Nursing Conference a Wonderful Success!

ISH's 19th Annual Nursing Conference was a huge success with four terrific speakers -- Rev. Herb Orell; Ken Pargament, Ph.D.; Chaplain AnnMarie Wallace, and Joan Engelbretsen, RN, Ph.D. Rev Orrell set the stage saying that Nurses cannot say they will not engage in spirituality with their patients -- we always express our spirituality -- so, the only question is will our spirituality be positive or negative experience. He gave very helpful suggestions as to how to handle the "big" questions. For example, rather than trying to give a theological answer to the "Why has this happened to me?" question, we can look for the emotions being expressed by the question and say, "It appears your illness has caused you to feel God abandoned you." Among our other speakers, Dr. Ken Pargament addressed the subject of patient Suffering which he said can lead to a sacred moment with a patient. He then asked the group to share with those at their tables a "Sacred Moment." This was a powerful and touching experience for all. Chaplain Ann Marie Wallace began her talk with the story of a time she was called to miniter to a patient who could not stop crying. She used this as an entry to outline the extensive training Chaplains receive in order to provide spiritual care for patients. After lunch Joan Engelbretsen, Ph.D., R.N, presented an overview of Cultural Compentency required of nursing today due to our cutlural-pluralistic society. After the talks, Awards were presented to seven nurses in the Texas Medical Center. Names of the winners will be published on this site next week.