The Captain.....

[Kaks]

<EDIT> Just want to say, that if any of my work collegues or employers are reading this, that was a JOKE. Please do not report me to the Trust and/or the NMC. </EDIT>

Eeexcellent, the gentle & caring side showing through already!
Mwahmwahmwah!

[Captain Hesperus]

<EDIT> Just want to say, that if any of my work collegues or employers are reading this, that was a JOKE. Please do not report me to the Trust and/or the NMC. </EDIT>

Eeexcellent, the gentle & caring side showing through already!
Mwahmwahmwah!

No, it's the 'covering my ass professionally' side. If a nurse can be suspended just for offering to pray for a patient, I don't want to be struck off for an off-hand remark....

Captain Hesperus

[JohnnyBoy]

If a nurse can be suspended just for offering to pray for a patient....

So we're suspending nurses for offering prayers? Could somebody kindly tell me what the f*** is happening to this country?

(FWIW, the answer's "no", I'm not religious)

[_ds_]

Congratulations, Captain. You must be in a very small minority who have successfully found work in the current <governmentspin> tiny economic hiccup </governmentspin>

Today is Sunday, 8857 December in the Year of New Labour, 1984.

[JohnnyBoy]

Today is Sunday, 8857 December in the Year of New Labour, 1984.

Actually, if you remove the 'tache and add a bit of hair on top, there's quite a striking similarity with a certain control-freak prime minister who can't admit to his own mistakes...

[Cmdr James]

So we're suspending nurses for offering prayers? Could somebody kindly tell me what the f*** is happening to this country?

Had it been a non christian then I would not have been surprised in the least. Can you imagine if it was a witch/wiccan who had offered some spells to help a patient?

My understanding is that although well intentioned, the nurse in question may have technically broken a rule about prostelitizing, and a patient complained. The nurse was suspended during investigation, and then offered the opportunity to return. Not a perfect state of affairs, but hardly the shocking case some would like to make it out as.

Even the National Secular Society said that the nurse should not have been (and in fact was not) sacked http://www.secularism.org.uk/106408.html.

[Captain Hesperus]

What gets me is it wasn't the patient who complained. She mentioned the event to another nurse at a later date saying she was 'surprised' to have been asked that, not that she was offended. The other nurse made the complaint 'on the patient's behalf' and the event went from that. And offering to pray for someone is hardly proselytising, that would be more 'come to my church and worship God in the way I do', not 'do you mind if I said a prayer at my church for your swift recovery?'.
All that was really required in this case was the charge nurse for the district nursing team to have a quiet word, instead it's been traipsed through the media and blown up out of proportion simply on a knee-jerk reaction. What were the PCT worried about, religious extremism?

Captain Hesperus

[LittleBear]

Hmm. Well its all a bit of a mountain out of a molehill, but as someone who is non-religious I would be somewhat annoyed over religious types asking if they could say a prayer for my recovery. I've no problem with people having these strange ideas, that muttering incantations in tall buildings has some effect, but it is no different from asking if they can cast a spell for me. Its a slippery slope to happy clappy types with tambomorines prancing around your bed when you're ill! There is something of a double standard, as I cannot see a logical difference between a spell and a prayer in the hoped for effect, and I suspect a nurse who went round asking if he/she could say spells for their patients would be in some difficulties.

[Screet]

What were the PCT worried about, religious extremism?

AFAIK there's been made a real big study in the US which did prove that prayers for people after surgery come with an increased chance of complications. The study was financed by christians...not the outcome they expected. But then, if it's offered, I don't see any problems.

The wife of a friend was sort of freaked when she had an accident and was brought to a hospital run by christians, not the state. There they did pray all the time, and she's an atheist, asked to be placed in a sperate room so that she doesn't get involved with this, and they complied. She was happy though, when she left, but then, it was a christian hospital.

After my recent knee surgery, I had to wait for quite some time...and the guy in the wakeup room then told me how he found his way to Jesus and offered a religious card with a psalm. I'm no christian, I even dislike some of the catholic ideas...and I wouldn't allow such a thing to change my pagan ways...but I thought the guy was doing it in a nice and not really persuasive way, and he was more about jesus than some churches way. Would not complain about that...after all, he was really ill and when he found his belief, he recovered. It's not even possible to expect from a person with such a background not telling about it!

Screet

[Disembodied]

I suppose though that the patient might be left with a "Holy crap, what's wrong with me?" feeling. If it were me I'd be a bit concerned that a member of staff was suggesting that we start clutching at straws. But Nurse Hesperus is right, a quiet word would probably have been a better way of handling it than a suspension.

Still, could be worse: I was told of one patient who, following a motorcycle accident, kept getting infections in his injuries. Eventually the hospital found out that on every visit the patient's mother was sprinkling her son with a bottle of water from Lourdes. It was quite old, this bottle of water from Lourdes. So the mother was asked if she wouldn't mind boiling her holy water next time before using it, and the infections stopped ...

[CptnEcho]

"Even a miracle needs a hand."

http://www.davesaunders.net/blog/2007/1 ... ds-a-hand/

http://www.angelfire.com/tv2/nightbefore/