Nurses have always ministered, not just to the body, but also to the soul. A group of local nurses feels that role is slipping away as their profession becomes busier and more high-tech, so they’ve organized a workshop called "Welcoming God’s Presence in the Workplace."

"It’s an area too often overlooked," said Lynne Kellums, a nurse at Rogue Valley Medical Center and organizer of the seminar. "It will benefit patients that health-care workers are more attuned to their spiritual needs."

Kellums and other RVMC nurses are playing host to nurse Jane Pfeiffer of the Nurses Christian Fellowship, an evangelical organization in Southern California. She presents the seminar from 9 to 11:30 a.m. Saturday at Sun Oaks Clubhouse, 878 Black Oak Drive, Medford.

"The workshop is in response to nurses in Medford frustrated with how compartmentalized is our faith in God and Jesus," Pfeiffer said in a phone interview. "You wake up in the morning and believe, but it gets subsumed in the whirlwind of work and at the end of the day you say, ‘Where was my faith today?’ "

RVMC pastoral care director Joe McMahan said, while chaplains should be called on for spiritual care with patients in trauma and approaching death, nurses are trained in spiritual care and, when requested, may administer it — or find someone who can.

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Both McMahan and the nurses emphasized that proselytizing patients and families is not appropriate — and that nurses should watch for signs of spiritual distress and respond only when patients ask.

"You can’t go around and say, ‘Can we talk to you about your spiritual needs?’ "

Hospital policy requires staff to honor and support patients’ religious preferences, even if they have to lay the stage, complete with fire-safety requirements, for an American Indian smudge (sage smoke) ceremony, noted McMahan.

"We’re here to honor the sacred that lies within us," he said. "Spiritual distress is a nursing diagnosis. It’s when a patient is visibly upset, out of sorts, anxious, kind of like Jesus sweating drops of blood in the Garden of Gethsemene."

In performing spiritual care, nurses look for physical signs of distress and verbal cues about praying or asking loved ones to pray for them, said Kellums.

"We’re trained to assess patients (for spiritual distress)," she said, "and to look at every patient as body, mind and spirit, with the concern to bring them peace. It’s not about proselytizing. It’s about what they’re comfortable with. Every time I’ve done it (spiritual care), they’ve been very grateful."

The training, she added, is to "improve the awareness" of nurses working in a "busy, frantic, chaotic medical environment, where spiritual needs get set aside," noted Kellums.

Patients, if they mention needing prayer, are asked what they’re concerned about, said Pfeiffer. "They voice their concerns. We wait in silence. Then we pray and read scripture to them that affirms hope, such as the 23rd psalm."

Nurse training in Christian spiritual care is appropriate, she added, because 80 percent of Americans identify themselves as Christian — and Jews "serve the same God." Nurses would call in practitioners of other religions, if needed, she added.

Many patients have a "vague, unarticulated belief in God," said Pfeiffer, and when they are in crisis, "they question how near God is. We can stand with them in their approach to God. If a patient has had major surgery and doesn’t know the result yet, there is anxiety — and prayer restores trust and hope. We don’t impose the trust. God still believes in them, if they don’t believe in him."

The Asante policy statement on spiritual care encourages pastors to visit their parishioners, while "clinical staff should enlist the support of professional chaplains for patient and family in cases of trauma, medical crisis, terminal illness or impending death."

The policy adds, "When an employee is specifically requested to do so by the patient and feels capable, a member of the hospital staff may pray, read or give spiritual counsel to a patient."

The policy specifically states that spiritual care takes priority over medical attention by saying, "Asante supports patients in the expression of their spiritual and religious beliefs even when they interfere with their medical care."

McMahan affirmed nurses’ rights to pray with patients, noting, "I’m comfortable with it, but if they’re being wheeled into surgery and are in spiritual distress, my hope is that they (nurses) use us (chaplain staff)."