Nursing: A Healing Ministry

Nursing is a profession that involves caring for people from all different backgrounds, cultures, ethnicities, races, and religions. The world is full of unique individuals. One unifying factor for all people is that everyone has needs. In nursing, most of the care needs are physical and psychosocial needs. However, each person has spiritual needs. Nurses are expected to provide holistic care to their patients; thus the spiritual matters cannot be divorced from the physical and psychosocial ones. Since patients do need spiritual care, nurses have a unique opportunity to minister to these individuals. Nurses are also placed in a position that allows them to minister to the family and friends of their patients. Currently, some concerns focus on how nurses should care for spiritual needs. There have also been some suggestions made toward improving spiritual care. This thesis will explore why nursing should be a ministry and how to minister best to patients.