Hospital Visitation Team
North Ridge Community Church Pastoral Care
As North Ridge Community Church gets even larger, it's impossible for the full time pastors to make all the hospital calls. That's why we have trained some of our most compassionate people to make many of our hospital visits.
If you have the gift of mercy and would like to join this team, please let us know. We're always looking for willing servants with the ability and desire to spread hope and love to those in the hospital.
Helpful Guidelines
1) Check-in at the nurse’s station
2) Always acknowledge the staff
3) Introduce yourself to the patient and tell them you are from the church
4) Turn your mobile phone off as you enter the hospital
5) Let them do most of the talking
6) Conversation topics
7) A perfect length of stay is 10 minutes
8) Always excuse yourself when a nurse or doctor enters the room
9) Pray
10) Scripture
a) Ask to read a passage of Scripture directly from the Bible
b) Psalm 91
c) John 14
d) Psalm 145: 13-18
e) Psalm 73: 21-26
f) Psalm 103: 1-5
g) 1 Peter 1: 3-5
h) 2 Corinthians 4:7, 16-18
i) Proverbs 3: 5-6
j) Psalm 84: 1-2
11) Don’t make promises you can’t keep
12) Never sit on the bed
13) Contact the church and inform us the visit was completed
14) Get permission to pass personal information to the church regarding their needs
15) Wash your hands before you enter and when you leave the hospital
16) Suggestions to go above and beyond the call of duty:
a) Buy several “get well cards” and store them in your car to be used as you arrive at the hospital. Sign the card from “Your North Ridge Family”.
b) Ask permission to pass their name and phone number of the family to Patricia Johnston or Shelly Jones (Helping Hands Ministry) for the purpose of possible meals when they come home.
c) Stop at the grocery store and deliver to them one or two carnations. It’s the thought not the price of the flowers that count.
