Day 7
Hi everyone,
I hope you have enjoyed the messages that have been shared over the past week. Please accept them as a very small token that reflect a large amount of gratitude for all each of you does as a nurse. Whether it is in professional or ministry life, nurses have the power to change lives forever.
I imagine everyone has “that patient” or case that left an indelible mark on your heart. Remember those patients and cases. Draw on them during times of strife, anxiety or when you are lost and need to find your footing. These cases are reminders for us of why we responded to the calling of nursing. A calling is exactly what nursing is. Never forget that God chose you for this calling and know that even as we struggle, He is there helping and holding us up.
I struggled with how best to end Nurse’s Week. The reality is there is no tangible gift you can give to a person who selflessly gives of themselves everyday no matter what and consistently uses their own voice to advocate, educate and elevate the lives of others. We all follow the example set forth by Florence Nightingale many years ago and will continue to do so for generations to come. As we celebrate Nightingale’s 201st birthday today, let us again reflect on our own nursing path and pray that God bless and protect each of us as we continue on our nursing journey.
The “gifts” for today are that of sincere gratitude and A Blessing for Nurses but also the gift of song. As nurses there are often times when You Didn’t Have to do what you did, but you chose to do it anyway. You didn’t realize that Nurses Change Lives forever or that to many we are More than a Hero. However, above all we are Always a Nurse and should be VERY proud to be! I know I am humbled to be a part of a profession and ministry with so many talented, passionate and faithful individuals. Thank you for responding to the calling of nursing and for choosing to share you passion to care for others in ministry life.
P.S. For those that may not realize, each highlighted area in the last paragraph leads to a link for a blessing or song. Enjoy!
With Gratitude,
Nicole
Nicole Keefer, RN
Director of Parish Nursing
VITALity Catholic Healthcare Services Diocese of Camden
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Day 6
Hi everyone,
I hope you have been enjoying these daily emails during Nurse’s Week. As we are coming towards the end of the week of celebration, please share any feedback you may have. I hope you enjoy today’s gift of prayer.
Today’s gift is a short Catholic Health Association article and prayer for Nurse’s Day. The prayer is at the end after a brief history I thought you may enjoy: https://www.chausa.org/prayers/cha-prayer-library/prayer/nurses-day-2019. As nurses in both our ministry and professional practice, we often carry out tasks that no one else wants to do and frequently do not receive a “thank you” attached. This prayer helped to remind me that in doing these tasks, we are carrying out the work of Jesus by caring for all of humanity in hopes to help them achieve health and peace in their own life. May today’s prayer serve as a reminder of why we carry out the work we do and reaffirm your desire to help others.
With Gratitude,
Nicole
Nicole Keefer, RN
Director of Parish Nursing
VITALity Catholic Healthcare Services Diocese of Camden
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Day 5
Hi and Happy Monday everyone!
Hope you had a restful weekend and were able to relax a bit. In keeping with the tone of relaxation, I thought today would be appropriate to share resources for well-being that the Catholic Health Association (CHA) has created: https://www.chausa.org/well-being/well-being. As nurses and parish nurses, we care for others on a constant basis. This webpage was created by CHA as a one stop place for healthcare workers to go and hopefully find something of meaning to you that helps to fill your cup. May is also mental health awareness month. It’s appropriate that CHA has created this page to help us remember as clinicians to take time to care for our own body, mind and spirit so that we in turn, can care for others.
Hope you find this webpage as valuable as I did.
With Gratitude,
Nicole
Nicole Keefer, RN
Director of Parish Nursing
VITALity Catholic Healthcare Services
Diocese of Camden
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Day 4
Hi everyone,
Happy Mother’s Day to those of us who are mothers. In preparing today’s email, I wanted to acknowledge the care and compassion we give in our nursing practice and honor mothers. The harmony we have today with it being Mother’s Day and nurse’s week is that in both roles, we display care and compassion.
For those who are mothers I imagine you, like I, have at times felt like you were “mothering” your patients. I think this is most appropriate because whether male or female, nurses typically are nurturers by nature. It goes without saying that whether you are a mother or a nurse, today you should be honored and I pray you are able to take a breath and relax.
For today’s gifts, I am including a nurse’s prayer: https://www.chausa.org/prayers/cha-prayer-library/prayer/a-nurse’s-prayer and two songs! The first one is Act of Love and I found the lyrics most appropriate considering nurse’s week and Mother’s Day: Act of Love. The second one is by Alicia Keys and although it references women. I hope the men amongst us realize that they too are superheroes in their daily work to heal patients and parishioners as well as support the ladies in their lives, enjoy: Superwoman.
God Bless all of you and your work.
With Gratitude,
Nicole
Nicole Keefer, RN
Director of Parish Nursing
VITALity Catholic Healthcare Services
Diocese of Camden
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Day 3
Hi everyone,
Following along with the theme of reflecting on our nursing practice, I came across this song that I thought fit perfectly. Click this link to hear it: Legacy. It discusses leaving a legacy and what we want to have done in our lives. Wherever you are in your life or your nursing practice, I think this song can have meaning for you.
I also wanted to “gift” all of you with some other freebies I have uncovered: https://parade.com/1205619/michelleparkerton/nurses-week-freebies-discounts/.
Hope you are enjoying your weekend!
With Gratitude,
Nicole
Nicole Keefer, RN
Director of Parish Nursing
VITALity Catholic Healthcare Services
Diocese of Camden
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Day 2
Hi everyone,
Hope you enjoyed the video reflection and information about free coffee yesterday 😊.
Today we are continuing with the theme of reflection in our nursing practices. Each of us has a unique nursing journey and story to share. Sometimes in reviewing our own nursing pathway, we learn new things about ourselves and the experiences we have had. Take a moment and read this reflection: https://www.chausa.org/prayers/cha-prayer-library/prayer/a-reflection-for-national-nurses-week.
In the next few days, consider reflecting on your own nursing career whether professionally or in the parish nurse ministry life. How has it shaped you into the person you are? Have you used past nursing experiences to guide you in the future nursing career and ministry decisions you have made? As nurses, we are all guilty of never sitting down and taking the time to reflect on ourselves. We are great at reflecting on others needs but rarely take the time to inventory our own thoughts, hopes, failures and dreams. I hope if nothing else, today’s email helps you take even a moment to reflect on the impact nursing has had on your life.
Today’s gift is to reflect on your own nursing journey after reviewing the reflection above. Additionally, in case your reflection peaked interest in other areas of nursing or in case you need FREE CEU’s, here is the link to Johns Hopkins website: https://www.ijhn-education.org/courses. They are offering some free CEU’s during May. We all need CEU’s!
Happy Friday!
God Bless,
Nicole
Nicole Keefer, RN
Director of Parish Nursing
VITALity Catholic Healthcare Services
Diocese of Camden
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Hello everyone,
Happy Nurse’s Week! As today is the first day of National Nurse’s week, I wanted to reach out and personally thank all of you for your dedication, compassion and commitment to the field of nursing but particularly to our ministry of parish nursing. It goes without saying that the field of nursing is a challenge. However, it is also an immensely rewarding career where despite all the different specialty areas we practice in, each unique role we play as nurses is pivotal to the lives of the patients and parishioners we touch. As parish nurses this is particularly true. We may never “touch” a patient as we do in our clinical and professional practices however our personal “touch” as faith community members and nurses helps to heal the body, mind and soul of those we work with and for.
Each of our parish nurse ministries is as unique as each of you are as nurses. However we are all bonded in our work to share the healing presence of Jesus Christ in the lives of others. May you all know how grateful we are for all you contribute to our ministry today and throughout the year.
Unfortunately we are not able to hold the annual retreat we typically host each spring however we are tentatively planning a parish nurse/health ministry retreat for the fall. Although we aren’t able to gather physically yet, I will be sending small tokens of appreciation throughout the next week so be sure to keep an eye on your email.
Today’s gift is a reflection from the Catholic Health Association, click this link for the reflection: https://www.chausa.org/prayers/cha-prayer-library/prayer/catholic-health-care-nursing-video-reflection. I hope you enjoy it!
Also in case you didn’t hear, today, May 6th, Dunkin Donuts locations are offering free coffee to nurses who show their ID. Stop by and enjoy a cup today!
With Gratitude,
Nicole
Nicole Keefer, RN
Director of Parish Nursing
VITALity Catholic Healthcare Services
Diocese of Camden
