Looking for a great read?
Check out Called to Care: A Christian Worldview for Nursing by Judith Allen Shelly and Arlene B. Miller
As one Amazon review states, "Bar none, this is the best work of its kind on the market."
There is much to learn in this excellent work, which starts by surveying nursing's historical roots as Christianity's response to caring for God's people. What do you know about the real Florence Nightingale? Deaconesses as some of the first nurses? How the ministry of nursing guidelines developed from the Christian faith?
After this fascinating look at nursing's historical roots in Christianity, the book examines how the practice of nursing has been experiencing challenges to bypass Christian roots by scientific and business models of care, as well as the current rise of alternative spiritualities among nursing leaders.
The authors have given us a great resource for re-examining the biblical basis of our commitment to serve the suffering and needy as nurses.
Publisher's Description
Nursing keeps changing. The role of the nurse grew out of a Christian understanding of the human person as created in the image of God, and viewed the body as a living unity and the "temple of the Holy Spirit" (1 Cor. 6:19). Contemporary nursing, however, is increasingly characterized by a diminished understanding of personhood. The impact on patient care has proven confusing and discouraging to many nurses. In the newly revised and expanded Called to Care: A Christian Worldview for Nursing, Judith Allen Shelly and Arlene B. Miller define nursing for today based on a historically and theologically grounded understanding of the nurse's call: Nursing is a ministry of compassionate care for the whole person, in response to God's grace toward a sinful world, which aims to foster optimum health (shalom) and bring comfort in suffering and death for anyone in need. Called to Care asserts that nursing is a vocation, giving nurses a framework for understanding their mission and living out their calling: service to God through caring for others.