Nix, J. T.

English

epublications@Marquette

The Linacre QuarterlyVolume 30 | Number 1 Article 6February 1963Health to Match Her Dedication: A ProgressReport on Health of ReligiousJ. T. NixFollow this and additional works at: http://epublications.marquette.edu/lnqRecommended CitationNix, J. T. (1963) "Health to Match Her Dedication: A Progress Report on Health of Religious," The Linacre Quarterly: Vol. 30 : No. 1 ,Article 6.Available at: http://epublications.marquette.edu/lnq/vol30/iss1/6HEALTH TO MATCH HER DEDICRTION A Progress Report on Health of Religious J. T. Nix, M.D., Ph.D., K.S.G.* At the request of Reverend John J. Flanagan, S.J., Execu­tive Director of the Catholic Hospital Association, Dr. Wil­liam J. Egan, President of the National Federation of Catholic Physicians' Guilds, in 1959, ap­pointed a Committee on Medical Care of Clergy and of Religious to initiate a modern health pro­gram. The first phase of this pro­gram was directed toward: 1. Improving communicationwith directors of respon­sible religious groups.2. Appraisal of the currenthealth status of religious.3. Institution of remedialhealth measures.Subsequently, the second phase of the program stressed: 1. The development of a stand­ard health record systemand the testing of this sys­tem through the Louisianapilot project.2. The establishment of a na­tional office, serving as in­formation center and statis­tical and reference library.Current objectives in the third phase of the Religious Health Program are: 1. Education and research.2. Organization of a compre­hensive health program un­der religious control.•nr. Nix is chairman of the Health <:;are of Reli�ious Program, Na­tional Federation of Catholic Phy­sicians' Guilds. 20l. CURRENT HEALTH Several surveys on cu1 ent health practices among fe· ,ale religious led us to believe: 1. Health education, h :ilthcounselling, periodic h althexamination, and r althrecords are inadequat2. Psychological screeni g as part of the preadmissi, 1 ex­amination is the exc· Jtionrather than the rule.3. Two-thirds of religiou com­munities have no h, ;pita!insurance.Furthermore, medica ad-vances have reduced leaths from acute infectious ,_ seases among female religious :n the past half century; the de reased chance of dying from in ectious disease has inevitably · esulted ii:i, a changing age pat. ern of sisters and an increased chance of dying from a chronic disease. At present, the average number of years of life remaining for a sister at the age of sixty is ap­proximately twenty. It is be­lieved that this trend to longev­ity will continue, and that by 1975, one-third of the members of religious communities for women will be over sixty years of age, if the present rate of new members remains constant. II. GENERAL HEALTH MEASURES We have prepared general di­rectives on community health, emphasizing the role of the com­munity physician, preadmission physical examination, admission LINACRE QUARTERLY standards, infirmary and hospi­tal care, and disease preventive measures. 1. Community PhysicianThe community physicianmust think like a religious but act like a doctor; he must know the personnel rules and customs of the convent, and have the confidence and col­laboration of the superior. The community physician must play a dual role-sharing the confidence of the patient, yet bound, as community physi­cian, to submit a sincere opin­ion to the superior. He is mo­rally and legally obligated not to share the confidence of the · individual religious with thesuperior without authoriza­tion. He should learn from theindustrial physician the eco­nomics of illness and the sig­nificance of religious hours. lost. He should profit from thecollected experiences of othersrather than rely entirely onhis judgment and past mis­t�kes. The community physi­cian should not be selectedsolely because of his piety orconsanguinity to any memberof the community.2. Preadmission Physical Ex­aminationDisease in general amon�the religious could be consid­erably reduced if standard ad­mission requirements were used to eliminate those physi­cally or mentally unfit for the �rain of religious life. Admis­Slon standards, however, must change with medical advances, as heart surgery now rehabili­tates patients with congenital or rheumatic heart disease. Nevertheless, if requirements LIMACRE QUARTERLY too severe and inflexible were adopted, many true vocations might be lost. It is always well to bear in mind that the best medical regulations can never envision the efficacy of the grace of God. 3. Annual Physical Examina­tionPhysical examination yearlyis recommended for personnel over forty years of age and should include urinalysis, he­moglobin determination, elec­trocardiogram and chest x-ray. This examination should be repeated prior to advance­ment to greater responsibility in order to protect the com­munity's investment in supe­rior and executive personnel. 4. TreatmentIn matters pertaining totheir personal health, supe­riors should be required to re­port to specially designated members of the community, whose recommendations would be accepted as mandatory. Hospital care should be pro­vided preferably in Catholic hospitals. Room accommoda­tions should be private and with baths. Provisions must be made for insurance cover­age in non-nursing communi­ties. To facilitate future re­search, hospital records of clergy and religious should be filed separately and kept in a special, confidential file. Ill. STANDARD HEALTH RECORD SYSTEM The standard health record system emphasizes standard forms kept and maintained in duplicate. These forms include: 1. Medical Form for Examinee21 2. Medical Identification Card3. Physician's Report on Com­munication Sheet4. Annual Physical Examina­tion Sheet5. Instruction Sheet6. Brochure on Health Care ofClergy and ReligiousAs health is an integral part of sister formation, the standard record system begins with the new applicant rather than with the less pliable professed mem­bers of the community. The community physician either per­forms the initial examination or passes judgment based on the recomendations and findings of the personal physician. The en­tire record is then submitted to the provincial with accompany­ing reports of x-rays and labo­ratory studies. The provincial makes the final decision as to the acceptability of the applicant into religious life. After the candidate enters the novitiate, the medical identifica­tion card could be completed by the community infirmarian. The medical identification card pro­vides information on immuniza­tion, drug sensitivity, laboratory studies, diagnosis and ooer­ations. The annual physical form supplements the medical form for examinee. The physician's report form is designed to provide the com­munity superior, or station supe­rior or infirmarian, with author­ized information on candidates and professed members alike. At intervals, the physician's report is supplemented by photostatic copies of the original laboratory records, either at the time of their completion, or at the yearly summary, or at the time of 22 transfer to a new station. On completion of the novitiate md assignment to a mission, a d1 pli­cate is made of all health ( ata. The original remains at the motherhouse and the dupl :ate health record accompanies the religious to the new sh ion. IThese records are maint· ned either by the infirmarian a the new station or by the indi\ dual religious. The health record system nust of necessity be modified o fit the rules, assignments anci indi­vidual characteristics of the com­munity. It shows trends, 1akes possible estimates of ri .::ruit­ment, replacement, and infir­mary needs; and provid· s for admission standards, sy 1chro­nizing the mandates of canon law with the requiremt its of community rule. IV. EDUCATION AND RESE. i!CHMost communities try t, main­tain a well balanced rr. io be­tween physical and spiritual well-being; however, inlHVidual religious occasionally resent physical examination. /\ n edu­cational program is  nece:;sary to secure personal accepfance of the need for annual preventative practices as well as adequate medical and dental care through­out the year. Educational efforts included: 1. Symposium on physical health of religious pre­sented to the Conference ofMajor Religious Superiors of Women's Institutes of theUnited States of America,during the National Ccin·gress of Religious in NotreDame, Indiana, August 18.1961.2. A continuous morbidity andLINACRE QUARTERLY mortality study in nuns by Dr. Con Fecher over the past several years. 3. An educational exhibit onPrimary Carcinoma of theLung in Nuns was pre­sented at the AmericanMedical Association Con­vention in June, 1962, atChicago, Illinois.4. An article on the antici­pated effect of IncreasedLongevity on ReligiousCommunities of Womenappeared in the November,1960, issue of THE LINACREQUARTERLY.5. A cytology center has beenestablished at Xavier Uni­versity in New Orleans, of­fering cytology studies formalignant cells on speci­mens collected from reli­gious personnel.The Health Committee of the Conference of Major Religious Superiors of Women's Institutes will soon complete a survey on  the cost and current status of medical care. The Catholic Hospital Associ­ation has inaugurated a course in Religious Personnel Manage­ment, incorporating the ide_a that an active apostolate, radi­ating spiritual and professional superiority, needs physical stam­ina. In recent years religious com­munities for women have suf­fered from increased expendi­tures for drugs, infirmary care, and hospitalization. At present, most religious communities for Women spend an average of $5.00 per month for medication per lister and have three percent of their members permanently con­fined to the community infir­lllary. The cost of drugs and in-LnrAcnE QUARTERLY firmary care is expected to rise and the infirmary population ex­pected to expand as the sisters enter the coronary, diabetic and geriatric age groups. In addition, adequate hospitalization cover­age, for any individual sister teaching in the parochial schools, consumes ten percent of the re­muneration the community re­ceives for her services. In most areas of the United States, the income of six full time, full duty parochial school sisters is needed to finance one sister in a mental institution, and the income of twelve full time, full duty paro­chial school sisters is required to finance one sister in a gen­eral hospital. The institution of ameliorating measures depends upon the appraisal of the prob­lems through continuous re­search and study; accordingly, the Health Committee of the Conference of Major Religious Superiors of Women's Institutes is collecting data on the cost of pharmaceuticals and hospital in­surance as its initial project. The Committee on Medical Care of Religious of the Cath­olic Physicians' Guilds is pri­marily interested in improving the health and extending the usefulness of our sisters-to give them health to match their dedi­cation stamina for the aposto­late. However, scientific re­search is necessary to determine the diseases and conditions re­sponsible for disability and death in nuns, and to open up avenues of financial support for the health care of religious. Ac­cordingly, the Committee has appealed to the American Can-. cer Society for a grant to con­duct a study on the cause _of cieath of religious. An appropria­tion of $37,000 has been awarded, 23 of which about one-fourth will be utilized by the Conference of Major Religious Superiors in carrying out their part of the program. Research into the cause of death in nuns will make pos­sible the institution of preven­tive measures, as this grant sup­ports the study of the relation­ship of environmental factors to the type and frequency of can­cer causing death in women. the mother provincial of thE re­spective community. The He Ith of Religious Chairman of :he local Catholic Physicians' G ild will then be contacted to ,m­plete a Data Collection Card !m-bracing past illness, termina ill­ness, hospital admission, .md autopsy findings. In ordE to avoid any undesirable pub city that might endanger the , 10le health program, all publici · on any phase of this activity, ma­nating from either the local ,uild or the national office o the Committee on Medical :are, should be approved, prior 0 re­lease, by representatives the National Federation of C; holic Physicians' Guilds, the C· holic Hospital Association, an the the Conference of Maj01 Reli­gious Superiors of Womc s In­stitutes. This grant has made possible the provision of secretarial serv­ices for the Health Committee of the Conference of Major Reli­gious Superiors of Women's In­stitutes at its office in Webster Groves, Missouri, and also the establishment of an information center, library, and expanded of­fice facilities for the Committee on Medical Care of Clergy and of Religious in New Orleans. Our pilot project will be a sur­vey of cholecystectomies per­formed on nuns during the year 1961. The National Federation of Catholic Physicians' Guilds hopes to present the results ob­tained in the form of an exhibit at the 1963 Convention of the American Medical Association. Furthermore, preliminary plans have been completed to collect and verify the cause of death of all nuns in the United States during the calendar year 1963. The cooperation of every indi­vidual Catholic Physicians' Guild is vital if either of these research projects is to succeed. The Chair­man of each Health Committee can be of invaluable assistance by encouraging guild members to complete and mail the chole­cystectomy cards. During the year 1963 the Committee on Medical Care will receive notifi­cation of death of religious from 24 V. A MODERN HEALTH PRC 1AM A central agency has b �n es­tablished, coordinating ·fforts and providing channels · com­munication between r igious communities and the ( •tholic laity in medical and allie fields. Comprehensive health ca ,) must reflect united action, nat ·,mwide participation, central ci · ection, community liaison, and , ·ligious . control. With completio: of th_eorganizational phase, t ,e reli­gious health program },::s been transformed from drean to re­ality. The Committee rv1 Medi­cal Care of Clergy and Religious of the National Federation of Catholic Physicians' G..iilds an? the Catholic Hospital Associ­ation feels strongly that future efforts should be under religious direction and control and wel­comes the privilege of serving the Health Committee of the Conference of Major Religious LINACRE QUARTERLY Superiors of Women's Institutes, in any capacity, to secure the common goal-stamina for their apostolate. Future development of this program of such gigantic scope will require time, educa­tion and the cooperation of WIIACRE QUARTERLY countless individuals and groups. In our eagerness to speed its progress, we are inspired by the words of Cardinal Larraona, "Don't try to go faster than the Holy Spirit, but keep up with Him." 25 

Health to Match Her Dedication: A Progress Report on Health of Religious

https://epublications.marquette.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4011&amp;context=lnq

Health to Match Her Dedication: A Progress Report on Health of Religious

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

epublications@Marquette