Faith Community Nursing

What is a Faith Community Nurse?

2009 Coordinator Course Attendees

A Faith Community Nurse (FCN) is an experienced registered nurse whose central focus is intentional care of the spirit. Faith Community Nurses offer a healing presence within a faith community, weaving the spiritual with the standards of practice and code of ethics for the nursing profession. FCN’s serve as a connection between health care and the faith community by providing wholistic care of body, mind and spirit for those served. As members of the ministerial staff, the Faith Community nurse works alongside members both within and outside the walls of a faith community to empower them to make positive health choices that will enable them to live the abundant life that is possible for all regardless of the state of their current health status.  Roles may include health counselor, health educator, health advocate, and referral agent for community services.


Formerly called Parish Nursing, Faith Community Nursing is a specialty practice in nursing recognized by the American Nurses Association. The FCN must have an active license and have specialized training in spiritual care utilizing a standardized curriculum such as the International Parish Nurse Resource Center.  Faith Community Nursing is one of the fastest growing specialties in nursing and promises to be even more prominent as it finds is place in community based care in health care reform.  Leaders believe the specialty practice can offer many solutions in a challenging health care system as we attempt to help congregants make wise health choices, becoming advocates for their own health. The vision of the International Parish Nurse Resource Center is that every faith community would have access to a Faith Community Nurse.

Faith Community Nursing: Scope and Standards of Practice was approved by the American Nurses Association in 2005 and define the specialty as "...the specialized practice of professional nursing that focuses on the intentional care of the spirit as part of the process of promoting wholistic health and preventing or minimizing illness in a faith community." (American Nurses Association, 2005, Faith Community Nursing: Scope and Standards of Practice)

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