Wednesday, 08 February 2006 00:00 Last Updated on Thursday, 19 February 2009 23:09 Written by Steve Fouch

Just outside of the small university town of Ede, near Arnhem in the Netherlands, eighty nurses and midwives from twelve European nations gathered for four days of fellowship, prayer and study last August. Hosted by theChristian University of Ede and the Christian School of Nursing in Zwolle, this was an amazing opportunity for Christian nurses from all over Europe to spend some time with God and one another. During this time we explored what a Christian ethic of nursing looks like in practice and at how Biblical spirituality shapes who we are and how we practice.

Ann Bradshaw, a leading nursing academic and Christian fro the UK opened to conference, asking how the “Gospel Tree” can be nurtured back to life in modern nursing.


Pablo Martinez, a psychiatrist from Madrid, president of the Evangelical Alliance of Spain, and a popular speaker at events like Spring Harvest in the UK, led a series of Biblical expositions from the book of Zechariah on the themes of Truth, Justice, peace and Care, and range of leading Christian nursing lecturers and academics (including Barbara Parfitt, Donal O’Mathuna, Åshild Slettebø, Martha Highfield and Sue Allen) led related plenaries.


The clear message from Pablo’s Bible exposition was that our professional calling is a call from God to transformation of ourselves, our patients, our colleagues and our communities.

Some other very strong themes came out for me – the fact that in Western healthcare we have split up the ideas of “caring” and “curing”, yet in the Bible and indeed most Western thought and practice until the 19^th Century, there was no such division. I was also reminded that the spiritual is as much a part of care as the physical/scientific and the social/psychological. Fundamentally, I was made aware that how we are with our colleagues, our families and our patients (not just what we say and do) are as much a part of professional ethics as how we deal with that issues that are normally seen as to do with ethics, such as patient confidentiality, abortion, euthanasia, etc, etc.

But more than all of these was the wonderful sense of fellowship we had as nurses and midwives from across not only Europe, but also from Asia, Africa and America (we had four South African, three Japanese, three Filipino and two North American nurses with us as well).

It struck me, as we sat down together over meals of traditionally filling Dutch food and copious cups of coffee, that it is amazing how God pulls together people of such different backgrounds, cultures, languages, and styles of church, and enables us to find not only common ground, but a real sense of fellowship and togetherness.

Future Direction of NCFI Europe
NCFI itself is going through many changes, not least of which is that there is no Director at the centre anymore, only an administrative office in Scotland. The International Board of NCFI hs begun to devolve more and more of the key work of the Fellowship down to the regional committees, and the European region is already beginning to become actively involved.

These changes are also reflecting wider changes in nursing and the Christian faith in Europe. The main aim of NCFI in today’s world is to bring the message of Christ to nurses, but what does this mean in practice? It is no longer the case that nurses are confined to institutions, often unmarried and without the support of a local church, as was the case when NCFI was set up. Rather our students are increasingly educated in a university environment, they are more often than not mature students, married with families, committed to their local church or religious community and very aware of the ethical and professional challenges they face in meeting the health needs of their community. They are challenged by the need to contribute effectively in the maintenance of Christian values in professional nursing practice. How can NCFI and CNM respond to these issues? One of the challenges for the European committee of NCFI will be to find out from member bodies about the situations and circumstances being faced by Christian nurses across the nations of Europe, and how they are responding to them.

As a result, the national nursing fellowships like CNM will be more involved in helping the European Committee set the agenda for its future work across the continent. NCFI are looking at various ways of doing this, including regular training for the leaders of national and local groups, and having regular meeting with the committees of member bodies.

NCFI are also keen to see member bodies sharing ideas around the Fellowship – training resources, newsletters, conferences, etc, etc. The European Committee is also keen to offer more professional support to Christian nursing groups in European countries that are either linked to other networks, or not currently linked with any network. Where Christian nursing groups are already linked to other networks (such as the Healthcare Christian Fellowship International - HCFI), NCFI’s aim would be to provide access to the professional resources and training opportunities offered by NCFI member groups, rather than seeking to take over from the existing network, and NCFI will seek to work ever more closely in partnership with networks like HCFI and the International Christian Medical and Dental Association (ICMDA).

Meanwhile in parts of Eastern and Central Europe (especially the former Communist Block nations) there are new Christian nursing groups emerging, but they are often isolated and fragmented. NCFI wants to look at ways that we can support these groups to grow into national movements and support Christian nurses working in very secular environments, and where the notions of “whole person healthcare” are at best poorly understood, and all too frequently not understood at all.

NCFI is also looking at a Europe wide programme to support migrant nurses, who are forming an increasingly large part of the workforce in Western Europe.

Looking further ahead, plans are afoot for the next regional conference, hopefully in Eastern Europe in 2010, and the next World Conference - hopefully in Nigeria in 2008. Watch this space for more details.

More immediately, the next major event is the 3rd International Conference for Christian Nursing students in Europe on ‘Spirituality: The Human Dimension In Care’ in Malta on the 25^th and 26^th October 2007. This Conference is hosted by the Nursing/Midwifery Studies of the Institute of Health Care, University of Malta, and aims to increase the awareness of the role of spirituality in care among students and health care professionals.More details (including booking forms) available on this site.Published by Steve Fouch