S2E6: Profoundly Powerful Spiritual Interventions

Welcome to Following Jesus in Nursing, a podcast for nurses and students produced by InterVarsity's Nurses Christian Fellowship. I'm your host, Lara Kay Kaiser, and together, we'll be inspired by our guests' stories, tackle big questions with experts in the field, and walk together in following Jesus at the intersection of faith and nursing.

This intentional presence in the relationship and entering into the patient's world, that's what facilitates healing. That profound, powerful spiritual intervention is the intervention the patient needs because I'm with them. By that, I'm offering them something that says, I see you and I see this matters and I see that you're struggling.

Welcome back, Kathy. I can't believe we're already at episode 6 of this season.

Yeah. I know.

So today we're talking about profoundly powerful spiritual interventions. So we've talked about preparation. We talked about assessing, integrating spiritual care, and now we're talking about the actual, like, the doings, the intervening. So I'd love to pull that apart a little bit more. What do you think are the most profound or important spiritual interventions, Kathy?

Yeah. I love the alliteration. Profoundly powerful.

Say that five times fast.

Yeah. You know, spiritual interventions have been discussed so much in nursing literature and we talk about assessment, diagnosis, intervention, you know, planning and evaluation intervention in our nursing care process. I think though, what do we typically think of as spiritual interventions? And often we think of spiritual practices or maybe religiously related interventions, like religious traditions or rituals.

We think of spiritual interventions as things like prayer or maybe sharing sacred texts like Bible verses, or getting a visit from a clergyman, a chaplain. And I certainly think, you know, yes, that is spiritual intervention: assessing for and supporting patients' spiritual practices and offering the spiritual or religiously related spiritual care. Certainly those are spiritual care and those are so important and that's huge. And the Joint Commission, the organization that accredits healthcare organizations, it requires us to do that.

Boiling it all down, and I've had a lot of time to think about this and experience this and read the research: Perhaps the easiest and best way to think about spiritual interventions is realizing that the most profound spiritual intervention is the intervention the patient needs. So profoundly powerful spiritual interventions are the interventions the patient needs.

So what do I mean by that? Well, these are the interventions that say, and I think even for our patients sort of loudly shout, Nurse, you're with me right now. That's just what I needed. You're right here in the moment. You're stepping into my pain. You realize I'm in pain. You realize I'm scared. You realize I have questions and you're meeting me here. You are connecting with me. I think that that's the beginning. That's how we think about what's a powerful spiritual intervention. And like always, Jesus offers us the best examples of this profound spiritual intervention about truly caring for the spirit.

You know, we read in the Bible, in the New Testament, Jesus encounters people. He encounters sick people. We're taking care of sick people. And he demonstrates the best in spiritual care. Over and over, we hear that Jesus had compassion. You read that in the gospels. When a man with leprosy came to him, and you're not supposed to touch lepers and it's all this distancing. It says, Jesus literally was filled with compassion, touches the man, he heals him. That's one great example in Mark chapter 1. And then when Lazarus died, Lazarus was that family, Mary, Martha, Lazarus, in John 11. Lazarus was a great friend, he died. And it says Jesus, when he goes to Mary and Martha, he was deeply moved. So I think what I'm struck with is Jesus had compassion. He was filled with compassion. He was deeply moved.

I think what our patients need most from us is that we be deeply moved. We be deeply moved about them, about their situation, about their needs. So more than anything else, more than words, actions, or resharing religious ideals or rituals, I think spiritual care is profound when we're deeply moved for those in our care and they experience that from us. We are connected with them.

Yeah. I really like that. That the most profound spiritual intervention is the intervention the patient needs. It's so simple but straightforward, and I love that it's centering on the patient's experience. And so you're mentioning a lot about connecting with the patient and that they kind of walk away saying, Nurse, you see me and you're connecting with me. So how do we do that? Could you say a little bit more about what that connection looks like? How do we do that connecting?

Yeah, we've talked about this in previous episodes, but I just can't say it enough. We need to be prepared to do good nursing. We have to spend time with Jesus. We have to have time in prayer. We have to meet Jesus in the Bible and God's Word.

We have to be in fellowship. So we are spiritually ourselves, spiritually alive and aware. I think we need to give our work to God. I pray all the time, take this meeting, take this work. I would pray on the way to the hospital, Jesus, give me the patients you want me to have, do with me what you want. So I'm kind of geared towards that.

And I'm spiritually ready as much as I can be. Help, Lord! Holistically. We're thinking about integrated body, mind, spirit care. Certainly I would pray, help me to start this IV the first time. This is going to be a hard stick.

But I also am praying, I'm thinking about where's this patient at and what do they need. I think it's important to ask the Holy Spirit to help us see our patients. You know, we pray this as Christians, help us see people as God sees them. So like, Jesus sees a leper. Who's a leper? If I see a person who is uncomfortable for me, give me compassion, help me see how you care for them, give us a caring mind and a caring heart.

Even sometimes in the moments of care, like you're on a crazy shift or you're getting a new admission, or you're just like, pause and focus and center and send up a flash prayer and just keep resetting your mind on Christ. One thing I've read in the literature is like, you have to wash your hands. So in those moments where you're washing your hands, do a flash prayer. Help me, Jesus. What do you want to do in this situation?

If it's super crazy, like step back. You can take a deep breath, maybe go to the bathroom. Ask everybody--give me 30 seconds and just then reenter from this point of calmness. The worst shifts I ever had were when I forgot to ask God for help. So I have the spiritual awareness and I'm asking God for help. And then, my posture as a nurse is listening deeply.

We hear about active presence. That's a term in nursing: presence, active listening, but it's this kind of acute awareness when I'm with that patient, no matter what I'm doing. So when they speak and when they share, I'm silently listening and I'm listening deeply. And I guess I don't mean just I'm not talking, but I'm internally silent. It's like, can I just stop and focus?

My mind isn't racing about the next thing I have to do. I don't know. I think nurses can multitask very, very well, but I'm really listening and I'm focusing on what the patient's saying. What are their actions saying? What's their body language? We miss a lot of opportunities to do these profoundly powerful spiritual interventions, because we're not in the moment with the patient and their situation, kind of focusing on the next task or how frustrated we are.

Or maybe I'm thinking about what I forgot to get at the grocery store. You know, I'm not with and I put with in quote marks, I'm not with the patient. This intentional presence in the relationship and entering into the patient's world. That's what facilitates healing. That profound, powerful spiritual intervention is the intervention the patient needs because I'm with them.

That patient or their family member, they experience that I'm with them, that I care about them. By that I'm offering them something that says, I see you and I see this matters and I see that you're struggling.

You're really on a roll with the alliteration today. I like the acute awareness. That's beautiful. But yes, presence and awareness and witness are so critical. And the first few things you mentioned, prayer, preparation, you're back to the topics we've talked about before with organically prepared and fully integrated.

So the preparation brings us to that point where we're able to be aware and fully present with patients.

Yes. Good spiritual self care.

Yes. Exactly. So sometimes within Christian circles, we think of the religious practices as the most profound intervention. And we've talked a little bit about this when we talked about the Holy Spirit led spiritual care. But just coming back to that idea of where you see the spiritual intervention of proselytizing or sharing faith coming in as a spiritual intervention. Is that should we view that as the most important or profound as Christians?

Well, yes and no. Yes and the fact that I've experienced the life changing relationship with Jesus Christ. I know that God wants everyone to be saved and to know Jesus personally. I know that I'm supposed to be ready to share the good news of Jesus. So, yes, is that the most important spiritual intervention in our lives, to know Christ?

And yes, in the sense that all of what we do as nurses should help people feel cared for by God. It should help them have a sense that someone's interested in them and caring for them in their situation. As a Christian, if they figure that out or ask us, it's because God is interested in them. You know, we are caring for them as Christ's representatives. But I'd say yes in those ways, But no, are we supposed to tell every patient with words, to say, are you saved? Do you know Jesus? No, spiritual care is not overt proselytizing. Am I a witness with my life and my care and sometimes with my words? Our job is to carefully assess and carefully listen and connect with the patient in the moment and discover what they really need and then respond. You know, I'm asking good questions, tell me more about what you're feeling right now, or I'm there in the moment with them.

Also, spiritual care. Now I can't say this loud enough: It should not be about our agenda. It should not be that I know you need to be safe. So that's my agenda, but our job is to be deeply moved to have compassion like Jesus did. He didn't walk up to everybody and say, Believe in me, I'm Son the of God. I mean, he did, but but he had relationships. I think in nursing, I think in all of life, but especially in nursing, you know, our patients are in a very vulnerable space. We're in a position of power. We have the upper hand.

I mean, literally they're bedridden. And so we have so much control over them. We can give them pain meds, we can respond to them. So we always keep in mind their vulnerability and we never take advantage of them. And we don't think we have to convert them.

Saving people is up to God. And yeah, the Holy Spirit might lead a situation and use us to respond to specific faith questions, but we're not coercing them. We're not manipulating them. We're following their lead. So our agenda should not be that we have to tell our patients about Jesus in specific words.

Our agenda should be, yes, our actions, but not always our words. Again, asking good questions. Are there ways I can support you right now? What do you do when you feel like this? Where do you go for support?

And sometimes depending on the conversation, you know, has faith played a role in your life? And I have found over and over and over in these Holy Spirit led situations with patients, many, many, many times it comes to faith. And the patient might say, Nurse, what do you believe? And then you might have an opportunity to say specific words about a relationship with Jesus Christ. We follow their lead and we ask good questions and we're compassionate and caring for them.

But my goal is not to go in the room and say, Boy, I better tell this patient about Jesus. So even though an intervention might feel passive in terms of actively sharing our faith, again, it's just active listening or something we do or say, sometimes it's overtly religious and it's related to their desire for some kind of faith information or faith related interventions, but the intervention should be what the patient needs, not what we need. And I think, does God want people to know him? Absolutely. So we come in and represent Jesus well. Yes. Our goal is to help people restore their relationship with God. But no, it doesn't mean we overtly use words and proselytize. Yeah. Our goal is not to convert people. That's God's goal.

Yeah. I thought that was so helpful. Very clarifying. And I appreciate what you mentioned about patients' vulnerability. Next episode, we're gonna come back and talk about some ethical questions around spiritual care.

And I think that'll unpack that a little bit more as well. I also really liked what you said about how Jesus interacted with people. He didn't say to every single person, you know, believe in me right now and get baptized immediately. I mean, that wasn't how he carried himself. And evangelism, the Word, was talking about good news, and good news is holistic.

And that's what nursing is about, it's holistic care and seeing what does the patient need, meeting them where they're at like Jesus did, and recognizing that each person needed something different in order to receive the good news contextualized in their own life and situation.

Yes.

So story time, it's my favorite part. What's an example or two, Kathy, of what you think a profoundly powerful spiritual intervention has been in your experience?

Oh my, I remember a patient when I worked in behavioral health, I had just gotten out of report and one of my patients was running around. So again, this are acute, severe, mentally ill patients. They're bipolar, they're, you know, manic, they're schizophrenic, they're delusional. And so these are people who are really having a behavioral health crisis. And so the behavior wasn't initially unusual.

We come out of report and this man starts shouting, Who's my nurse? Who's my nurse? And I, you know, that's a little scary. Yeah. And this is a big man and he had been living homeless.

And so he's unkempt, he's unshaved. He had been admitted that day and I knew he was a new admission. So he hadn't had a bath and his clothes are very tattered. We were trying to find him some clothes. And so I kind of take a deep breath and walk up to him and I say, Randy, I'm your nurse today.

And so he gets right next to my face and he tells me that his ID has been lost. Now we have driver's licenses, and you know, if you don't have a driver's license, you can get a state issued ID. And that was not mentioned in shift report, nor was it mentioned that he was upset about it. So it takes me by surprise.

So I take a step back and, you know, he's yelling and yelling about it. He's very angry because we lost it. So I told him, you know, okay, Randy, I'm going to make my rounds and see what I need to do right away. And then I'll get back with you.

Oh no, no. He keeps following me around and he's yelling and getting more and more agitated. So I took a deep breath and I thought, Okay, you know, you're trying to give boundaries, you're trying to help people with behavior, but this keeps escalating. And I realized I was going to have to call security if something didn't happen. I just stopped and I asked him to sit with me and I focused on him. And he's cussing, he's brash, he's waving his arms. And he tells me the story of being picked up by the police and taken to the emergency room.

And then he was transferred to our unit and how he had the ID when he was picked up. Of course, in behavioral health, they take your possessions. I mean, that's for safety so that things don't get lost. Part of that is we kind of search people and make sure they don't have anything they shouldn't. And so I promised him, I said, You know, this is really hard.

Yeah, I'm going to check on this as soon as, you know, give me a few minutes. Again, just escalating. So I thought, well, I'm going to give him a medication to calm him down. And he refuses to take it. I'm just like, I prayed. I said, Jesus, I don't know what to do. We're going to end up calling security. I'm going to have to give this man an injection and put him some Geodon or something, get him calmed down.

I finally, I said to him, Randy, you can't keep walking around yelling. How can I help you calm down as I look for your ID card? And he said to me, this was so surprising. I guess I was trying to establish presence, that calmness. This was not a person I could easily care for. Right? He smells, he's dirty, he's yelling at me. And I'm thinking, how do you see this man, Jesus?

How do I connect with him? So I said, how can I help you calm down as I look for your ID card? So he yells, he says to me, Do you think God knows where my ID card is? Nobody else does. And he says, Maybe we should ask God to find it.

And in my mind, I'm thinking, Well, God knows exactly where it is. I'm like, Yeah, we should ask God to help you find it. I hadn't thought of that before. And so I just, I looked at him and I said, Randy, do you want to ask God right now to help us? And I was terrified, like thinking this is so hard. And he goes, Yes, let's pray right now. So I just softly prayed with him, God, we really need your help. Can you show Randy that you care about him? Can you show him right now that you care about him? And can you please help fix this situation?

And as I'm praying, I'm thinking I'm gonna call social work, start getting a new ID. You know, I'm thinking there's no way we're gonna find this card. And I didn't know what was gonna happen. I didn't want Randy to be disappointed at God. I really needed him to calm down. And so I told him I would check back with him in 20 minutes. So now I spent all this time with him and I've prayed with him and he looks at me and he goes, That security guard, ask him. He took it from me. And there happened to be a security guard standing at the nurse's station. He could hear the patient and he rolls his eyes like, Yeah, right. You know, this guy's crazy. So I walked over to the security guard to pacify Randy and I said, I need this patient to calm down. Can you at least act like you're looking for it? And I had to coax him, but he finally said, Okay, and he walked away. And I figured he's not gonna look and I'm gonna have to come up with another intervention with Randy.

And I'm just thinking this poor guy, this poor man. And this is a true story. I'm not making this up. I looked at my watch 15 minutes later, security guard walks up and he's waving this ID card in his hands. And I said, Where on earth did you find it?

And he said actually there was another patient being discharged and he was going through the valuables envelope and there was Randy's card. And before, you know, and I just like, I was so shocked. I grabbed the card and I run up to Randy, well, I didn't run, but I quickly approached him and I'd waved it in the air. Before I could say anything, he grabs my shoulders and he hugs me and he starts crying.

So I thought of Matthew 6:28, when we're told to look at the birds. Then God tells us, Aren't you much more valuable than they are? Oh, you have little faith, ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you shall find. Knock and the door will be opened. And I thought, God answered our prayer.

And then Randy said to me, Nurse, do you think God listens to somebody like me? Do you think he even loves me? And I just grinned and I thought, Yeah, I sure do. And we ended up having this great one on one, talking about his medications, his need for for care. He kept talking about God's little miracle, and he was telling all the other patients.

And as I just talked with him about where he could find support in his life, he thought he should go and worship God. Like he wanted to respond to God's care for him, and he wanted know if there was a church that accepts people like me. And I actually knew of a church downtown where a lot of homeless people are, and they care for the homeless. They have a Bible study, and I told him all about it. And I just think if I hadn't stopped and cared for that man, he probably would end up sedated and confined and sort of gotten worse and worse.

I was so struck with "just be" with this man in the moment, like figure out what he needs, what he wants. And in the midst of that, this supernatural miracle happens where the ID card was found. He got better and he was discharged. I don't know if he went to the church, but thought about that was the most profoundly powerful spiritual intervention, just connecting with him and taking action even when I didn't believe it would make a difference, but God knew and He made a difference. Just being present, being actively listening, even when it's crazy.

Yeah. And we might even get to witness a miracle out of it. I think I feel mentored and discipled by Randy. So thank you, Randy, for teaching me about faith. That was so good.

Well, any closing thoughts to wrap us up today, Kathy?

We need to think outside the box. If spiritual care is spirit touching spirit, if the most profound spiritual intervention is the intervention the patient needs, then it's not just what we think of as doing something spiritual. Yes, it could be prayer. I did pray with Randy. You know, I did tell him about where to find some faith support.

I think there's this tension between thinking spiritual care is specific interventions, often religious or faith related interventions, and just simply caring for the patient's spirit connecting with them. So think outside the box of what you think what could be spiritual care, quote unquote, and think about caring and support this whole body, mind, spirit connection and entering into patients' worlds. I think that that is what's profound.

Yeah. I really like that. And that brings me back to what you shared about Jesus contextualizing his care for each person that he interacted with or healed. And and for us that requires a lot of discernment. It's not a one size fits all.

Oh, we just take a spiritual intervention and apply it to everything, but that we're constantly discerning and asking questions that I've heard you ask throughout this season and throughout this episode of, you know, Jesus, how do you see this patient? And what are you doing here? And how are you at work in this person? And listening to the patient and piecing those things together and discerning, Okay, how do I show up and be Jesus' hands and feet and mouthpiece in this space for this person and listening ear and presence and witness.

Absolutely.

Well, thank you so much once again, and I'm looking forward to one last episode to wrap up this fantastic season.

Thanks, Laura.

Today, Kathy shared that put simply, the most profound spiritual interventions are the ones that meet the patient's needs. Throughout this series, Kathy has repeated this theme of being present by asking good, thoughtful questions and listening deeply to the patient and to Jesus. This reminds me of something a mentor shared with me many years ago. He said that spiritual authority is really just the intersection of knowing God and knowing people. So my prayer for you is that you'll increase in spiritual authority as a nurse, that you'll grow deeper each day in knowing the Lord, drinking deeply of the Spirit and relishing God's Word that is sweeter than honey, and that you'll find a stillness and patience in listening well to the people around you.

Jesus, would you fill each listener with rich spiritual authority to profoundly and powerfully care for their patients this week? Amen. One last thing as we wrap up today, Kathy said to think outside the box about spiritual care and spiritual intervention and we would love to hear more stories and examples from you all of how you've done that. How have you experienced the most profound and powerful spiritual interventions in your own nursing care? If you have a story or an experience of spiritual care and spiritual intervention that you'd like to share with us, please email us at ncfintervarsity.org

We would love to hear from you. 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. Don't forget to check out NCF membership at ncf-jcn.org and use the coupon code Following for $10 off. 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.