I s s u e    N o. 1 2   :    A u t u m n    2 0 0 5    A . D .

Perhaps you were a Christian during your nurse/midwifery training? Do you remember what it was like the first time you saw somebody die? Those thoughts, feelings and emotions that struck you?

The first death I witnessed was a child during my first year of nurse training. I remember asking myself questions like: Why did God allow that to happen? Is that child in heaven or hell? How can I nurse patients as a Christian when I have no answers and feel so useless? Well, six years on and I don’t necessarily have the answers, but through experience and a constant maturing relationship in Christ Jesus I have a peace. The questions that I asked and many similar ones are still being asked by Christian student nurses and midwives in training throughout our universities and hospitals today! In our day-to-day practice we come up against many painful situations and ethical and moral dilemmas. How as a nurse or midwife should we respond? But more importantly how about as a Christian nurse or midwife?

This is just one of the reasons why we need organisations like Christian Nurses and Midwives (CNM) and Christian Medical Fellowship (CMF). As Christians we need to support and encourage one another so that we will be spurred onwards in our relationships with Christ Jesus. Within CNM though, we come together as Christian brothers and sisters with the additional privilege of being nurses and midwives too. This was also the rationale behind setting up an organisation for nursing and midwifery students: Christian Student Nurses and Midwives (CSNM), which started eleven years ago. Liz Capper who is currently on the CNM Council was one of the key people involved in setting up of CSNM.

CSNM Aims:

1. To encourage and advise Christian student nurses and midwives in their faith and witness.
2. To help Christian student nurses and midwives think through the relevance of the
    Bible to the practice ofnursing and midwifery.
3. To provide links with and support for Christian student nurses and midwives on a
    local and national basis.

CSNM is part of the CU Movement – the Universities and Colleges Christian Fellowship (UCCF), which works to make disciples of Jesus Christ in the UK student world. CSNM has been overwhelmingly supported by UCCF over the past decade, which has employed several staff workers to lead the work with student nurses and midwives.

Over the years, students have benefited from CSNM through a regular termly magazine, ‘Face Value’ with articles on many subjects relevant to nursing and midwifery. The annual national conference has always been very popular and widely appreciated and found to be encouraging and fun! CSNM groups have been set up across the country by students and meet in houses or church buildings for a meal, bible study, prayer or support weekly or monthly. Student representatives of the CSNM council have been appointed from different areas across the UK to support local CSNM groups and to disseminate information. A CSNM website is managed by UCCF (www.uccf.org.uk/yourcourse/csnm), which holds a database with articles and bible studies, as well as carrying news of upcoming events.

In September 2004 Christian Medical Fellowship held its annual student leaders conference. Because of strong and closer links being formed with CMF, CSNM council members were invited to benefit from this training. CSNM gladly accepted the invitation and a few members of the council and I attended the training event.  The weekend led to productive discussions and the chance to form links with student medics and the leadership of CMF.  Nurses, midwives & doctors work every day as part of a multi-disciplinary team within hospitals up and down our country – this was a great way of instigating future relationships in the same context.

The Nottingham CSNM meeting is affiliated with a local student doctors’ group. They meet together weekly as a joint nurses’ and doctors’ meeting (known as Christian Medics and Nurses). Because both nurses and doctors study together in the same university buildings they saw the need for their two organisations to work together and in February they organised a mission week holding ‘grill-a –Christian’ and other gospel events in the university refectory. God really blessed that mission. The unification of these two groups has had an outstanding effect, pulling resources together and allowing gospel events to be run. PRAISE GOD!!

If you are a regular reader of CNM News you would have read the article I wrote about last year’s student nurses conference which was a great success – well worth coming to again! It was during the conference last year that I became more involved with the work of CSNM and CNM. Currently I am voluntarily coordinating the work of CSNM with support from Liz Capper and acting as Student Advisor to CNM council. I work full-time as a Staff Nurse within a busy Paediatric Intensive Care Unit. My voluntary role is not overseen by UCCF (despite some links), but I report regularly to CNM Council. Much of my working time for CSNM is put into helping to organise the national conference, whilst offering limited support and advice to students via email. Because I am not employed by UCCF this does make the ongoing student work difficult to carry out.

God has blessed CSNM since it began over a decade ago and the work of CSNM has grown, although at times it has hit rocky patches! Over the past eighteen months in particular it has hit another rough patch. Since 2003 UCCF has not been able to find a full-time CSNM staff worker, and due to developments within UCCF it has become necessary that those who are coordinating the current work of CSNM consider new options for the future.

I believe CSNM is vital to Christian nursing and midwifery students in this country. God’s desire is that we will all grow and mature in our faith in Him, but this can be particularly tricky for our students in the 21st century healthcare setting where there are considerable pressures. They do not necessarily have the experience that we have as qualified professionals and we therefore have an obligation to support them in practice and as an organisation. The question is – HOW? Over the next few months, CNM Council will be considering very carefully how the work with student nurses and midwives should continue. CNM itself needs to become more stable structurally and financially. There are close links being made with the Christian Medical Fellowship, which could be fruitful.

To move forward we need to be praying and asking God to be at the heart of our deliberations and planning. We need YOU as CNM members to pray and consider the part you play in CNM. Perhaps you could become more actively involved and offer a few hours a week to the student work or you could be co-opted onto the CNM council? Who knows! – God Does!

Once again – keep praying and please feel free to contact me if you would like to talk about anything I’ve raised.

God Bless
Tim James

You can contact Tim via the CNM email or telephone number.