Source: mailto:mediarelations@uamail.albany.edu
ALBANY, NEW YORK, May 27, 2009: [HPI note: Hindu health care professionals may be inspired to implement a faith-based service for the continually growing Hindu population in the United States.]
Faith community nurses (FCNs) are playing an increasingly significant role in providing better access to basic health services for under-served populations, according to the University at Albany’s Center for Health Workforce Studies (CHWS). The study suggests that FCNs are also a mechanism of retaining valuable expertise of public health nurses after they retire.
The role of faith community nurses is to “provide services that traditional medicine just doesn’t have enough time for, including talking about exercise, nutrition and smoking cessation programs,” said CHWS research associate Sandra McGinnis.
Results also showed that FCNs were likely to offer several public health services through their congregation, including blood pressure clinics, individual and family health counseling, crisis intervention and referrals. “We expect to lose a lot of nurses to retirement in the next 10 years, so this is a potential model to recruit retired nurses and keep them involved in providing health care services to the community,” said McGinnis. “Then their knowledge won’t be completely lost to the public good.”