Date of Award

2019

Document Type

Thesis

Committee Chair

Abby Garlock

Abstract

Faith Community Nursing (FCN) is a nursing practice specialty that focuses on the intentional care of the spirit, the promotion of an integrative model of health, and the prevention and minimization of illness. The FCN nursing specialty is believed to be an effective specialty to reverse the trend for declining health by aiding in the improvement of quality of life (QoL) and overall health for increasing numbers of people with multiple health problems; however, minimal research data and literature was available to substantiate the claim. This MSN thesis explored the relationship between FCN ministries and QoL and health by conducting a retrospective, qualitative study. A purposive sample of FCNs was chosen initially and expanded by a networking sample of parishioners referred by FCNs. Participants were interviewed, and data was analyzed for common themes. The Theoretical Model of FCN was used as a guide which allowed for comparison of retrospective data and aided in identifying and organizing common themes in pursuit of wholistic care, which includes faith integration and incorporates health promotion, disease management, coordination, empowerment, and access to care. A perceived positive impact of FCN ministries on QoL and health was manifest throughout the interviews. This information may be beneficial to expand FCN as a nursing practice and may benefit all nurses by improving understanding concerning the impact of spiritual care on QoL and health.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

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