Public awareness of health and wellness issues is at an all time high. Cut backs in Medicare and Medicaid together with higher deductibles and co-payments make illness prevention and wellness promotion real needs, not just idealistic goals. Our national government is struggling with how to provide affordable health care for all. Doesn't it make sense for our faith communities to take the lead by reclaiming their mission of healing and wholeness? Churches across this country, and in some places around the world, are doing just that through health ministry.

The church has been intimately involved with the concepts of wholeness, wellness and healing since its inception. The idea of unity of body, mind and spirit is deeply rooted in both the Old and New Testaments. Parish Nursing is a ministry within the faith community that gives these concepts and ideas a visible presence. The parish nurse works with the pastor as part of the church staff and a health cabinet of other caring members to fulfill the healing mission of the church.

Parish Nursing grew out of the wholistic health care programs started by Granger Westberg, D.D., in the Chicago area in the 1970's. Wholistic health care centers were established with teams comprised of a physician, a nurse and a pastor. Granger Westberg in his book, The Parish Nurse, stated that the nurses were seen as catalysts in getting representatives of medicine and theology to talk with each other. Ultimately, Granger Westberg turned to the concept of a parish nurse working in the church on staff with the minister. In 1987, the International Parish Nurse Resource Center was established to do research and parish nurse preparation. In 1989 the Health Ministries Association (HMA) began as an interfaith organization for those promoting health and wellness in congregational health ministries. The HMA developed the Scope and Standards of Parish Nurse Practice that was recognized by the American Nurses Association (ANA) in 1998. The ANA designated parish nursing as a specialty in 1997. In 1997, the International Parish Nurse Resource Center endorsed a core curriculum as preparation for the parish nurse. It was reviewed and revised in April of 2000. There are about forty locations in the United States utilizing the endorsed curriculum for Basic Parish Nurse Preparation. Southern Illinois Healthcare is one of the few health care systems in the country that sponsors a course with the endorsed curriculum.