This concept has been around for a while, but taking off again: http://www.boston.com/news/local/art...to_teach_heal/

Margery Eramo’s nursing career didn’t end when she retired from the state Department of Public Health. In some ways, she says, that’s when it began.

A woman of strong religious beliefs, Eramo reinvented herself six years ago as the First Church of Westwood’s faith community nurse, a holistic wellness ministry she says she has yearned to join her whole life.

What’s even better, she adds, is the opportunity to live her faith in the same white church on Clapboardtree Street where she has worshiped for 45 years.

“I’ve been able to keep my vocation going, which I’m pretty passionate about,’’ Eramo said. “Like anything, when you’re giving of yourself you get much more back.’’

The parish nurse concept surfaced more than two decades ago in Chicago and soon spread across the country and the world. Today there are 12,000 such nurses nationwide, according to the St. Louis-based International Parish Nurse Resource Center, with 140 institutions, including Boston College, offering certification programs.

The healing ministry has also surfaced in 23 other countries, most recently and fervently in Africa, and has been recognized as a specialty by the American Nursing Association. The concept spans faiths, whether parish or faith community nurses in Christian venues, congregational nurses in Jewish ones, or crescent nurses in Muslim communities. What the nurses have in common is the belief in using their faith and medical training to help congregants become physically, spiritually, and emotionally whole. And all practitioners must be registered nurses certified in the program.

“This is really starting to take off where health care is fragmented,’’ said resource center director Deborah Patterson, a minister with the United Church of Christ. “So many people have fallen through the cracks.’’

The lion’s share of this country’s parish and community faith nurses are on the West Coast and in the Midwest, where the movement began, Patterson said. Massachusetts, like New York and Pennsylvania, has lagged and is starting to catch up, she said. There is no estimate of how many parish nurses there are in the Bay State.

Parish nurses follow the path of religious tradition to teach, preach, and heal, Eramo and others say. They do not strive to cure. Nor do they change dressings, or give shots, although they are qualified to do so. They do make health referrals, check in on the housebound, deliver religious celebrations such as Holy Communion, and listen to those who may question their faith. The ministry closely follows the concept that when people attend to others, they are also attending to God. Many serve in volunteer positions; other are paid at the discretion of their congregation’s leader.

Braintree resident Carol Mather says she relies on Eramo to look in on her mother, Ginny, who lives alone in Westwood. She said Eramo not only steps in as a parish nurse but also as a longtime friend.