Lutheran nurses association closes

The Lutheran Nurses Association of Australia (LNAA) is closing. This was the unanimous decision of members at its May meeting and was shared through the final edition of the organisation’s In Touch newsletter this month. LNAA’s funds have been transferred to support pastoral care nursing.

LNAA was established in 1991 as an auxiliary of the Lutheran Church of Australia and a support group for Lutheran nurses. It has members throughout Australia. It was the brainchild of the late Pastor Doug Tscharke, who, at the time, was chaplain at the Lutheran Homes complex in Glynde in suburban Adelaide. He was concerned that, while the pastors of the church have national and district pastors conferences and zone meetings, and the church’s teachers have their regular conferences, there was no comparable structure to provide support for the growing number of Lutheran nurses serving both in the church and in the wider community. The inaugural meeting was convened by the then-director of nursing at LHI, Mrs Val Matters. The founding president was the late Lynette Wiebusch.

The aims of LNAA have been:

• to encourage members to see their profession as a service to Christ, caring for the sick and infirm, promoting health and giving an opportunity for Christian witness to the world
• to provide spiritual support and practical guidance for members, foster their deeper spiritual understanding, and provide opportunities for the study of practical and ethical issues related to their work
• to provide opportunities for discussion, mutual sharing, moral support, social contact and fellowship among members
• to communicate with members via a regular publication
• to keep members informed of opportunities for service in the church
• to support nurses experiencing difficulties in the workplace, especially student nurses.

While LNAA has achieved most of its objectives, it has not been able to attract new and younger members. Over the years, it has had a wide range of excellent presenters at its meetings, for which a Continuing Professional Development certificate has been available for practising nurses. These have included: health and climate change, continence control, Alzheimer’s disease, Chinese medicine and acupuncture, ethics of organ transplants, legal issues facing Christian nurses, health and medicine in Bible times, and bronchiectasis.

Pastor Bob Wiebusch has served as editor of In Touch and is a former editor of The Lutheran.