Parish nurses help others heal through faith
Sometimes, parish nurses extend their roles beyond their assigned churches.
That's the case in North Fort Myers, where nurse Peggy Asrani works at the All Souls Episcopal Church but spends most of her time helping church leaders, members and volunteers from an array of organizations minister to the homeless.
Asrani in the last six or seven years has worked to organize medical clinics with the Salvation Army and Family Health Centers, helped bring in a veterans representative to advise former service people and brought in the health department to screen and vaccinate people for diseases such as hepatitis. Her position is supported by private donations funneled through the Lee Memorial Health System Foundation.
"You need to build trust with any patient, but especially these people who feel they've been taken advantage of or that society hasn't been kind to them," she said.
Like the other nurses, Asrani loves her job. It's challenging, she said, but not in the physical way as, say, hospital-based nursing.
"I definitely encourage all those nurses who are retired or semi-retired to consider parish nursing," she said.
http://www.news-press.com/article/20090401/HEALTH/904010433/1013/LIFESTYLES
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