Foundations Course – Australian Faith Community Nurses Association

This comprehensive internationally recognised course prepares and equips Registered Nurses to become Faith Community Nurses.

It covers topics such as spirituality, theology, professionalism, holistic health, health promotion, illness prevention, community health and much more.

Building on the ‘Introducing Faith Community Nursing’ (AFCNA) and the ‘Be Care’ (Baptist Care SA) workshops, this 40 contact hour course provides the foundational entry-level knowledge needed to become a Faith Community Nurse (FCN) and can be useful to also prepare Faith Community Care workers. In 2024 the course will be online with a mixture of video teaching, activities, student forum and Zoom interactive classes. There is also a possibility of a hybrid course with some face to face classes in Adelaide combined with online learning.

Hear from Gabrielle about the benefits of studying the Foundations of Faith Community Nursing course (3 mins)

Topics covered:

Adding Faith to Community Nursing (7.0 hours)

Module 1 History, Context and Philosophy of Faith Community Nursing
Module 2 Whole person health and Healing
Module 3 Spiritual care
Module 4 prayer

Professional Practice (11 hours)

Module 5 Beginning your ministry
Module 6 Communication and collaboration
Module 7 Legal and professional aspects
Module 8 Ethics in Faith Community Nursing Practice
Module 9 Documenting Faith Community Nursing Practice

Whole health and community care (10 hours)

Module 10 Health promotion and self-care
Module 11 Assessment and Accessing resources

Module 12a Advocacy
Module 12b Care coordination
Module 12c Ageing and Transition Care

Supporting specific issues (8 hours)

Module 13 Mental Health
Module 14 Family Violence
Module 15 Loss, suffering, and grief
Module 16 Self-care that sustains ministry

This course will enrich your practice with:

Research related to the topics
Faith tradition and theological exploration
Key terms with clear definitions to support core concepts
Content outline to serve as reference material in the future
Critical thinking questions to help you process content and apply learning
Learning activities for personal and group application

International curriculum

‘Foundations of Faith Community Nursing’ is an internationally recognised course developed by a panel of experts from the Westberg Institute (USA). This course uses the updated version released in late 2019 to prepare Faith Community Nurses to the same standard around the world.

Australian Faith Community Nurses Association has been approved and licensed by the Westberg Institute to provide this course to Australian nurses. The course content will be contextualised to meet the Australian cultural and health care context, and adapted to meet Australian Registered Nurse competencies and standards of practice, codes of ethics and conduct, and Australian Health Practitioner Regulatory Agency (AHPRA) regulations and Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia’s (NMBA) guidelines

‘Westberg Institute for Faith Community Nursing’ has been a leader in faith community nursing education, consultation, and research for over 30 years, serving health ministry programs worldwide. Its mission is to promote the development of high-quality outcomes-based FCN practice as part of an overall health ministry program.

The Foundations of Faith Community Nursing course is based on the curriculum developed through the Westberg Institute for Faith Community Nursing, which curriculum is owned by Spiritual Care Association 505 8^th Ave., Suite 900, New York, NY 10018.