Alumni

Workshop Explores Spiritual Care

The seventh annual Congregational Health Project Workshop focused on creating a health care environment that embraces spirituality and spiritual care. Hence, the theme for this year’s event, “Nurturing and Empowering the Soul.”

The workshop, presented April 11 by the College of Nursing, explored how nurses, clergy and health care professionals can nurture others by providing spiritual care during times of illness or stress.

“Nurses are sort of on the front line,” says Nola Schmidt ’83, associate professor of nursing. “We need to be able to distinguish between people who are healthy spiritually and those who need an intervention or who need time to reflect on their relationship with God and others.”

LeAnn Thieman, a registered nurse and co-author of “Chicken Soup for the Nurse’s Soul” and “Chicken Soup for the Christian Woman’s Soul” was the keynote speaker at the workshop, sharing her experience with helping to rescue 3,000 Vietnamese orphans in 1975.

“During a nurse’s day, we take care of the physical needs and the anxieties and worries of our patients,” Schmidt says. “But sometimes we’re not so good at looking at our patients holistically and taking care of their spiritual needs. That’s what we’re trying to do.”

Joseph Cunningham, Valparaiso University pastor; Louise Williams ’67, former executive director of Valparaiso’s Lutheran Deaconess Association; and Anne Schmidt, director of pastoral care at Stamford Hospital in Connecticut, also presented at the workshop.

Nola Schmidt welcomes suggestions for next year’s event. Contact her by e-mail at nola.schmidt@valpo.edu.