A Parish Nurse is a nurse registered by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), working under its Code of Conduct. Confidentiality is within the Code: anything said to the Parish Nurse is kept private unless you are being harmed or are harming someone else, or at risk of doing so.
A Parish Nurse will have gained many years of experience working within the National Health Service, the community and / or private practice.
Our Parish Nurse is not employed by the National Health Service but by Reading Gateway Church. She works solely in our Parish across South Reading.
Parish Nurses work with people of all ages and backgrounds, with any faith or none, focusing on the person rather than just a medical condition, and integrating all the different aspects of health.
A Parish Nurse can:
Our Parish Nursing service is available to anyone living or working within the parish of Reading Gateway Church.
Our Parish Nurse is uniquely placed to be able to attend to the well-being of the ‘whole person’, irrespective of their faith, or no faith, their age, sex, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation or ability.
Reading Gateway Church believe that everyone is valued and accepted by God, and we want to demonstrate God’s love and hope to all.
A key point about the Parish Nursing service is that it will complement, but not duplicate, services offered by existing NHS and Social Care agencies.
For a client to be accepted by the Parish Nursing Service, a referral form must be completed using our
online Referral form. Alternatively, you can phone the parish nurse
07473 079904 or email
parishnurse@readinggateway.church, who will be happy to complete the form on your behalf. All referrals will be assessed by the Parish Nurse, who will respond back to you.
All documentation will be securely stored. Although your Parish Nurse is employed by the church, the details she holds on you for your care will not appear on any database or mailing list that the church holds unless you give your permission. Reading Gateway has a data protection policy in place, which can be viewed via the parish website.
Within the church: The Parish Nurse is a key member of, and supported by, the Ministry, Pastoral Care, and Safeguarding teams.
The Parish Nurse is also supported by volunteers, either from the Pastoral Care Team or specifically recruited, trained and supported by Reading Gateway Church to work with the Parish Nurse. They will all have a current enhanced Disclosure and Barring service check.
External Support: Parish Nurses are also supported by a national charity, Parish Nursing Ministries UK (PNMUK).
PNMUK delivers the Certificate in Parish Nursing and provides our Parish Nurse with clinical supervision, training days and support to ensure that the service is well run.
Please visit
parishnursing.org.uk for more information.
Monitoring: Whilst we have internal monitoring of our service to you, we would also really appreciate your feedback. Our Parish Nurse will offer you a form to fill in and send back so that we can monitor the quality of care people receive, and improve or change the service where needed to make it the best it can possibly be.
If you have difficulty writing then please contact one of the Ministerial team via the parish office.
