Posted on 02/03/2009 11:21:49 AM PST by TaraP
A Christian nurse from Weston-super-Mare has been suspended for offering to pray for a patient's recovery.
Community nurse Caroline Petrie, 45, says she asked an elderly woman patient during a home visit if she wanted her to say a prayer for her.
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.
Power of prayer
Mrs Petrie, who carries out home visits in North Somerset, said she had asked the patient if she would like a prayer said for her after she had put dressings on the woman's legs.
The patient, believed to be in her 70s, refused and Mrs Petrie insists that she left the matter alone.
The sick woman contacted the trust about the incident and Mrs Petrie was challenged by her superiors.
Mrs Petrie said: "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.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.bbc.co.uk ...
God help the UK
Oh yes..It is so offensive to have someone pray for your recovery....What a sick world....
Unbelievable!
How thoughtful.
Exactly!
Pray that the Muslim fanatics who is taking over the UK won’t be offended so that Brits, might be able to keep thier heads on!
What is going on in the UK??????
Does this hospital have a Chapel? A Chaplain? Allow Priests to make rounds?
This sort of thing really doesn’t help the atheist cause. It only serves to convince the believers of the efficacy of prayer, since to their mind it wouldn’t be perceived as a threat if it wasn’t efficacious.
The best thing to do would be to tell the troublesome nurse that she may mutter what she pleases to her imaginary god, provided she doesn’t bother you with it.
Or maybe she could have a atheist nurse who says here is the dressing for your leg, ya mean Ol’ bat...
Atheism might not mean you are a jerk, but it sure does not compel you to be nice when someone is a jerk to you....
Atheism does not teach or compel a person to forgive anyone 7 x70...something Jesus said we need to do, even when it is harder than heck to forgive many of people in today’s world.
That is just awful. The nurse was trying to do something nice for the woman. She should be ashamed. When she passes on maybe she will realise.
I am a bit confused as to exactly what this nurse was asking. Was she asking the patient if she could say a prayer with her or for her latter? Big difference.
I have never asked someone if I could pray for them, I just tell them that I will say a prayer for them. But I do ask if they would like me to pray with them, as some are uncomfortable with the idea.
If she was asking to pray with the patient, that would be wrong as she is praying on company time and most companies would not permit that. But if she was asking to pray for her, I cannot see the problem.
This was a home visit. And I think a simple informal reprimand would have been appropriate, but no more unless she makes a habit of this. This is a home-visiting nurse from the government health care system, and initiating discussion of praying for a patient is really inappropriate (it would be different if the patient had Christian religious items visible in the home, essentially inviting an offer of prayer from a health care worker with similar beliefs, but I doubt that was case here). Just imagine having the government send a hijab-wearing nurse to your home, and she makes an unsolicited offer to pray for you — would you feel that was appropriate? Now if they tried to discipline a nurse (even with just an informal reprimand) for acting on a patient’s request for a prayer, then I’d have a huge problem.
I am sure the same approach would have been used if the nurse was muslim (dripping sarcasm)
I am always a bit surprised when I read that there are still Christians left in Britain.
They mostly turned their backs on God long ago.
Britain is lost.
Reminds me of the time that Rod parsley’s church got sued for something “offensive” that was said in their ministry outside the abortion clinics...
In court, the judge asked “What was said to you ?”
The lawsuit person said, “She told me, “Jesus loves you”
The judge said, “I wish someone would tell me that” and dismissed the case..
With all due respect, where in the article does it say that the elderly patient was atheist?
Perhaps the elderly patient was Jewish or Muslim and didn’t care to be prayed for by a Christian?
I don’t think that makes this a firable offense. Just wondering where the religion or lack thereof of this patient was mentioned?
She's waiting to find out whether or not she will be able to return to work.
True, the patient may have been Jewish, moslem, or something else. I was making an assumption based on the fact that the majority of people in Britain have no religious belief.
I would think that the article would mention it if the old lady was a follower of a different religion - that would make it a “diversity” issue.
We don’t know what would have been done if the nurse had been a Muslim, but we can safely assume that if a patient filed a formal complaint against a Christian nurse who offered to pray for the patient, and no formal action was taken, then when another patient filed a formal complaint against a Muslim nurse who offered to pray for the patient, the lawyers/union for the Muslim nurse would use the record of the prior complaint and lack of formal action on it, to get the Muslim nurse off the hook. We really don’t want that.
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