Two Lutheran nurses have been honoured by the Lutheran Nurses Association of Australia (LNAA).
Angela Uhrhane, recipient of the inaugural Lutheran Nurse of the Year Award.
Angela Uhrhane, of Wodonga, Victoria, was named the inaugural Lutheran Nurse of the Year. Lynette Wiebusch, of Adelaide, was named an honorary LNAA Life Member. The awards were officially announced on 12 May – International Nurses Day and, this year, the 200th anniversary of the birth of Florence Nightingale.
Angela is currently serving as Pastoral Care Nurse at Lutheran Aged Care Albury (LAC). The award comprises a certificate and a gift of $100.
In submitting Angela’s nomination, the Managing Director of LAC, Wendy Rocks, wrote that over the years LAC was without a chaplain, ‘Angela took the lead role in organising a schedule of visiting pastors to provide services and the sacraments over this extended period. This was a tremendous feat of organisation on Angela’s behalf, coordinating, as she was the Pastoral Care Team and worked at LAC at the same time. Angela was an active part of the Management Team during these two years and was a source of ideas with beneficial discussion about residential and spiritual care in particular.’
She added that Angela has ‘participated in considerable study, both theological and clinical, to support her practice. She has been a leader in helping to establish a spiritual care framework as part of the policy and practice at LAC, embedding a comprehensive Spiritual Assessment of each resident within our resident care policy and practice. She devised and conducted the training for our RNs and Admissions staff in this regard.’
Angela has served as Pastoral Care Nurse at congregations in Wodonga, and Perth, WA. Last year she was appointed to the Lutheran Church of Australia’s Committee for Ministry with the Ageing, and to the board of the ecumenical Australian Faith Community Nurses Association. In addition to her nursing qualifications, she has a Graduate Diploma in Theology in Parish Nursing from Luther Seminary (now Australian Lutheran College).
Lynette Wiebusch was LNAA’s founding president, serving in that role for 10 years, and edited the LNAA newsletter, IN TOUCH, from 1992–2018. She was responsible for introducing the concept of what is now known as Pastoral Care Nursing to the LCA, and was the LCA’s first Pastoral Care Nurse, serving at both Mount Barker and Dernancourt, in SA. She was a founding board member of the ecumenical Australian Faith Community Nurses Association and chaired the board for several years. Lynette was also a founding board member for the global network, Lutheran Parish Nurses International. She was one of the first three graduates in Luther Seminary’s Graduate Diploma in Theology (Faith Community Nursing) and co-wrote LNAA’s Introduction to Pastoral Care Nursing course. Last year, the Parish Nursing Council of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod adopted this course as its Distance Education program.
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