Every nurse has a unique story to tell. Many of these stories began, as did Betty Jo Hunt's, when she saw a need and wanted to help. In the 1960s when a friend from church didn't show up one morning to teach Sunday School, Betty Jo stopped by her friend's home to see if she was all right. The situation was serious enough that the friend really needed someone to stay with her and take care of her. So Betty Jo did—for several days. When her friend wouldn't eat, Betty Jo prayed, and ideas came to her about what foods might be more appealing and easier for her friend to eat. Betty Jo found, much to her surprise, that she just knew what to do. But after a few days, as her friend's situation worsened, Betty Jo knew she needed more help. She told the practitioner who was praying for her friend that she felt her friend should go to a Christian Science nursing facility where they had the "practical wisdom" needed to give her "proper care."
Betty Jo relates, "The practitioner asked me where I had been trained. I hadn't, and I didn't know that I had just used the very words found in the Christian Science Nurse By-Law: 'practical wisdom' and 'proper care'!" Her friend did go to the facility, where she had a complete recovery. A few months later, Betty Jo enrolled in a Christian Science nursing course.
Today Christian Science nurses training is strong and varied. For example, training is now available in different languages, styles, and settings, from a structured three-year program in greater London, England, to one-on-one mentoring in Perth, Australia, to weekly workshops in São Paulo, Brazil, to a combination of all the above in many facilities. The simplicity of the Christian Science Nurse By-Law makes this kind of flexibility possible.
