The Province’s wellness subcommittee met for a second time on March 20 in the small conference room at 31st Street. We thank Jerome Massimino and the community at St. Francis for their hospitality.
Eric Carpine, Alan Thomas, Joe Nangle, Maureen Deutermann and Jim Kelly (chair) gathered in the morning to share with Janice Brown, RN, GNP, MSN. Janice is the coordinator of the wellness committee of the Dominican Province of St. Joseph and, as such, also is a member of their provincial council.
Janice shared her philosophy, experiences – both negative and positive – of working with friars and entertained our many questions and observations. We are determined “not to reinvent the wheel” as we initiate HNP’s wellness committee.
In the afternoon session, we were able to settle on working groups. They include: education (Maureen is coordinator), nutrition (Eric coordinates), psychological (Jim coordinates), health survey (Alan coordinates) and spiritual (yet to be determined).
Our next meeting will be via conference call, thereby affording Sister Vicki Masterpaul and Dan Nelson the chance to participate.
The fundamental philosophy emerging is that, as a committee, we wish to “empower the friars to be responsible for their own wellness.”