Praying nurse

[dirdyweeker]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/4409168/Nurse-suspended-for-offering-to-pray-for-patients-recovery.html

Find it hard to believe that bureaucrats would suspend a nurse for such an offer in her days work. She is awaiting the outcome of a disiplinary hearing. Should she not have offered to pray with her patient? (who was not the one to complain)
I believe the nurse only asked the patient but did not even pursue the matter when declined.

[Kodiak]

Just another case of PC going completely mad, Sad indeed. :~(

[changilass]

Sorry but if a patient was very elderly or very ill then some one offering to pray for the may cause them considerable stress and make them think they were closer to death than they really were.

She should keep her religion to herself and not push it on others.

She can go to church to pray without mentioning it to her patients and risking upsetting them

[butterfly]

Sorry but if a patient was very elderly or very ill then some one offering to pray for the may cause them considerable stress and make them think they were closer to death than they really were.

She should keep her religion to herself and not push it on others.

She can go to church to pray without mentioning it to her patients and risking upsetting them

agree,this is her second reprimand,me thinks shes one of them that is never done preaching

[Bobinovich]

...(who was not the one to complain)...

According to your link it WAS the patient who complained..."The woman patient, who is believed to be in her late 70s, is understood to have complained to the trust.":confused

I agree that having been warned for it previously she's not really got a leg to stand on.

[Fran]

I was listening to an interview with the nurse on the radio and she said it was the patients carer who complained, and the nurse is convinced that praying for her patients will make them better.

[butterfly]

shes there to nurse people not pray with/for them,dont we have ministers and hospital chaplins to do that.she was previously told by her superiors not to promote her faith and stick to her nursing which is what she is getting paid to do.she was dishing out religious literature to her patients:roll:

[cameron]

Aren't ALL (THE PRESS) making a mountain out of a mole hill !! The nurse probably meant no ill to the patient by offering a prayer. Without any info on the nurse in question, how can we judge what she was wanting to achieve !! I would accept a prayer from any religion thinking it might keep me alive a bit longer. Wouldn't any of you ??

[domino]

Totally agree with butterfly. I know many nurses and I do not think that many of them would see praying for patients as part of their jobs.

[butterfly]

Aren't ALL (THE PRESS) making a mountain out of a mole hill !! The nurse probably meant no ill to the patient by offering a prayer. Without any info on the nurse in question, how can we judge what she was wanting to achieve !! I would accept a prayer from any religion thinking it might keep me alive a bit longer. Wouldn't any of you ??


its hardly a mountain out of a mole hill if she has been cautioned before,this has just been one patient too many and she has come a cropper and not everyone is like you cameron.there will be people who wont like it especially from a nurse when they are lying sick in hospital.nurses are not meant to pray at our bedside .

[nightowl]

Since the days of Florence Nightingale, nurses have been addressing the emotional and spiritual needs of their patients. There must have been many prayers said in the battlefield hospitals when lives lay in the balance as raging and terrible infections ran their course.
I'm sorry this lady did not appreciate the offer of a wee prayer but I know of many others who would welcome the gesture and I'm sure benefit from it.
Maybe this nurse's only crime was to take her training too seriously and assess the situation wrongly. They can't all be mindreaders.
I hope the day never comes when nurses are discouraged from offering an arm round the shoulder and a few comforting words in time of pain and sorrow.

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0FSS/is_/ai_n18612484

[butterfly]

if the nursing managers thought she was doing the right thing she would never have been suspended..............

[Aaldtimer]

The simple fact is if she wanted to pray for her patient, she didn't need to ask her permission, what's the point in asking?
Just to boost her own feel-good satisfaction of being a do-gooder!
Pathetic.[disgust]

[butterfly]

The simple fact is if she wanted to pray for her patient, she didn't need to ask her permission, what's the point in asking?
Just to boost her own feel-good satisfaction of being a do-gooder!
Pathetic.[disgust]

thats right,she could have done it without saying a word to anyone.and now she is in hot water over it she has gone to the press to fight her corner which wont do her any good if she has been suspended already.its stupid a nurse asking her patients if they want her to pray for them.

[nightowl]

The whole psychological effect of having prayers said for you would be lost if they were private. The knowledge that someone really cares about your wellbeing is essential, so if saying a prayer boosts that comforting feeling and gives a little hope, then all to the good.
I wonder if there are deeper "issues" surrounding this case, nothing to do with religion!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/georgepitcher/4434264/God-bless-the-nurse-who-offered-prayer.html

some of the comments are enteresting

[Angela]

Having spent several months very seriously ill in hospital a couple of years ago, I would have hated it if a nurse had offered to pray for me.

Ill as I was, I would have found it very intrusive and embarrassing, and I might well have felt obliged to say "Yes" even thought I wanted to say "No!" I know that my family and friends were thinking of me and praying for me in their own way and I would not have wanted a stranger with religious beliefs that are not mine, forcing them on me.

You are asked on admission to hospital whether or not you follow a particular faith, so that the appropriate Chaplain is informed -and of course your own minister, priest or other spiritual leader is also likely to know and will visit you while you're in hospital. If that is what you wish!

I'd assumed that nursing staff know that it's not part of their job to bring up the subject of religion with you.

In this case, the nurse is working in the community, so the situation's different, but surely it's still inappropriate and tactless for a nurse to push their religious beliefs at you, when they have no idea what yours may or may not be?

If a nurse has a strong Christian belief, then surely the best way for him or her to do God's work is to help patients towards recovery by being a committed and professional nurse, not by forcing prayers on them, when these may not be welcome.

Of course a bit of kindness and comfort never goes amiss, but you don't have to bring religion into it to be a kind and caring nurse. I had some wonderful nurses looking after me - I'm just very glad that they never offered to pray for me!

[nightowl]

It seems so sad in our so called Christian society, that the very mention of prayer conjours up feelings of intrusion and embarrassment.
Had this old lady been offered a bedbath she may well have felt intrusion and embarrassment and declined as she did the prayer, but would the nurse in question be at risk of losing her job, I don't think so.

[Bobinovich]

But then a bedbath is within the nurses sphere of working. As a heathen with no belief in faith I know which I'd prefer :D!

[Angela]

It seems so sad in our so called Christian society, that the very mention of prayer conjours up feelings of intrusion and embarrassment.
Had this old lady been offered a bedbath she may well have felt intrusion and embarrassment and declined as she did the prayer, but would the nurse in question be at risk of losing her job, I don't think so.


I don't find prayer in itself embarrassing - I have my own form of prayer, but it is not to a creator God. What I would find embarrassing is being put in the position of having to reject someone else's offer of prayer because I don't share their religious beliefs, especially when I'm ill and vulnerable.

I can assure you that I felt little if any embarrassment in the two weeks I spent in the ICU, fed through a tube, unable to even breathe for myself and having all my most basic needs attended to by other people, or in the months I subsequently spent on the wards, learning to eat and walk again.

Everything the doctors and nursing staff did was part of their physical care of me, though much of it would have been deeply embarrassing to a person in normal health! :o

To me that it a very different thing from having someone else's religious beliefs thrust at a patient in a vulnerable situation. No matter how well meant, I don't feel that a nurse should be using his or her job for evangelism.

[squidge]

I was very ill in 2000 and spent some time in intensive care being very well cared for. I had a visit from the minister of the church i was visiting at the time and he prayed with me. I found it very touching and comforting despite my sort of confused attitude to faith! Having said that I do not think it would have been appropriate for a nurse to have offered to pray for me. I think religion should be kept out of the workplace. I would have been embarrassed for a nurse to have held my hand and prayed for me in a way i wasnt with my minister.

[Anne x]

My past experience with the Minister visiting me in hospital was He always asked me first if I wanted a prayer never once took anything for granted but I would feel uneasy with my nurse praying for me gosh Im confused at the best of times imagine waking up to a nurse praying for you I would of thought the end is nigh

[nightowl]

Perhaps this nurse did act inappropriately or perhaps she just read the signals coming from the old lady, wrongly. Unless something more serious occurred - that we don't know about - do these actions warrant this nurse being suspended or even losing her job?

[changilass]

As a first instance, then no, but she has been warned about her behaviour in the past and continued on her merry way.

[dirdyweeker]

The original article in the Daily Mail yesterday carried this story. I read the the "old lady's " carer reported the matter, not as stated in the quoted article...the old lady herself.
I know the nurse has previously been in a similar predicament but did she have to be suspended while the outcome is debated?
Having met lots of nurses I have not found it to be common practise to pray with your patient but as someone said previously perhaps there were mixed messages being sent. The 'patient' was far from dying she was having her leg dressings renewed.

[butterfly]

her actions do warrant suspension after all she chose to ignore warnings from her superiors when the patients complained,now that is not a very christian thing to do.does she not realise the hospitals have chaplins to do that.i would not like to be coming round from and operation to see her praying for me,i too would think the end is nigh.no this is just another case of do gooders shoving their faith where its not wanted.not very professional at all.

[dirdyweeker]

her actions do warrant suspension after all she chose to ignore warnings from her superiors when the patients complained,now that is not a very christian thing to do.does she not realise the hospitals have chaplins to do that.i would not like to be coming round from and operation to see her praying for me,i too would think the end is nigh.no this is just another case of do gooders shoving their faith where its not wanted.not very professional at all.

the woman was in her own home not an inpatient in hospital.

[Angela]

I'd carers visiting me very day for a long time after I got home from hospital, and found most of them to be very professional people. A couple became friends but even so, I'd have been astonished if any of them had offered to pray for me! :eek:

The elderly lady's carer may well have realised that this was an inappropriate and unprofessional thing for the nurse to suggest, just as it would be for a carer. OK, the carer raised the matter, but that might have been only because the lady herself didn't 'like' to or feel able to.

I wouldn't have thought that this should be a sacking offence if it was reported once and if the nurse accepted that it was an inappropriate thing to do, but as she seems unable to accept this fact, I don't think she should be allowed to ignore warnings and to carry on doing just as she pleases.

[butterfly]

it doesnt matter where it took place,hospital or patients home,she is a nurse not a minister.its rather worrying that she thinks she hasnt done anything wrong and cant see where the complainer is coming from.

[wee sparkle]

In my opinion, the nurse probably should have just prayed for the woman privately, without telling her, because that obviously distressed the elderly lady (or her carer) and caused them to take action.

When i read the link the only thing that really caught my attention was this:

Mrs Petrie said: "I stopped handing out prayer cards after that but I found it more and more difficult [not to offer them].

The handing out of prayer cards, to patients that you are treating is a bit unproffessional, especially from a nurse with much experience, like she has.

Nothing at all wrong with wanting to pray for someone, but unless you know that it will not distress them, or you actually know them well on a personal level, it would probably have been best just not to tell them. :confused

[butterfly]

[quote=wee sparkle;495862]

Mrs Petrie said: "I stopped handing out prayer cards after that but I found it more and more difficult [not to offer them].

this is what got me too,the nursing managers had to stop her cause she clearly couldnt stop herself even after a warning.she seems like she has a problem controling the need to spread the word of the bible.she should stick to what she gets payed for and if patients want a prayer then she should call for the hospital chaplin

[wee sparkle]

Thats what i think too, because if i was her patient, i would feel intimidated and pressurised into saying yes, especially to ask an elderly woman.

I certainly wouldn't like to be asked :confused

[nightowl]

Hallelujah, common sense prevails!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/somerset/7873145.stm

See original interview

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7864397.stm


(http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/somerset/7873145.stm)

[dirdyweeker]

God must have been looking after her future!:)

I did notice she was suspended without pay! How many doctors get suspended on FULL pay when life threatening issues happen. Nurses always did get and continue to get a raw deal.

[dirdyweeker]

See original interview

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7864397.stm

On watching this interview I notice that the Professional Code of Conduct is quoted. Though there are many parts to it, the piece that I was interested in was " be open and honest and act with integrity ".
Think she did that.