Nurse suspended for prayer offer

Nurse suspended for prayer offer

news.bbc.co.uk

A Christian nurse from Weston-super-Mare has been suspended for offering to pray for a patient's recovery.

The patient complained to the health trust about Mrs Petrie who follows the Baptist faith.

She was suspended, without pay, on 17 December and will find out the outcome

of her disciplinary meeting next week.

"The woman mentioned it to the sister who did her dressing the following day. She said that she wasn't offended but was concerned that someone else might be. "

(visit the link for the full news article)

Police those thoughts people, police those thoughts.

If someone makes you a polite offer, and you are not offended by said offer, upon what grounds do you have to actually make a complaint?

And then to suspend the poor woman without pay, in the current economical dire straits we are in no less, for comitting this non-offense for a two-month "investigation" of said non-offense, would strike me as particularly freaking ridiculous, pardon my French.

Anyone else have any thoughts on this?

news.bbc.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

Did aqnyone ever think that the current social problems we have are because of liberlization of our society and the condemnation of the faithful? I think it has been a major contributor to the problems we see today in our society. Maybe if so many didn't try to remove religous teachign, we might have a more stable society.

just a thought.

I'm an atheist and am not offended by people praying for me, and I of all people do not like having religion pushed on me. Having had my share of very religious nurses in post-op care it didn't bother me when they read Bible passages to me or even laid hands on me, I just took it as kindness and appreciated their devotion to their job.

This situation is nonsense but it sounds more like an offshoot of the Sharia hysteria going around Britain at the moment than anything else. THe British govt. is scared to death of offending the very large and vocal Muslim population by appearing to "push" Christianity in any form, not to mention we are returning to the Clinton-era "political correctness" BS. Makes no sense since any religious person would not be offended by a display of faith and neither would the average person. I want to know if she has been censured for this in the past which I am guessing she has, then it is a problem.

Ive seen many a case of christians that turn to prayer instead of getting medical help.. and this to be done by someone who's job it is to give "medical" help is just shocking.

She needs to do her job, and not just turn to easy solutions like prayer, which has never been proven to acctually work. Might as well say: "want me to wish you well?" Maybe it'll come true.

And this was an elder woman, in a difficult situation.. its an easy target to try and push some of that stuff on.

reply to post by NightoftheComet


Religion... Stability? Sorry, what?

I have nothing against the basic "moral teachings" of most religions... But really, religion and "blind faith" are the greatest cause of human conflict.

I think if someone was religious, and wanted you to pray for them, they might ask, don't you think?
I think offering it, is a bit like preaching.

I am SO glad they took this mad woman out of the position of caring for the sick and injured. She may have actually offended someone while seeing that their medicines were administered properly. How dare she say what she believed to be comforting words to someone that might consider them indoctrination into her faith.

Ok, enough sarcasm, but seriously, could their be any more fruitless action than to take an otherwise competent caregiver away from giving care for this reason. It amazes me that any intelligent society would place someone being offended in higher regard than someone being nursed to health.

Originally posted by Daniem
Ive seen many a case of christians that turn to prayer instead of getting medical help.. and this to be done by someone who's job it is to give "medical" help is just shocking.

She needs to do her job, and not just turn to easy solutions like prayer, which has never been proven to acctually work. Might as well say: "want me to wish you well?" Maybe it'll come true.

And this was an elder woman, in a difficult situation.. its an easy target to try and push some of that stuff on.

May i suggest you read the post again.
this was done in a hostpital so she was getting medical help, just because the nurse prayed for her does not mean she was not doing her job.

Prayer an easy solution, are you serious? if it was an easy solution she would not be in hostpital in the first place and as for prayer not working, why not visit your local church and ask the members there if prayer works or better still come and have a word with my wife and ask her how she sent her wheelchair back when the specialists said there was nothing they could do to cure her.

Sounds like just another " I don't know what i am talking about post"

As a man of no religion, I think this is absurd. Even at the least, a prayer is a sign of compassion and kind thoughts to those who usually need it.

Only 12 hours ago, I was behind a 65 tonne truck that had a young couple on holidays pull out in front of it. The truck was doing 100kph, and the female driver was killed instantly. Her male friend in the passenger's seat was crushed by the steering wheel, and died about ten minutes later.

It was the first dead person I have ever seen, and the first time I saw a man die in front of me. Everyone who witnessed it and ran over stopped about 10 yards before the wreck. They just couldn't bring themselves to look inside, the wreck was that horrific.

Only myself and the local minister attended to the man inside. After forcing the passengers' door open, we knew all we could do was say nice things.

The minister said a prayer for him in a typical christian fashion. It was a genuine kind act which I thought was just beautiful. Genuine compassion and love it was, for someone he didn't even know. At the least, it made me feel better, knowing there was a good soul beside me hoping to try to make a man's last moments a bit easier, while others just looked from a distance.

And now, people are getting in trouble for it.

Maybe the right thing for the nurse would be to ignore her instinct to help others, and just sit back and watch. It seems to be what people do these days.

reply to post by Cameoii


Exactly.
Isn't there a shortage of nurses, already?
It's not like she was giving 'last rights'(which I don't believe in) or forcibly baptizing the patient into her religion.

If she was lax in her duties, that would be another issue.

If I was religious I would pray for others without announcing it, because some of us do not have the need to advertise that we care...

But, what do I know, I'm the Atheist, lol

[edit on 2-2-2009 by 5thElement]

Originally posted by BorgHoffen
I think if someone was religious, and wanted you to pray for them, they might ask, don't you think?
I think offering it, is a bit like preaching.

Maybe they would if they knew that the nurse was a Christian, but we don't normally walk around with a plaque around our necks saying "Christian available for prayer"

As an Atheist even i find this just silly,she was praying to give the patient some comfort...ok the actual praying wont do anything to the womans health but its the thought that counts,for these sorts of actions to be taken is verging on insanity.If the patient didn't want the woman to pray for her just ask her not to...

This is so wrong.. i mean common , she wanted to make a favour - this was her way of epxressing compassion! This was something she wanted to do without requesting any payment and very likely outside the working hours ! I hope she can find another job soon.. she deserves better. Again proof that the society only rewards the abilitty that can be converted into money. If compassion cannot be converted into money then at least do not punish those who have it! Maria Teressa would end up jobless in our tipe of society!

[edit on 2-2-2009 by sty]

I'm sort of torn on this..... i think it's ridiculous that they've treated her this way... but apparently she was warned about it before and continued to offer prayers to people.

It's not her choice whether she does offer prayers or not, it's up to her bosses and she was warned before...however, it is ridiculous and totally heavy handed and OTT to suspend her or even make an example of her.

I dunno.... I'm sure there is more to this than we're being told

When did it become politically correct to rat on someone for offering comfort?

And people wonder why others walk right on over and by people who’ve been hit by cars or are punching toddlers to death in the street.

TPTB want this kind of division people - they’re smiling like a Cheshire Cat and lapping it up like cream.

And for the ones out there who fall for this idiocy - like this nut ball who turned the woman in - look to yourselves for the faults in society not to the *other guy*...

NuclearPaul
Thank you for stopping and trying to help the people hurting and dying.
I'm sure the man knew at some level you were there and your presence was a comfort.
To offer yourself like that to one about to leave this world is a pretty amazing experience.
I hope you can overcome the memories of this horrible tragedy and find peace in knowing you were there for him and he didn’t leave the world alone.

peace

Originally posted by silo13
When did it become politically correct to rat on someone for offering comfort?

And people wonder why others walk right on over and by people who’ve been hit by cars or are punching toddlers to death in the street.

Unfortunately, none of what you mentioned has anything to do with religion, or this case.
Anyone who walks past or doesn't help in those situations is a coward or a pretty selfish human being... i don't need to list the things I've seen or done in order to prove that religion does not = good people.

Saying what you said above is blatantly misleading and utter nonsense IMO.

It was obvious from the video that the nurse was prosthelytizing. She had an above-average conviction in the power of Christian prayer which enabled her to ignore her patient's wishes. She was pushing her beliefs on the patient, whether they were well intentioned or not.

That is inappropriate in today's world where we are not all of the same faith.
The patient was elderly and in her own home -- a very vulnerable situation. It was right for her to question the nurse's behavior. It was right for the nurse who came the following day and learned of the incident to then report it.

What is not clear is whether or not this had happened previously. If not, perhaps a simple warning would have been enough. On the otherhand, given the vulnerability of elderly people living alone, it is only proper for the agency to have very strict rules of conduct for their employees.

This is pathetic...she was offering comfort.

If you are of a different faith, all it can mean to you, is that the prayer will instead be heard by your own God, and it shows that the nurse cares. If you are atheist, it simply shows that the nurse cares.

I can't at all see how ANYONE could be offended by someone who seems to care about them...

And religious issues aside, at a time when people need every last penny they can get...she loses money for caring

And there are NEVER enough nurses...so the hospital kicked one out for caring... sheesh...get your priorities in order.