the trip was the incredible faith, resilience, and positivity of the Malawian people despite the daily struggles and hardships they face. Also, despite the barriers and obstacles that exist, they continue forward doing the best they can with what they have.

The change in perspective I gained also was extremely helpful on returning to my role as a registered nurse here in the U.S. In medicine we are obsessed with getting the latest technology and the latest new treatments, and sometimes that technology is the very thing that is hindering us from caring for and knowing our patients. We can only anticipate further advancements in technology in the years to come, but it was really helpful for me to see and consider first-hand how sometimes more is not always better. This trip also really helped me to take a step back and acknowledge my bias when it came to understanding poverty. Material poverty is just one aspect of poverty. This trip helped me to gain the perspective that we are all living in some form of poverty or brokenness. In my role as a nurse, acknowledging this bias has helped me realize the importance of taking more time with my patients and families to ask questions, listen, and connect with them. Everyone is dealt their own challenges and struggles in life. I can do my best to understand their situation and show them that no matter what they are going through they are not alone.

My experience volunteering with Kingdom Workers has impacted my personal life and career in a very positive way. From Malawi to right here in Wisconsin, I have learned how to keep striving to be an ambassador for Christ whatever the environment or circumstance. This is something that I want to prioritize in my life and career wherever I may be for years to come.

By Elizabeth Zank, BSN, RN

 

 

 

The Comforter Ministry: Wrapped in the Love of the Comforter

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Twenty-three years ago, a quilted comforter helped Su Hanson navigate her diagnosis of cancer. She remembers “Whenever I was wrapped in it I felt as though I was wrapped in the love and arms of my Comforter, the source of all comfort, my loving God,” she said. Six years later her friend was diagnosed with cancer. “Having received God’s compassion and comfort in such a tangible way through the comforter given to me when I had my cancer, this moved me to hold out God’s compassion and gift of comfort to another, by sending my comforter to my friend with cancer.” However, when a second friend was also diagnosed, Su was heartbroken that she did not have another comforter to share with her. After much thought and prayer, Su was led to start the Comforter Ministry.

How does the ministry work? If an individual would like a comforter to be sent to a loved one with cancer, they only need to contact Su and provide the loved one’s address. On her website, Su has a link with her e-mail, phone number, and street address by which she can be contacted. The loved one will receive the comforter in the mail along with a journal that shares the gospel message and a cover letter that explains who requested the comforter be sent and information about the Comforter Ministry. There is no cost to requesting a quilt. So far, an amazing 676 comforters and journals have been sent to loved ones.

Even more amazing is that Su has made exactly zero comforters. “As of August 25, 2019, 129 quilters or quilt groups from 22 states and one Canadian province have made 672 comforters that have comforted over 855 women with cancer from 38 states (USA), one Canadian province, Australia, the Caribbean, Japan, and Switzerland.” Like Su did with the quilt she received, recipients of Comforter Ministry quilts are given the option to send their quilt on to someone else with cancer if he or she is ready to part with it. In this way, many quilts comfort even more men and women.

What has Su learned from her Comforter Ministry? The generosity of others. “I am continually awed by the magnitude of willingness in others to share their talents, gifts, time, and energy.” Some individuals and groups have donated completed quilts. Others have offered to finish a quilt that someone else has started and in this way grown a friendship with another quilter. Su said she has also learned to be patient and to rely on God’s timing rather than her own. She finished by saying the messages she receives from recipients are heartwarming and inspirational. “I have received so much more from the Comforter Ministry than I have given to it. God is amazing!”

Are you interested in supporting this ministry but don’t have the skills or ability to sew a quilt? “Prayer is also a huge part of this ministry as well. I have an ongoing prayer list on the website as well as a prepared prayer to use. I regularly encourage my supporters to keep the Comforter Ministry, its recipients, their loved ones and caregivers, the medical community who serve them, and cancer research in their personal prayers on a regular basis.”

So picture this: right now a loved one with cancer is being wrapped in the love of the Comforter through the tangible wrapping of a quilt; her spiritual needs are being addressed through the comforting words within the journal; and she is being prayed for by people all over the U.S. “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ.” 2 Corinthians 1:3-5

The Comforter Ministry also accepts donations to help cover the cost of shipping the quilts and printing the journals. For more information about the ministry, to request a quilt, or to view the prayer list, please visit comforterministry.com.

By Allison Spaude, BAN, RN

 

 

 

The Most Thankless Task

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“No, this is no good either.” My coworker and I had just repositioned my patient for the fourth time, and he was still dissatisfied. I brought him a two-page menu from which he could order his dinner and he said, “This is all you have? I don’t want any of this!” When I offered Tylenol for his back pain, I was told “Tylenol does nothing for my pain.” In his room, I did my best to keep a smile on my face, but as I left the room I groaned, felt my eyes roll, and clenched my fists in frustration.

While there are many benefits to being a nurse, the profession can also be physically and emotionally draining. We have all had patients who are difficult to work with, verbally abusive, and thankless. When we are thinking about all the things for which we should give thanks, sometimes our work feels like it should not make the list.

Listen as Luke tells us about nine of Jesus’ ungrateful patients. “Ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance and called out in a loud voice, ‘Jesus, Master, have pity on us!’ When he saw them, he said, ‘Go, show yourselves to the priests.’ And as they went, they were cleansed. One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him – and he was a Samaritan. Jesus asked, ‘Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Has no one returned to give praise to God except his foreigner?’” (Luke 17:11-18)

Jesus understands how it feels to receive little thanks. But if we each take a step back, can’t we see how we treat God in a similar way to how my patient treated me? God gives us the means to have comfortable homes, but we say “No, this is no good!” He supplies us with kitchen cupboards bursting with food, but we ask, “This is all there is?” Joints and hearts ache. “God does nothing for my pain!” Being our maker and preserver is a more thankless task than any other!

One man did return to Jesus. Remember what Jesus said? “Your faith has made you well” (Luke 17:19). Jesus says that to you too! Remember who your faith is in? Jesus! Jesus suffered and died to remove the sin of ungratefulness from your life. Jesus makes it possible for us to know that despite earthly trials and frustrations, we have everything we need. Jesus waits for you in your heavenly home.

As I look back on the situation of my ungrateful patient, I again find myself groaning, rolling my eyes, and clenching my fists, but this time, my frustration is focused at me instead of my patient. Matthew 5:16 says “Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.” In that situation, my coworker, who does not go to church, witnessed my very un-Christian-like behavior. My light was covered up by my ungrateful and sinful heart. In what ways do you let your light shine in your work place? In what ways do you hide your light under sinful actions?

It is worth it for us to take a step back as we start a new year and truly think about all the blessings in our lives. Above all, we give thanks for our faith in our savior Jesus, which gives us the ability to give thanks in trying times.

By Allison Spaude, BAN, RN