Nurses Christian Fellowship
Faith at the Intersection of Calling
The average nurse interacts with more than 500 patients a year. Every one of those interactions is a chance to offer compassionate, whole-person care — care that addresses not just physical needs but spiritual ones too. What if nurses across the country were equipped to do exactly that?
That’s the vision of Nurses Christian Fellowship.
NCF has been partnering with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship since 1948 — over 75 years of encouraging, equipping, and empowering nurses and nursing students to follow Jesus in their profession. Today, NCF is both a campus ministry and a professional organization, with student groups active at nursing schools across the country, nurse groups meeting in communities nationwide, and the Journal of Christian Nursing providing faith-integrated clinical and professional resources for over 40 years.
Why Nursing Students Need This
Nursing school is uniquely demanding. Students have one foot in the classroom and one foot in clinical settings where they’re caring for people at their most vulnerable. They face ethical dilemmas, emotional exhaustion, and deep questions about how their faith fits with their work.
Many of them are navigating these pressures without a community that understands. They may be too busy with clinicals to attend other campus fellowships. They may not know anyone else who’s wrestling with the same questions — like how to care for a grieving family, how to respond when a patient asks you to pray, or how to hold onto hope in the face of suffering.
NCF exists to meet them there — not with easy answers, but with community, Scripture, and the reminder that they are not alone. NCF asks the question at the heart of Christian nursing: What does it look like to follow Jesus in this profession?
Stories from the Field
A nursing professor at a community college in Texas began offering to pray with students before exams. Word spread so quickly that she had to recruit other faculty and students to help — students from multiple classes were showing up because of their own need for encouragement and prayer.
A group of students at a southeastern university attended a regional NCF conference on spiritual care and returned to campus so energized that they launched a new NCF chapter at their school — creating a community where nursing students could explore what it means to integrate faith and vocation.
Across the country, NCF groups gather in nursing schools and communities — studying the Bible together, praying through the pressures of clinical rotations, and encouraging one another to see every patient interaction as an opportunity to reflect the love of Christ.
Jen’s Role
Jen has been with InterVarsity since 2003, serving in roles from campus staff to area director to regional director. Today she serves as Associate National Director for Nurses Christian Fellowship.
Her vision is to see every campus with a nursing program have an NCF community — a place where students can meet Jesus at the intersection of their faith and calling. She leads NCF’s network of student ministries and helps nursing students and nurses across the country find communities where they can grow in faith while navigating one of the most demanding fields in healthcare.
Learn More
Visit ncf-jcn.org to find a student or nurse group, explore Bible studies and spiritual care resources, or learn how to start NCF on your campus.
Get Involved
- Pray — for nursing students facing the pressures of school and clinical work, and for nurses integrating faith into their daily practice.
- Connect — know a nursing student who needs community? Know a nurse looking for encouragement? Point them to NCF.
- Support — want to support Jen’s work with NCF? Partner with us.