Illness is a spiritual, emotional, and physical crisis. As a trained hospital counselor, Katie Maxwell knows that visitation takes practice and patience. She also knows the mistakes even a well-intentioned visitor can make and has made a few herself. In Bedside Manners, Maxwell offers valuable insight into visitation, whether it be in hospitals, nursing homes, or the homes of shut-ins. Writing from personal experience and drawing from appropriate Scripture references and various resources, Maxwell teaches you how to be open, compassionate, empathetic, and sensitive to a patient's needs and conditions.
Most people have encountered a situation with an ill friend or relative when it has been difficult to know what to say or do. Even pastors and others in ministry are often at a loss when encountered with a critically ill person who is looking to them for some comfort and guidance.
Katie Maxwell's Bedside Manners provides the reader practical directions for offering care in a variety of settings, including hospitals, the homes of shut-ins, and nursing homes. She even addresses often overlooked concerns-such as the pastoral care of children, caregivers, and patients who are dying-and offers intelligent advice like be prepared, be human, be silent, and be positive.
Highly practical and inspiring, Bedside Manners is essential reading for anyone who has felt uncomfortable when trying to comfort the sick.
Katie Maxwell is the executive director of church ministries at First Covenant Church in Sacramento, California. She has years of firsthand experience visiting in hospitals, in nursing homes, and with shut-ins. Before entering full-time ministry eleven years ago, Katie was a teacher and business owner and author. She is a wife, mother, and grandmother.
