50+ parish nurses and clergy began the morning with words of welcome and a worship service lead by the local Bishop. I presented the Advanced Spiritual Care Module and discovered that I say "y'all" more than I realized. Fortunately, the UK parish nurses seem to enjoy our accents as much as we enjoy hearing theirs. They did decide that Katora's accent was more southern than mine and more "musical." It made my day when one nurse told me that I should do relaxation tapes because she could listen to my voice all day. I had to laugh when her next sentence was "Oh, I don't mean that you put me to sleep when you were talking! I meant that I like the sound of your voice."
Katora Campbell introduced the new booklet on transitional care which has great cartoons drawn by her daughter that add to the comprehensive content. Katie, our ever working assistant, ran to the printers (literally) to pick up Katora's booklets, collected evaluations and passed out our materials, certificates, and flash drives. While we presented, she folded 50 origami peace cranes for the nurses to exchange for the evaluation sheets.
It is comforting to know that when she attends school in the UK this fall she will have parish nurses close by to be her family and an avenue to continue her support of faith community nursing practice. Helen told her she could help introduce parish nursing to the churches she visits as she is looking for a new church home. I am proud to be a part of faith community nursing ministry that connects us worldwide! Many thanks to our UK sisters and brothers for their hospitality at a great conference.