Faith and Health

Dr. Lynda Miller is a nurse educator and conference speaker who is recognized as a pioneer and leader in the emerging field of parish nursing/health ministry in both Canada and the USA. In her doctoral research (University of Victoria, Canada) she developed the first nursing theoretical framework with a clearly Christian faith perspective. Her publications include articles in The Canadian Nurse and The Journal of Christian Nursing and a chapter in two edited books: Promoting Healthy Aging: A Nursing and Community Perspective, and Addressing the Spiritual Dimensions in Adult Learning: What Educators Can Do. She has authored and taught courses in parish nursing for St. Francis Xavier University (Nova Scotia), Tyndale Seminary (Ontario), and Concordia University College of Alberta. She was a founding member of the Canadian Association for Parish Nursing Ministry. Her professional experience includes hospital, long term care, community health nursing, and an independent practice as a wellness educator. She has instructed in four schools of nursing. Her active involvement in the Christian faith community spans fifty years and several church denominations. For the past six years she has served as the Parish Nurse in her local Anglican church. Her life has been divided equally between living in Canada and the USA. She and her husband, Leon LeChasseur, reside in Victoria, BC (Summer and Fall) and in Solvang, CA (Winter and Spring).

This book is a response to a need. Christian nurses, in a wide range of settings, perform their work based on beliefs drawn from their faith, but until now they've had no specifically Christian theoretical foundation to help them. Nurses working in the emerging field of "Parish Nursing" in particular need a framework that helps them explicitly link the tenets of faith and concepts of health in their practice, education, and research. Nurses of other faiths may also find the framework useful in seeing a way to relate their own beliefs and values to their nursing.In the book's Introduction the author tells why she devoted her doctoral research to theory development and how she went about doing that. The body of the book describes her nursing conceptual framework in depth, yet in an informal "reader friendly" style. The concluding chapter answers the question "Now what?" and helps readers make practical applications in their everyday lives.The four major components of the Faith and Health Framework are presented in detail:Person/Parishioner, Health/Shalom-Wholeness, Nurse/Parish Nurse, and Community/Parish, with the integrating component The Triune God. Described under each component are two organizing concepts, which in turn contain other key concepts, such as: mission, ministry, compassion, competence and communion.Various perspectives on the Framework are depicted in several full-color stained glass figures and in an inspirational poem written by the author. There are extensive bibliographic references and quotations from The Holy Bible, throughout, plus Appendices of relevant materials and resources.