#121 Boundaries for healthcare missionaries
With Dr Jim Ritchie
The strategy of Healthcare Missions is profoundly effective. But inherent in the practice of healthcare missions is a propensity for overwork, burnout, and moral injury. These factors are among the most frequently reported reasons for an early end of service for healthcare missionaries.
The use of God-honoring boundaries has been identified as an essential spiritual discipline in cross-cultural missions. When entire teams mutually support healthy, sustainable boundaries, they tend to enjoy greater unity, emotional and spiritual health, and longevity.
In this webinar, we will explore the biblical support for practicing boundaries, and will describe practical examples of boundaries which healthcare missionaries have successfully employed.
Dr Jim Ritchie
Dr Jim Ritchie is an emergency physician. He served 25 years in the US Navy, including seven years as a residency program director and two deployments to Afghanistan. He then served for six years as a medical missionary in Chogoria, Kenya, and helped start a family medicine residency there.
Throughout his experience in combat medicine and missions medicine, Jim has engaged the problems of moral injury and burnout, and enjoys teaching the importance of boundaries. He currently works with MedSend in the Longevity Project, helping healthcare missionaries thrive. Jim and his wonderful wife Martha have six children and one daughter-in-law. They live in Virginia Beach.
