Our Lady’s Nurses for the Poor (Brown Nurses)

Catholic Outlook August 2011 Vocations Feature Our Lady's Nurses for the Poor

Eileen O’Connor.

The Brown Nurses Ministry is committed to the service of people who are unable to access health care and welfare support. Our founders, Eileen O’Connor and Fr McGrath, initiated this ministry in 1913.

While the parameters of poverty and the definition of the poor have broadened, the Brown Nurses continue the ideal of our founders in our work and see our mission as holistic “ in-home” care involving nursing, personal care, domestic support, financial management and advocacy when needed and appropriate; including our walk with our Indigenous sisters and brothers towards healing and reconciliation, to ensure that all have rightful access to welfare and medical services.

As Eileen instructed the early nurses: “The cause of a person’s poverty is not yours to question. The fact a person is poor is the reason you help.”

The services which the Brown Nurses offer are free to all persons regardless of race, sex, religion or personal status, these are people who suffer from mental illness, the long-term consequences of drug and alcohol addiction, homelessness and dysfunctional families, NB. domestic violence. We work collaboratively with other services to ensure maximum care for our clients.

Our ministry is not funded by government but is reliant on the generosity of benefactors. We thank these friends each day in our prayers.

We offer a relational form of care in which clients are assisted to live with hope and new directions in their lives, therefore, we selectively lift the bar for each person.

Our service is given and needs compassion, flexibility, energy and joy; to help create meaning in our clients’ lives, which are often without hope.

The spirit of Eileen O’Connor is the inspiration of Our Lady’s Nurses who today make a steadfast commitment to stand with the poor as carers, advocates and friends.