Trafford Publishing: The Minister: A Member of the Health Care Team, A Nurse's Perspective

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The Minister: A Member of the Health Care Team, A Nurse's Perspective

by Clarice Schultz Rn, BSN, Psychology

84 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #03-1422; ISBN 1-4120-1053-5; US$14.00, C$18.00, EUR11.70, £8.11

The Art of Hospital Visitation - a must for both lay and professional visitors - exceptionally helpful interventions - 'The perfect little gift' to give.

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about the book about the author reviews sample excerpts catalogue info

About the Book

In my work as a hospice instructor, I received many questions from students who were pastors of the local churches. They said they yearned for feedback from nurses who witnessed the visitations of many Ministers. They wanted to know how Ministers were viewed as a member of the health care team. They wondered what visiting methods the nurses saw as being most helpful to patients. They wanted to know how they might best relate to the nurses to gain their confidence. Many also asked for tips about their personal concerns regarding their reactions to the hospital and trauma setting.
At the same time, several of the hospitals I was working with asked me to prepare in-service material that would benefit pastors of local churches. To gather this material, I interviewed nurses in clinical areas for their insights. I felt the information they offered was remarkable and invaluable. I added my recommendations to the second half of this presentation and that is how this manuscript came about.
The patient's Minister is based outside the medical complex. This makes difficult the Minister's inclusion into the team causing barriers to exist between the medical team and the personal Minister. There is lack of common turf, common language, and common interaction with the patient. As a result, the Minister often feels alienated. These same barriers make it frustrating for nurses to find, identify, and interact with the Minister about issues common to both Minister and nurse.
Nurse supervisors were interviewed for their perspectives on the Minister as part of the health care team and to gain insights into what would help build bridges between the Minister and the other members of the health care team. These nurses came from specialty areas, as well as from medical-surgical units, and were usually responsive to the Minister's concerns.
The following questions were asked:
What is the Minister's role as a member of the health care team?
What is the meaning of the Minister's role to you as a nurse?
What successful methods do you see Ministers use to carry out spiritual responsibility?
How do you relate to Ministers?
How would you like the Ministers to relate to you?
What would you like Ministers to do to relate more effectively to your patients?
What can Ministers do when they feel repulsed by what they are experiencing?

About the Author

Clarice Schultz has worked as a nurse-thanatologist for 30 years and presents from that perspective. A Bachelor in Science of Nursing plus a BS in Psychology as well as an AD in Anthropology and a minor in Theological studies augment her nursing insights. Thus she brings a well-rounded wholistic approach to her subject matter.
Clarice has taught numerous semester length courses in Thanatology in Illinois, Texas, and on the National Lecture Circuit. Students of all the helping disciplines have received graduate credit as well as continuing education credit from her work.
Ms. Schultz has published her work in Nursing Journals and in a Medical Textbook. She has shared the platform at conferences with Elizabeth Kubler Ross, Bernie S. Siegel MD, the Author of Love, Medicine, and Miracles, and Dava Reeves, wife of Christopher Reeves.
The Minister: A Member of The Health Care Team, a Nurse's Perspective has been presented at clergy seminars with high acclaim. There have been continuous requests for an easy read reference booklet to take along on hospital visitations.

Reviews

Clarice Schultz is a nurse, researcher and teacher who walked among you; she has stood invisible in the room with you. She has learned from experience and study how important you are as a member of the health care team. She is your advocate. She is also your friend and messenger with a definite message.

Bruce H. Conley - Conley Outreach Services, Elburn, IL
I have always admired Clarice's ability to teach the intellectual knowledge of death and grief while simultaneously guiding each student to face his or her own emotional reactions to the subject. This writing also reflects that unique ability. Is is not just a 'how to visit the patient' book, it also reaches into the psyche and heart of the Minister for understanding and expression.

Reverend John C. Atherton, Hot Springs, AK
This book illustrates how to be sensitive to and attentive to each situation that the Minister encounters in the hospital setting. For nurses it presents a view of the spiritual needs of patients that create a greater dimension toward the healing dynamic.

Bill Scheer MSW, Braidwood, IL
Clarice has brought to us an important work that can revolutionize pastoral care and include the Minister as a member of the health care team.
Reverend John C. Atherton, Hot Springs, AK
There is a definite void in the literature for this important market.
The target audience is:

All who Minister by making therapeutic visitations
All health care professionals, administrators, and paraprofessionals who relate to the personal Minister as he/she visits in the heath care facility

The perfect little gift to give to:

Ministers in the individual churches
Nurses and all health care persons
Seminarians, theological students, all care givers: nurses, hospices etc.

The helpful handout gift for:

Hospitals, general hospitals, psychiatric, children's hospital, cancer institutes
Specialty hospitals, large diagnostic clinics, etc. - copies to the independent Ministers who visit their institution

Continuing Education for:

Ministers at clergy seminars
Nurses at interdisciplinary seminars
Health care professionals at in-service seminars

Generic education programs for:

As a supplemental text for student ministers in seminaries and bible colleges
As a supplemental text for student nurses, at colleges and universities
As a supplemental text for all the varieties of healtch care students who in their profession will be relating to the Minister as a member of the health care team

Gifts to be given:
Purchased by friends, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and other relatives who play a role in the life of the Minister

Sample Excerpts

Excerpt One

One morning a young woman walked briskly into the emergency department and placed her chalk-white, dappled blue-skinned, five month old baby in my arms. Her eyes were intense, her voice firm, as she said simply, "He is dead." She was right.
The young mother sat firm and straight for two hours until her husband came from work. She had no one else to call. They were new to the state. "No," she insistted, "You may not call our Minister. He does not know us. No, I will not tell you which church we attend. That is our personal business. We have only been here for five Sundays. The local Minister does not know us." The young father wept as he held his dead baby son. The mother stood stiffly and did not shed a tear. We had to release them, unsupported and alone, into the cold, windy, gray, November day.
How helpless and empty we nurses felt, watching the young parents leave - he, barely able to walk, weeping on her shoulder. She rigid with arms held tightly at her sides. We wanted to scream to them, "Come back, don't leave! We can give you warmth, food and love. Don't go! Shay here with us." In reality, we had to let them go.
Nurses feel helpless when they send a wounded, unsupported family out into the world. Nurses feel relief when a caring professional will be alongside. It comforts the nurse to know a Minister will continue to provide the support the family so desperately needs.
The Minister has a unique overview of the patient's life. That view is wholistic. It encompasses the environments of family, church, community and work. The Minister is truly the continuity of the health care team. There is no replacement for the personal Minister.

Excerpt Two

When visiting the dying, sick, and injured it is not abnormal for the Minister to feel repulsed, terrified, overwhelmed, and show visible signs of shaking, to speak with a stumbling cracking voice, and eyes brimmed with tears.
State your reaction simply and lovingly. "I really feel for what you have to go through. Yes, what I see affects my emotions. What I smell affects my stomach. I promise you that I will stay only as long as I can take it. I will be responsible for my own reactions and I will take care of myself. You do not have to do that for me. If I do leave, I will return again.
It is important to tell the patient when you will return, in a 1/2 hour or tomorrow. Let them know the reason you will return is becuase you want to be a support to them. Tell them you make that choice. Remember that patients are smart people. They know you better than you think. They also know that had they been in your situation they would have wanted to run away just as they sense you wish you could. It is OK to feel repulsion toward your patients. Just return and be loving to them.

Catalogue Information