Nurse suspended for offering to pray for patient's recovery

Complete and utter madness.

[Mick Fisher]

If folks want to be prayed for they will ask for it by requesting the presence of a Priest.

Simple!

Nurses should stick to nursing.

[Russ]

Leaving aside the fact that prayer can be led by anyone, what if a priest was not available? And the nurse wasn't suggesting she'd pray for the patient in her presence.

Originally Posted by Russ B

If their doctor suggests their illness is so severe that he needs to get the opinion of a more senior physician, is it not possible the patient might feel equally angry with the level of their care, blaming them for the added suffering?

Seriously, if someone is going to be offended by such an offer then they clearly want to be offended.

Russ, you are (imho) comparing apples with cucumbers - it is a common accepted practice that doctors often ask for second opinions from senior, more experienced colleagues, so as to check their diagnosis; what has that got to do with a nurse who did something that she had previously been asked not to do?

[Russ]

Originally Posted by foreverwar

Russ, you are (imho) comparing apples with cucumbers - it is a common accepted practice that doctors often ask for second opinions from senior, more experienced colleagues, so as to check their diagnosis; what has that got to do with a nurse who did something that she had previously been asked not to do?

And you are assuming someone would blame their deity for such an illness. There are certain times when common sense has to be applied to 'rules'.

[Russ]

Originally Posted by foreverwar

And how does that apply to the fact the nurse had been specifically requested not to do it again, please?

Because the trust has given no legitimate reason for the nurse not to offer to pray for the patient in her own time. Disciplining someone for such a reason is completely pointless and smacks too much of political correctness.

Originally Posted by Russ B

Because the trust has given no legitimate reason for the nurse not to offer to pray for the patient in her own time. Disciplining someone for such a reason is completely pointless and smacks too much of political correctness.

Link

"The woman patient, who is believed to be in her late 70s, is understood to have complained to the trust....

.....In the report today a spokesman for North Somerset Primary Care Trust said: "Caroline Petrie has been suspended pending an investigation into the matter.
"She is a bank nurse and she has been told we will not be using her in this capacity until the outcome of our investigation is known.We always take any concerns raised by our patients most seriously and conscientiously investigate any matter of this nature brought to our attention.
We are always keen to be respectful of our patients' views and sensitivity as well as those of our staff"".

And here is a fuller item, with some history, from a Bradford paperLink

"Mrs Petrie had previously been reprimanded for an incident in Clevedon last October when she offered to give a small, home-made prayer card to an elderly, male patient, who had happily accepted it.

On this occasion, the patient's carer, who was with him, raised concerns over the incident.

Alison Withers, Mrs Petrie's boss at the time, wrote to her at the end of November saying: "As a nurse you are required to uphold the reputation of your profession.

"Your NMC [Nursing Midwifery Council] code states that 'you must demonstrate a personal and professional commitment to equality and diversity' and 'you must not use your professional status to promote causes that are not related to health'."

In the letter, Mrs Petrie, who qualified as a nurse in 1985, was asked to attend an equality and diversity course and warned: "If there is any further similar incident it may be treated as potential misconduct and the formal disciplinary procedure could be instigated."

Mrs Petrie said: "I stopped handing out prayer cards after that but I found it more and more difficult [not to offer them]. My concern is for the person as a whole, not just their health.

"I was told not to force my faith on anyone but I could respond if patients themselves brought up the subject [of religion]."

It is the second incident – the offer to pray for a patient – that led to the disciplinary action. She was suspended from her part-time job, without pay, on December 17.

She faced an internal disciplinary meeting last Wednesday and expects to learn the outcome this week.

At last week's hour-long meeting, Mrs Petrie says she was told the patient had said she was not offended by the prayer offer but the woman argued that someone else might have been."

[Stuart]

Originally Posted by Russ B

Perhaps she assumed common sense would subsequently be applied?

Common sense? She clearly did something that caused the patient offence. Whether that was the praying or not, I don't know. If she hadn't caused the patient offence, I doubt the patient would have called, and the trust would not have known anything.

Even if the praying was the cause, then the patient could have been an athiest or from another religion (in which case praying to a Christian God could have been massively offensive).

It also said that she had been asked not to do this before, At the very least, she was ignoring what her boss said.

[Russ]

Thank you. Even more reason for them to do away with such pointless 'rules'. I am assuming she will be reinstated and the trust will allow more room for discretion in future. It's not as if she was forcing her faith on anyone. And in the first case, how public spirited of his carer to report her

---------- Post added at 15:47 ---------- Previous post was at 15:44 ----------

Originally Posted by Stuart C

Common sense?

Yes, common sense. She did not say she was GOING to pray her her, she asked the patient if she could, at which time the response if in the negative, could have been 'no thanks'. It could have ended there. How anyone could be offended at that is beyond me.

I have nothing but distain for Scientology but if one of their lot offered to pray for me (or whatever it is they do) I'd make my feelings clear on the matter and leave it there.

Seems to me like some people are having just too much fun complaining over such trivial matters.

---------- Post added at 15:50 ---------- Previous post was at 15:47 ----------

What next, a scouse patient getting offended over a nurse asking if they want to watch a Man United game?

[TheDaddy]

Originally Posted by Stuart C

Common sense?

Absolutely, we clearly have loads of trained, experienced nurses to be prepared to lose one over this.

[Osem]

What she did in disobeying her superiors probably wasn't well advised but that's another issue and nothing to do with the point I was making. I fail to see how anyone (be they Christian, Moslem, Jewish or whatever) could offend someone by showing how much they care. Had this nurse tried to convert or coerce the patient into changing their own religious views that would be a very different matter for a different time and place. However as I see it a religious nurse simply offered to do something she believed would help and/or bring some comfort - syurely all the patient had to do was say 'no thank you'.

---------- Post added at 15:34 ---------- Previous post was at 15:33 ----------

Originally Posted by TheDaddy

Absolutely, we clearly have loads of trained, experienced nurses ......

Trouble is most of them are in N. America and the southern hemisphere eh.

[Raistlin]

Originally Posted by Russ B

And hopefully the publicity will shame the trust in to changing their policy.

It would be nice to think that was possible, and that some common sense could actually emerge from all of this.

[piggy]

What next, a scouse patient getting offended over a nurse asking if they want to watch a Man United game?
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now this thread just got offensive!!

[Pierre]

Originally Posted by piggy

What next, a scouse patient getting offended over a nurse asking if they want to watch a Man United game?
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now this thread just got offensive!!

That's outrageous.

[Arthurgray50@blu]

This is the stupid way this world is going, l will say one thing, the people who are taking action against the nurse are nothing but A++++++++, if a nurse is giving extra care to a patient, that is up to her, good on her.