Contacts:
Sarah Goodwin

Kathi Ovnic
Holly Korschun
September 2, 1999
DIVINE INTERVENTION:Spiritual Side of Advanced Nursing Practice will be Discussed by Nurse/Priest at Emory's Next Great Teachers Lecture

Sometimes, even receiving the best medicine has to offer isn't enough. Just ask a person living with AIDS. That's when nurse practitioner James C. Pace, RN, DSN, turns to a more ecumenical style of healing -- that fostered by spirituality -- and one that he has encouraged for more than 10 years in his dual vocation as an Episcopal priest.

How he meshes his two loves, nursing and spirituality, is the topic of the lecture Spirituality and Advanced Nursing Practice that Dr. Pace will deliver Thursday, Sept. 16 at 7:30 p.m. The lecture is the first in Emory University's 1999-2000 Great Teachers Lecture Series. The event will be in Emory's Cannon Chapel, 515 Kilgo Circle, Atlanta. It is free, open to the public and does not require reservations. Parking is available in the Fishburne Parking Deck on campus at 1671 North Decatur Rd. For further information, call 404/ 727-5686.

Dr. Pace will use his extensive experience as a nurse practitioner with AID Atlanta to illustrate how powerful spirituality can be in health care. Helping patients tap into their own faith and values is a one of the major but rewarding tasks Dr. Pace sets for himself when helping patients and their loved ones.

Priestly duties take him to Canton on weekends to deliver mass at St. Clement's Episcopal Church. Dr. Pace has served as interim priest there for the past three years.But during the week, Dr. Pace fulfills a number of nursing roles, not the least of which is mentoring students in his role as associate professor at the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing of Emory University.

Since joining Emory's nursing faculty in 1995, he has been instrumental in beginning the school's immunology/oncology specialist track in the department of adult and elder health nursing. The track prepares nurses for advanced practice roles.

Dr. Pace's nursing school appointment also includes a faculty practice position in which he works half-time as an adult nurse practitioner for Mercy Mobile Health Care Services at AID Atlanta. AID Atlanta is the largest AIDS service organization in the Southeast, serving 2,500 clients and an active clinic population of more than 600 patients.

Before coming to Emory, Dr. Pace taught at Vanderbilt University School of Nursing in the department of adult health. While there, 50 percent of his appointment was spent in the practice arena as a chaplain for Alive-Hospice of Nashville. In Nashville-Davidson County, Dr. Pace actively provided interdenominational pastoral care services within the HIV/AIDS community.

He serves on the review boards for the Journal of Nurses in AIDS Care and AIDS Education and Prevention - An Interdisciplinary Journal. He is a speaker for the Southeast AIDS Education and Treatment Center (SEATEC) and for Glaxo-Wellcome Inc.

He is the author of numerous publications related to HIV/AIDS, chronic and palliative care, and spirituality. Dr. Pace earned a doctor of science in nursing from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, both the master's of divinity and master's of science in nursing from Vanderbilt University, a bachelor's of science in nursing from Florida State University and a bachelor's of arts in philosophy from The University of the South in Sewanee, Tenn.

In Spring 1999, Dr. Pace was chosen to deliver the nursing school's prestigious David Jowers Lecture on AIDS & Infectious Disease. A few months later he was named an Atlanta Health Care Hero by the Atlanta Business Chronicle and was featured in that newspaper.

Introducing Dr. Pace at the Great Teachers Lecture will be Marla E. Salmon, ScD, RN, the nursing school's brand new associate vice president for nursing science and chief executive officer, who shares many of Dr. Pace's patient care philosophies.

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