By
Donna Isbell Walker
www.greenvilleonline.com
GREENVILLE, S.C. — It’s been said that health is a matter of mind, body and spirit, and
the parish nurses at Christ Episcopal Church work to keep all three in
balance.
“Health and wellness have the
components of physical, spiritual and emotional, and we function to
address all of those,” says Lee Farrar, who helped to start the Parish
Nurse Ministry eight years ago. “We’re sort of integrators of faith and
health.”
Farrar
has been with the program since its inception, but now she’s handing off
the stethoscope to Lauren Smyth, a recent graduate of Greenville Tech’s
nursing program.
The ministry has four part-time adjunct nurses, three retired nurses who fill in when needed, and Smyth, the coordinator.
Their
duties include visiting parishioners in the hospital, as well as church
members who are home-bound or suffering from chronic illnesses.The
program, says Farrar, is a “relational ministry. It’s a ministry of
presence. We focus on establishing caring relationships with
parishioners who have either been in the hospital or who have ongoing
medical issues.”
Read the full article on www.greenville.com.