Barbara Gallagher has passionately served the parish community at Woodbury’s Holy Angels Parish for the past three years as one of its three volunteer nurses, helping to organize flu vaccine clinics, blood pressure screenings, blood donor drives and cultivating face-to-face relationships with the faithful.
Then COVID-19 hit, and the playbook was thrown out.
As churches throughout South Jersey shut down, and personal interactions and parish events became reduced, scarce or nonexistent, she and her colleagues have found themselves navigating an uncertain landscape.
Hope came in last month’s “Foundations of Faith Community Nursing” certification course, sponsored by the Diocese of Camden’s VITALity Catholic Healthcare Services, in partnership with the Christian-based Westberg Institute for Faith Community Nursing.
In the twice-weekly, three-hour ZOOM sessions in the month of October, Gallagher has better understood the role of a faith community nurse and learned from “those who’ve been doing this for a while.”
Gallagher and her 17 fellow students (16 from the Diocese of Camden, one from the Diocese of Brooklyn) were virtually commissioned last weekend in a ceremony performed by Father Sanjai Devis, VITALity’s Director of Stephen Ministry and Hospital Chaplaincy.
Participants have varied backgrounds in the nursing field — Gallagher herself has worked as a research nurse at Philadelphia’s Thomas Jefferson University Hospital for over a decade, and others work in such departments as oncology.
Approved by the New Jersey State Nurses Association for continuing education credit and supported by Bishop Dennis Sullivan, the course prepares nurses to “assist the parishioners of their faith community to maintain and/or regain wholeness in body, mind, and spirit,” says Jo Anne Farrell, RN, lead instructor for the Foundations of Faith Community Nursing course.
These individuals are “health promoters, health educators, health coaches and, most importantly, Missionary Disciples” who bring “counseling, prayer, presence, active listening, advocacy” to their work, she says.
“As Catholic parish nurses, our work embraces and follows the mission and vision of our church,” and recognizes that “spiritual health is the core of a person’s well-being … (we) continually offer a sense of hope.”
Deacon Jerry Jablonowski, Director of VITALity Catholic Healthcare Services, says the course “integrates the faith into the work” of the parish nurses. He added that the course is offered free of charge for those in the Diocese of Camden. “We’re happy to support the nurses, and this course brings a higher level of excellence” for them and their ministry, he says.
Last Saturday’s commissioning ceremony “brought full-circle what (students have) learned — they’re ready to bring it back to their parishes,” says Nicole Keefer, Director of Parish Nursing, VITALity Catholic Healthcare Services. Now, in pandemic time, “they are getting creative,” Keefer adds.
Social distancing rules now mean check-in phone calls to parishioners, virtual health presentations and bulletin blurbs on combating COVID-19.
The nurses can be described as faithful, hopeful and adaptable.
Even though the course is complete and she is certified, Gallagher’s education continues.
She says they have “kept the conversations going,” on formulating effective strategies for their own communities and keeping faithful informed and healthy. “The course was a great starting point.”
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