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Nurse starts group to humanize health care |
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By Dave Hrbacek
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Tuesday, 03 February 2009 |
Dianne Johnson of St. Charles Borromeo in St. Anthony was getting burned out in her nursing career.
Nurses Christina Matthews, left, and Dianne Johnson of St. Charles Borromeo in St. Anthony try to bring Christ to patients and co-workers through their involvement in a health care apostolate called Curatio. Johnson founded the organization in 2002, and Matthews is the current president. - Photo by Dave Hrbacek / The Catholic Spirit
“I was empty. I felt I had nothing more to give,” she said. “I just felt paralyzed."
That was back in the late 1980s. Today, she is bursting with passion
about her career and an organization she founded in 2002 for health
care workers called Curatio, whose motto is “healing from the heart of
Christ.”
Acting as a ‘leaven’
The transformation occurred when she started undergraduate work in
Catholic studies and philosophy at the University of St. Thomas. She
went on to get a master’s degree from St. Thomas in Catholic studies
with an emphasis in biomedical ethics.
A registered nurse for 36 years, she now understands the spiritual
value of nursing and tries to practice it and nurture it among the
roughly 140 Curatio members in the archdiocese, about half of whom are
nurses.
The spirit of Curatio will be on display at the Cathedral of St. Paul
Feb. 10 during the celebration of World Day of the Sick (see box for
event details).
World Day of the Sick observance
When: Tuesday, Feb. 10. Mass at 5:15 p.m. with Archbishop John Nienstedt; 6 p.m. blessing of the sick, caregivers and health care workers; 6:30 p.m. reception.
Where: Cathedral of St. Paul, 239 Selby Ave., St. Paul. The cathedral is handicapped-accessible.
The day: World Day of the Sick was founded by Pope John Paul II and has been celebrated since 1992 on the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes.
Questions: E-mail
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
, or call (612) 789-3301.
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Johnson said the organization’s mission “is to be a leaven in health
care, to recover the sacred dimension of what we do in health care, to
begin a community centered on the liturgy of the Eucharist, and to
sponsor educational programs that can form us in the moral teachings of
the church.”
As Curatio continues to impact its members, Johnson hopes that they, in
turn, will transform the health care industry, which she and Curatio
president Christina
Matthews believe is too centered on the tasks of health care and not
focused enough on ministering to patients and spending time with them.
“We have spiritual poverty right here in this country in health
care,” Johnson said. “We don’t understand the eternal meaning of our
work. Our ministry in health care is a service to life. We’re guardians
of life.”
Matthews agreed. “As nurses, health care is becoming task-oriented —
perform, do and get out of there. . . . It’s a series of tasks that
need to get done. So the human person becomes an object.”
The mission of Curatio is to restore the dignity of the human person in
all stages of life, from conception to natural death. It also seeks to
encourage and affirm those in all areas of health care, including the
practice of medicine and administration.
“It’s a great support to me personally,” said Matthews, who also
belongs to St. Charles and joined Curatio near its beginning. “It gives
me an opportunity to interact with other health care workers who are
Catholic and to hammer out how to live out this life that you’re
called to, which is to serve the sick.”
Johnson brings a unique perspective to her nursing career and to her
ministry work in Curatio. A specialist in radiation and oncology, she
herself was a cancer patient 15 years ago when she was diagnosed with
breast cancer. She had surgery plus underwent chemotherapy and today is
cancer free.
“I knew that there was a reason for this beyond the diagnosis,” she
said. “And, now, I have the great privilege of being with patients who
have cancer.”
And Matthews has the privilege of helping her daughter, Elizabeth
Vandermarwitz, who is a nurse at Abbott Northwestern Hospital in
Minneapolis, the same hospital where Johnson works.
Matthews does phone triage work for Children’s Respiratory and Critical
Care Specialists, a pediatric pulmonary clinic. She specializes in
children’s acute asthma and spends her day taking calls from parents
about their children’s health problems. Sometimes, the phone
conversations can get intense.
Bringing Christ to patients
“During those times, Curatio comes to mind,” she said. “I’ll remember that this is what the Lord is calling me to do and
to see Christ in the next person that I speak with.”
This calling resonates with another Curatio member, Mary Anne Frank,
who is the parish nurse at St. Charles and also works as administrative
nursing supervisor at Hennepin County Medical Center in downtown
Minneapolis.
She, too, joined Curatio at the beginning and went right to work at her
hospital applying what she was learning. One of her ideas was to
redesign the hospital chapel to include more Christian symbols. Then,
she came to a realization.
“We have to be the chapels,” she said. “At the last World Day of the
Sick, the pope said exactly that — you are the beating hearts of
Christ, you are the chapels.”
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