Judy Farney is on a mission to help the lost. A parish nurse at Saxonburg Memorial Presbyterian Church, Farney seeks to not only reach out to sinners but also those lost in the shuffles of the health care system.

"I think the nurse in you has a need to help people," said Farney, noting few community resources exist for those ages 19 to 60.

"I really feel a pull to help these people because they are the ones struggling in the health care system, with no insurance and the high cost of health care and medications."

Farney is among a group of nurses that works in conjunction with churches. The nurses perform a range of duties, from hosting seminars to conducting screenings.

With 28 years of experience in home health care, Farney became intrigued with parish nursing when her minister's wife approached her with a book written by Granger Westberg, who came up with the parish-nursing concept more than 20 years ago at a Lutheran hospital in Illinois.

Westberg, a Lutheran minister and hospital chaplain, promoted the concept of healing by integrating the body, mind and spirit. His vision was to establish partnerships between health care systems and faith communities for the purpose of linking resources.

Parish nurses allow for a flow of resources regarding educational programs, screening, and services from the hospital to the community. They also provide a direct connection from the community to the hospital.

Parish nurses do not duplicate or replace other health care professionals in the community. Instead, their purpose is to work in collaboration with them.

When Farney first accepted the job at Saxonburg Memorial Presbyterian, she conducted blood pressure clinics once a month. Since then, her position has grown into full-time volunteer work, which ranges from visiting the sick to health prevention education.

Farney and her family even took on home care for a mentally challenged woman from the church.

Like Farney, most parish nurses locally are trained through the Mercy Health System, which offers a seven-day class one time each year. More than 100 nurses have gone through the program, which is certified by the Internaational Parish Nurse Resource Center in St. Louis.

Many parish nurses are volunteers, but a few hold paid positions with the church.

One of those lucky enough to earn a paid position is Terry Pokrant, the parish nurse at East Main Presbyterian Church in Grove City. Pokrant succeeds Ruth Leo, who started parish nursing at the church.

"I worked with the previous parish nurse and when she stepped down, I thought about it because I really admired what she did," Pokrant said.

"It's been absolutely wonderful because it's so flexible."

Pokrant, who worked at Sharon Regional Hospital for 10 years, is paid for 20 hours of work each week.

"After my third child, it just wasn't cost efficient for us to hire a sitter," Pokrant said. "So this has worked out great for me. I can make my own hours and even take my youngest with me."

The most important part of the job, according to Pokrant, is integrating a relationship with God into health care.

"It's taboo to pray in a public hospital," she said. "One luxury I have with what I'm doing now is that I'm permitted and encouraged to pray. It gives a whole new meaning to ministry in itself.

"I think parish nurses have a whole different realm as far as their capacity physically, psychologically and spiritually. You're healing a lot closer than you get to people in a general hospital setting."

Besides visiting and praying with the shut-ins and sick, Pokrant, like Farney, is responsible for holding preventive health care seminars such as blood pressure clinics for the public.

East Main Presbyterian also has a variety of medical equipment such as walkers and wheelchairs for those who may not have the money to purchase their own.

Pokrant works at recycling unused medical supplies for shipment overseas, and the church has a benevolence fund from which they provide money for medicine and patient travel.

At St. Ferdinand Roman Catholic Church in Cranberry Township, the parish nursing program is also geared toward conjunctive healing.

"We felt as a church, as followers of Christ, that our call is to help people to be healthy in body, mind and spirit," said Barb McCarthy, pastoral associate of the church's program.

"We felt that it's more of a holistic approach to healing. When we're trying to administer to people spiritually, we can't ignore their physical or emotional places at that time. So we wanted to administer to the whole person."

The 10-year-old program concentrates mainly on patient education and less on patient visitation. The church has a separate ministry of volunteers who do hospital visits.

In the past the church has held seminars on topics like diabetes and pregnancy.

"Parish nursing is different everywhere and it's different each year," McCarthy said. "It depends mainly on the age and the personality of the church."

Besides educational programs, parish nurses at St. Ferdinand have helped start regular blood pressure screenings and touch therapy sessions. Based on the concept that the power of touch can offer a strong impact on an individual's health, touch therapy is a unique blend of massage therapies and healing concepts created to support everyone.

"It's our call from Christ to do whatever we can to do help those in need," McCarthy said. "And that's exactly what we try to do."