By KATIE LEFEBVRE, Globe staff reporter
December 4, 2003

Parish nurses provide the service of an automated external defibrillator (AED) to the parishioners at Sacred Heart Parish in Sioux City.

An AED is an electronic machine used to save someone who is in sudden cardiac arrest. It sends a shock to the victim's heart to allow the heart to go back to its natural rhythm. The devices are easy to use and portable.

"A while back one of the families in the parish, who has a history of heart problems, a specific heart rhythm that is deadly, came and asked if the parish nurses would look into getting a defibrillator," said Debbie McCalla, a parish nurse at Sacred Heart. "Not only to protect their family members, but also for the general community. I looked into it, and I did all sorts of reading about how they work, the cost, who can use them and the liability issues."

She and the other parish nurse, Debbie Bond, then attended a seminar about AEDs put on at the fire department. The seminar oriented people of the community to what it takes to develop the program, cost, training, liability and placement of the device. The defibrillator was purchased in September and is now available when and if a parishioner is in need of one.

"It will benefit anyone on Sacred Heart premises because it can only be used on our property," said McCalla. "It will benefit anyone who has a cardiac arrest. This device is only meant for people who are eight years and older. We purchased this one because it would help the most people."

Training sessions are available for people who would like to learn to use the AED. McCalla is certified by the American Heart Association as a basic life support instructor. Each instructor has to be aligned with a training center that is the official training center for the area. For Sioux City that is Western Iowa Tech Community College (WITCC).

McCalla has been given the authority by WITCC to hold sessions at Sacred Heart. She has had two training sessions of six people each so far and has another session planned for this week and two in January.

"We will continue to have sessions until we have as many people trained who would like to be trained," said McCalla. "We are targeting different groups - parents, teachers, ushers, Eucharistic ministers - anyone who spends a lot of time here."

The defibrillator is in an alarmed cabinet and available 24 hours a day.

"I hope this is something that more and more businesses, churches and schools really seriously consider," said McCalla. "The survival rate is almost 100 percent when people are defibrillated within two minutes. That is just unbelievable because most people do not survive a cardiac arrest."

The Parish Nurse Ministry mission statement states that the parish nurse lives their baptismal call to serve others by acknowledging the interdependence of health and faith through a ministry, which nurtures the whole person. The Parish Nurse Ministry serves to strengthen and enhance each individual person as well as the faith community.

"I personally believe that it's my duty, as a member of this community, to share what I have - my talents, my skills," said McCalla. "This is a way that I can give and help others and make it, for one, a healthier community, but enhance the ties that we have with one another. It goes beyond health. It's who we are. It's our identity. It's helping keep that solid."

The parish nurse program at Sacred Heart is in its third year of existence.

"We've gotten more familiar with our own skin in finding out where we need to help and what we need to do in order to help," said McCalla. "We had our ideal, our whole picture, when we first began. Over time, we found out where we really need to focus our energy. Lately, a lot of the focus has been on the AED."

The parish nurses at Sacred Heart offer several other services to their parish community including general health education, personal health consultations, community links and management of the Health Cabinet and volunteers.

Under the general health education category, the nurses provide bulletin articles, pamphlets and special programs. The personal health consultations include monthly blood pressure screenings. The nurses offer community links that maintain references for community agencies and resources. The parish nurses hold regular meetings of the Health Cabinet and coordinate volunteers needed for special programs.

"We provide information from the hospitals as far as when they are doing different health screenings," said McCalla. "We keep a bulletin board that has information about those things on it, or we put things into the bulletin about different timely vaccinations."

Each year in the spring, they try to put on a health fair for the people of their parish community. They will have another fair in the spring of 2004 with their spring dinner.

"We will have different members from throughout the community to be available for questions, provide information, screenings and things like that," said McCalla.