Sustaining health in faith community nursing practice: emerging processes that support the development of a middle-range theory.

This article reveals processes that support theoretical development for holistic nursing in the context of a faith community. The emerging processes enhance the articulation of the holistically focused practice, add clarity to faith community nursing activities and outcomes, and contribute to theoretical clarification and development. Theoretical clarity is essential to guide faith community nursing practice, research, and education because there is tremendous potential for the specialty practice to contribute to the health of a community across the continuum of caring and because to date there has been no unifying model for this practice proposed. A lack of a theoretical basis can result in disparate and disconnected approaches to studying, testing, and promoting the practice.