Following Jesus in Nursing

Welcome to Following Jesus in Nursing, a podcast for nurses and students produced by InterVarsity's Nurses Christian Fellowship. I'm your host, Lara K. Kiser, and together, we'll be inspired by our guest stories, tackle big questions with experts in the field, and walk together in following Jesus at the intersection of faith and nursing. Well, hello, Jen. You get to be our first bonus episode guest, so thanks for doing this with me.

You're welcome. I am delighted to be your first bonus episode guest.

Well, Jen, could you just introduce yourself and tell us a little bit more about you?

Yeah. I'm Jen Wojtysiak. I am in Madison, Wisconsin, where I live with my family. I love coffee and pizza and reading and being with my friends and being outdoors, and I do think I have the best job in the world. I have worked on staff at InterVarsity for the last 20 years, and I have been with NCF for the last 4.

And, NCF is one of the 11 focused ministries of InterVarsity that serve communities where having a contextualized ministry on campus serves them, and I absolutely love working with nursing students and nurse faculty. I think that what I have found is that nursing students and nurse faculty are so compassionate, and they are so organized, and they are just filled with vision for seeing nursing students supported through NCF student ministry on their campus.

Yeah. That's great. So you're starting to share a little bit already, but, you're the Director of Student Ministries for NCF. So just to back up a little bit for listeners, we have the Journal of Christian Nursing, we have the professional ministry for nurses, and then we have student ministry that specifically serves on campus. So, do you wanna go into a little bit more of what student ministry is, what it looks like on campus?

Yeah. Well, student ministry is NCF's ministry to students through organizations and communities on campus. So oftentimes, we're a student organization on campus, and we wanna create space on campus for nursing students to explore the intersectionality of their faith in nursing in a supportive and welcoming community. Everyone is welcome at NCF. Our communities study the Bible, and they pray for one another and host socials and speakers and community service events for their nursing department.

And we also resource and support nursing students through our professional membership as well. So NCF student ministry is both a student organization on campus as well as a professional membership, where students can access the Journal of Christian Nursing and connect with nurses and as mentors and through our online programming.

That is awesome. Could you just share a little bit more of, like, what does that look like? Bring it to life for us with a story, a little snapshot of what student a student ministry group looks like on campus.

Yeah. I will share the story of Emily, and Emily's sister was involved in InterVarsity. And when she got to Colorado Christian University and started her nursing program, she just realized that the nursing department was tucked away in a different part of campus, and her schedule was so different with her clinical hours that she really wasn't able to get involved in any of the campus ministry programming. And so she had looked up InterVarsity. She was familiar with InterVarsity because her sister was involved and found out that we have Nurses Christian Fellowship.

And so she emailed me, and we connected, and we prayed together for the nursing department at Colorado Christian University. And she started collecting and gathering information and sharing with students and started a nurses Christian fellowship that is going to this day where students are getting together and supporting one another. And one of the things that they did that was just really impactful was pairing a nursing student from the first cohort with a nursing student from the second cohort as a prayer partner. And to be able to connect students, to pray for one another, and to ask questions to one another just really became a highlight for so many of the students on campus.

That is so fun. I love that idea of pairing up, like, the mentors between cohorts, just passing on what they've learned and how to survive nursing school, all that jazz. So is that a typical way that nursing or that nursing student groups get started, or are there other ways? What does that look like for groups to get started?

One of the things that I love is that oftentimes, our groups start through our NCF network. So we often connect with people who share this vision for a community on campus that supports students, through this sometimes and unusual difficult season of nursing school. It might be a nurse faculty or a connection from our professional ministry or membership, or it might look like a student like Emily or an university staff with a vision for seeing nursing students uniquely engaged on campus. Staff in our department here at NCF Student Ministries will meet with you and share our plug-and-play created resources for planting a group. We offer coaching. We can meet with you weekly or biweekly or monthly. And as groups begin to plant, I think one of the first encouraging ways to see that happen is to pray. And so I just think about if there is a nursing department near you, take a walk, pray, and ask what God is doing already there on campus.

Yeah. That's great. So if you're a nursing student and you're listening right now and you're interest is piqued and you're wondering about being part of an NCF chapter on your campus, you can check out our website and see if there's a group already on your campus. And if there isn't, everything that Jen just shared, you know, could be part of your story of starting a new group for your fellow students in your cohort. So you shared a little bit of a vision with our staff team the other day about planting more student groups this year. Could you share that now with the listeners and kind of how how that came about about and what your vision is right now for planting new groups?

Yeah. So there are 26,000 nursing schools in the United States, and there are half a million nursing students. Wow. And each nursing student is loved by God and uniquely represents his caregiver nature in the world. And we wanna see every nursing program have an NCF community where nursing students can know and follow Jesus in nursing.

And we do plant a number of groups every year, but I was working with a number of others also planting in InterVarsity, and we just started praying, like, what this could look like for this year in Christian Fellowship. And this stretch goal came to mind of planting 24 new student groups on campuses in the year 2024. And just an invitation to unite our NCF audience and bring them into this vision of planting as well.

Yeah. I find it super exciting. So 24 and 24, it's super exciting. It's also it feels ambitious and yeah. So how do people jump in and do this together? How do we participate in 24 and 24?

So we have three ways that you can participate. The first one I mentioned already, and that's to pray. So we will be praying on the 24th of every month from February through December 2024. And like you mentioned, folks can head to our website to sign up, and we'll actually text you on the 24th of every month and remind you to pray, but also to send you some prayer prompts via text as well. The second way would be to share.

So share this information with someone you know that has a heart for a nursing student. Maybe it's somebody who is faculty at a nursing department you know or lives close to a university with a nursing department. You know people that we don't know, and I believe that God is working right now across the country inviting volunteers to be an integral part of seeing these 24 groups planted in 2024, and it would be great just to have people be that connecting link for us. And then the last way, 75% of our student groups are connected with a key volunteer or faculty adviser who supports students. And would you connect with us?

If that might be you, connect with us on our website if you are interested in meeting with us and discussing what it looked like to support and plant an NCF group near you.

That's great. Thank you so much, Jen, for sharing this vision. And, yeah, we were we will all be praying for this 24 and 24 and really excited to hear, the stories that come from this. Hopefully, you'll be back on, sometime in, like, in the fall, and you can share how it's going.

That would be so fun.

Yeah. Well, thanks, Jen.

Thanks, Lara.

Nursing students, y'all are amazing. We love you so much. We're so proud of you, and we're cheering you on, and we're here for you. NCF wants to start these 24 new groups this year to make safe spaces for you to encounter Jesus and to grow as caregivers in God's image together. If you'd like to join us in this vision to see 24 new NCF student groups started in the year 2024, you can sign up at tiny.cc/24ncf.

That's 24ncf. We hope you'll join us in praying, sharing, and connecting with us to see this ministry grow. Hey. Thanks for joining us for another inspiring episode of Following Jesus in Nursing. We hope you've been encouraged and equipped in integrating your faith with your nursing practice. Be sure to check out our show notes for info about connecting with Nurses Christian Fellowship as well as links and resources mentioned in today's episode. And remember, as you go about your work as a nurse, you are not alone. Jesus is right there with you, guiding your steps and using you to bring healing to those in need. Thanks for listening to following Jesus in nursing, and may your faith continue to be a light in the world of healthcare.