Meet our Parish Nurse

 

On an ordinary day last year Donna was driving down Main Street and noticed a sign for the Recovery Service at Grace Church.  She was delightfully surprised and thought, “this church is special”; opening its arms to welcome the recovery community. After attending a few Friday night services she felt inspired. She clearly heard the message from Grace Church that she was welcome just as she was, to grow in her relationship with God. She decided to try out a few Sunday services and started to wonder what she might do to contribute in some small way to the Grace community. After prayerful consideration and discussion with Elsa, she decided  to establish a parish health ministry program at Grace.

 

Donna’s journey began on Long Island as a member of a large traditional Italian family who celebrated often with food (every Sunday at Grandma’s) and more food. Ron, her husband, and Donna have two wonderful daughters who live and work in New York City. Donna received her BS degree in Nursing from SUNY - Stony Brook in 1980 and is an RN licensed to practice in N.Y and Connecticut. While still living on Long Island, she had the opportunity to work in many different specialties of hospital nursing.  She started out on an Acute Medicine floor before she transferred over to Oncology. Donna’s experience with patients and families struggling with end of life issues taught her many lessons for which she will be forever grateful. Because of her experience with addiction in a close family member while growing up, she has a special interest in this area of medicine. She eventually accepted a position that specialized in the treatment of chemical dependency. This was followed by working in a voluntary psychiatric inpatient unit and being the Psychiatric Liaison Nurse for the Emergency Room. When she moved to Trumbull in the spring of 1990, she worked in Acute Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Norwalk Hospital and later transferred to Norwalk Hospital’s new Long Term Care/Sub acute facility (Honey Hill Care Center) as Care Planning Coordinator. The last position she held at Honey Hill was Director of Nursing Services.

 

 

Donna feels that with each other’s help, we can develop and grow this parish health ministry and raise awareness of the relationship between health and spiritual wellbeing. Donna’s mission is to provide health education, programs, and support which can assist others to make healthy lifestyle choices. Many illnesses and premature deaths can be prevented by integrating current medical and behavioral knowledge, with a strong focus that health and wholeness of body, mind and spirit are essential to our total wellbeing.