As a minister (Greek definition “to serve) of the Gospel of Christ, first and then as a nurse I am always seeking to help the whole person, not just the spiritual.  I find that I apply this same principle in nursing.

As a nurse, it is important to promote prevention and to understand and initiate healing to achieve the result of wholeness.  Wholeness being the tripartite man, the full man body, mind and spirit.  In the nursing profession, as intimacy takes place between the nurse and the client.  It is within this intimate (non-physical) relationship that healing is initiated.  The initiation of healing encompasses first acknowledgment that there is a wound, break or breach.  Further observation reveals the nature of the breach and a plan of action must be established to bring about ultimate healing and wholeness.

This intimacy that I refer to initiates healing consists of trust, honesty, respect, faith and support.  This intimacy opens the door for the spirit of the tripartite man to also be ministered to.  When intimacy in a relationship has been established, it makes those involved vulnerable to each other.  The nurse becomes vulnerable in character (fidelity, is she trustworthy, confidentiality, do no harm) and the patient becomes more vulnerable because dealing with the tripartite persons exposes aspects of their emotional state and social state of being.

I believe it is important that as nurses we are be prepared to pray with our clients just as we are prepared to administer medication or provide a treatment.  Provide and offer spiritual care for the patient when in our care.  If the patient is hospitalized, inquire if the patient desires clergy to visit.

This intimacy is sort of a spiritual relationship between the nurse and client.  Nurses should make every effort to see past the patient to identify the person behind the treatment rendered, the person behind the behavior.  This in essence is what Christ did when he walked the earth healing people and making them whole. Christ healed them of their illness but he also met their spiritual needs.  Once the spiritual need was met, their social issues were no longer an issue.   For example, I will use a story of a woman in the Bible with hemorrhaging.  Briefly the story goes:  The woman had been bleeding for so many years and had spent all that she had seeking a cure and nothing helped.  Socially according to custom, she was an outcast due to the bleeding and she was considered unclean.  She reached out to Jesus as he was passing by, virtue left him and He turned to her and said “woman your faith has made you whole.”  In this transaction virtue was the spiritual connection between the woman and Jesus because of her faith.  Her physical ailment ceased immediately, and her socioeconomic issues were resolved because the bleeding stopped she was no longer an outcast.  That is intimacy, trust, respect, honesty, hope and spirituality.

Healing comes in many forms and through many vehicles.  Nursing requires caring for the whole man.  Remember that if the tripartite man is deficient in any of these three areas then complete healing or wholeness cannot be achieved.