Coordinator Information
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A Parish Nurse Coordinator is an RN who oversees, educates, and supports practicing parish nurses while organizing, planning, and sustaining the viability of this health ministry within a church or a healthcare organization. This requires additional education, knowledge, skills, and gifts in the areas of community health nursing, not-for-profit management, and faith community life. Since Health Ministry can be found in any faith community, the coordinator must be open to many faith traditions and be willing to spend time in the greater community promoting health ministry to people, groups, organizations, agencies, and faith communities.

To be a successful coordinator, one should possess:

• Administrative skills to organize and guide the program through the organizational structures of both the business and faith community,
• Experience with interviewing, screening, hiring, supervising, evaluating and sometimes dismissing employees,
• Management and mentoring skills to supervise a geographically scattered staff,
• Nursing knowledge for teaching, problem-solving, and maintaining the professional standards of Faith Community Nursing,
• Experience in parish/faith community nursing through a basic education course and a parish nurse practice,
• Completion of a basic foundations course and personal experience through a parish nurse practice
• A personal faith experience to understand and speak about spirituality,
• The confidence to work with a variety of congregational/faith cultures,
• Strong communication skills to effectively collaborate with faith communities, administration, and community agencies,
• An attention to detail required for documentation, reporting interventions and outcomes, correspondence, and budgeting – clerical help may/may not be available,
• Flexibility, strength, patience, respect, and innovation to work with varied faith traditions.

To aid in the continuing education and networking of coordinators the IPNRC provides:

• Faith Community Nursing Coordinator Curriculum: With the assistance of experienced parish nurses, the IPNRC has developed curriculum to teach the varied aspects of health ministry to those entering this field as a coordinator. Several IPNRC Educational Partners offer this curriculum. A current listing of class dates, locations, and contact person can be found under ‘Course Roster’.
• Coordinator Networking: To connect and network with other coordinators, Maureen Daniels, Director of International Programs & Coordinator’s Support, distributes a monthly coordinator’s email that shares current parish nurse information and resources and monitors a listserve where coordinators can post questions about managing a practice. Contact Maureen Daniels to join the listserve.
• Coordinator Manual: The IPNRC has published a manual that provides information on many issues of managing a program. Topics include: the coordinator’s role, how to implement a program, common policies, financial concerns for agencies and faith communities, human resource issues, marketing tips, and more. Go to the Resource Catalog to view a description and table of contents for Parish Nurse Coordinator Manual: A Guide to Creating & Developing Your Program.

Find additional information at the following links:

B/P protocol: Download free guidelines recommended by the National Heart, Blood, and Lung Institute
Sample Coordinator Job Description
Locate fellow Coordinators via Coordinator List by Location
Resources for Coordinators (Books on PN)