Encouraging nurses and midwives

With one report after another coming out about the failings in nursing care, care for the elderly and disabled, along with the struggles over pensions, the Health and Social Care Bill and the cost savings imposed on the NHS in England and Wales, there has not been a lot of good news for nurses in the last twelve months.

Against that gloomy background, the CMF Christmas Carol Service at All Souls Langham Place drew around 300 health professionals from all over London, and seemed to lift spirits, especially with John Wyatt's inspiring talk on the scandal and miracle of the incarnation.

Also, we ran a day conference for nurses in Nottingham in March on keeping a pure heart in our ministry, with Giles Cattermole sharing from 1 John. In London we have been running bi-monthly 'Refreshment Suppers' for student and qualified nurses which have seen a growing number of regular and occasional attendees. In other parts of the country, Annie and Dimity have been running evening and lunchtime meetings for student nurses, including Manchester, Oxford and Nottingham.

Everywhere we go and at every event, we are finding Christian nurses, midwives and students who are keen to see how their faith can influence their work, and how they can live out their faith in Jesus in their interaction with patients and colleagues. Please pray for us as we reach out to those that God leads us to, and for the provision of the resources we need to support them.

PRIME (Partnership in International Medical Education)

CMF is working with PRIME to develop the Values Added course. The course, which is being piloted this spring, is designed to help doctors in the first four years after qualification to build a Christian worldview into their routine practice.

PRIME has developed the 6- module Values Added course from experience gained working in Europe, Asia and Africa. In the last year PRIME has delivered 55 separate programmes in 15 countries involving 74 different tutors, teaching and training more than 3,750 individuals.

The Course aims to:
• provide supportive fellowship through small local groups for Christian doctors in the first four years of their postgraduate experience.
• enable Christian junior doctors to maintain and increase their faith during formative training by providing a challenge to the pervading secularism of the scientific and clinical training they receive
• empower Christian juniors to demonstrate, defend and advocate with confidence to others, a practice of medicine built on the life, model and teaching of Jesus

Annual conference

PRIME's annual conference is an opportunity to hear from PRIME's tutors and to help shape PRIME's programmes in the future. 'Teaching to Change Hearts in Healthcare' is the title of the conference to be held in Aylesford, near Maidstone from 9- 11 May. This three-day conference is designed for PRIME tutors and other healthcare educators and professionals wishing to see better healthcare education in the UK and overseas.

Find out more at www.prime-international.org

London & SE Update

Our regional day conference last November brought together 40 of us to consider resilience to stress in ourselves and our organisations, healthy boundaries in our lives, and the relationship between love and work, within the framework of Jesus' ministry to us as the Good Shepherd.

We have two new local member groups now meeting in Hertfordshire. I recently visited the first of these, and the variety and intensity of challenges people are facing at work demonstrated again the value of such fellowship. In Surrey, a recent Reigate social meeting brought together old friends, and we've a second Guildford one forthcoming. In Essex, a Colchester date is planned.

The SW London group (my 'local') met recently to review hospital chaplaincy and our experiences of, and relationships with those serving in this ministry. The presence of our local student member rep led to fruitful discussion of graduate support for students, and new friendships were formed.

Colleagues arriving in London from Canada and India respectively - to visit or to stay – have been welcomed, and several members put in touch with senior colleagues for mentoring or professional support.

Julian Churcher is CMF Staffworker London & South East

Making connections

'Iwish I'd known about CMF sooner,' says Dr Jason Roach. 'I don't think there could be any greater endorsement than seeing how it's supported me and matured me in the Christian faith – and enabled me to live and speak as a Christian doctor.'

Jason is one of several members we've interviewed for new promotional resources being produced to help recruit new members. And it's not only medics who think highly of CMF.

Revd Hugh Palmer, Rector of All Souls, Langham Place, London, says: 'CMF is a great help both for equipping Christian doctors to relate their faith to the challenges and opportunities in medicine, and for providing fellowship and evangelistic opportunities with their fellow medics.'

We are also continuing to improve our website. A new members' section will provide secure log-ins, personalised pages, and improved links with other members. We hope you will benefit from being able to connect with others in the same locality, specialty, workplace, church or medical school, as we seek to grow the fellowship and make it more effective.

Catherine Butcher is CMF Head of Communications