god bless you... what do you mean i'm fired?

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NHS staff face sacking if they discuss religious beliefs

i'm not one to agree with pushing religion down people's throats but if someone asked me if i wanted them to pray for me i'd take it as a nice gesture, it might not help me get better but it would make me feel like someone cares.

Religion is often a flashpoint and with a growing multicultural UK, it is going to be more of a flashpoint. It's more of a professional issue really than a religion issue.

at the end of the day when you pray you're prayingto a 'god', every religion that uses prayer worships a 'god' and so if you believe strong enough in your religion someone who belongs to a different religion who prays is, in fact, praying to your 'god' as that's the 'only god' that exists as far as your religion is concerned.

i agree it's the proffesional view that's important but it's the human flaw that people have the problem with, then again placebo medication has been proven to increase the wellbeing and initiate the patient's want to get beter thus their health improves so religion and prayer could possibly work...

It isn't as bad as the case a few months ago when a NHS doctor suggested her patient was possessed with an evil spirit and offered the services of a witch doctor - I kid you not. I think the doctor got struck off.

In comparison a nurse offering to pray isn't really a big deal, especially if the elderly lady in question was a Christian too. It seems to have got all out of proportion. I'm an atheist and if a doctor or nurse offered to pray from me I'd just thank them and say I wasn't a Christian and that would be the end of it. It would be a different matter if they offered prayer instead of treatment of course.

Not all religions have a god. Animalist religions have no god, for example. Neither does Buddhism.

FYI, offering to pray for someone is often a way to test that person's beliefs without pointedly asking, though it may not be an issue if the patient volunteers that information. Still, if you want to pray for someone, just do it. It won't help, but it surely won't hurt. Granted, sometimes it's the gesture itself that's important, but the danger of allowing that kind of thing in a medical setting is that people will rely on religion instead of medicine, doctors and nurses included.

Now, I don't think she did anything really terrible, but as an atheist I also find it extremely annoying that people are constantly offering to pray for me and assuming I share their beliefs. If the patient wants that, he can request it. If I don't ask for it, it's because I'd rather be treated medically and left alone.

And this is exactly what I'm talking about. The patient didn't ask for prayer and didn't even offer up her religion in conversation. She came in to do a job and instead offered her religion unprompted. To me that sounds just short of proselytizing.


In summary: shut up about your religion and do your freaking job.

Some people are so passionate about their belief's that they would probably say that they would pray for someone without thinking of the consequences, or at least accepting them as though they are being a martyr.
I'm not religious, but I feel strongly for religious rights, like I am race, sexual orientation and people with a disability.

Maybe the patient was really ill too. My own mother even thinks that prayer saved my life when the doctors said I wasn't going to live.

it's just political correctness at work. I have to do harrassment training, etc., once a year. They actually have questions about prosteletizing, etc., on the quiz. You can have pictures, but prosteletizing is out. I work for a British company, so they are probably more sensitive about this.

If it were truly more of a professional issue, then she would have been chastised for a job-related act than an expression of religious beliefs.

Not that I think much of religion itself, but let's be clear about this. She was given the sack for practicing her religion, not for shirking her duties.

Same.

She was given the sack for pushing her religion on a patient, not for practicing it. Don't you think that might interfere with her duties?

I heard a story once in Wicca about a sick woman who had to ask another witch to stop praying for her because it was interfering with her healing. Too many vibes!!

I might or might not feel ok if someone asked me if it was ok if she prayed for me, but she'd better take no for an answer, and I would prefer it if people didn't pray for me without my consent. My mother always used to say she prayed for me, and I bet it was messing things up, since I'm sure whatever she was praying for was not what I wanted or needed.

I agree that if medical professionals are asked to keep their religion out of their work they should, and that they be disciplined if they don't.

Actually this woman was reprimanded before for doing this.

I would feel funny if a nurse asked if she could pray for me, and I was about to undergo a surgery. Would I get the care I needed if I told her no? Would she turn into a witch if I said no at a vulnerable point in my care? How insistant was this woman?

And why ask at all? If the woman felt it was necessary, why didn't she just do it on her own time instead of flaunting her Christian charity and putting a patient in an awkward situation.

On the other hand, given my last major surgery, and the mood I was in, I might have dumped my ice water on her.

I'd be more concerned if a catholic priest offered to say the last rights for me.

then again a catholic might feel the same if they didn't have a priest there to give them the last rights. there are some hospitals that have churches on the complex so you have somewhere to go to to pray, only problem is with current political (in)correctness they might be torn down to make room for other religious places of worship...

i think whilst the doctors are asking questions about you such as the last time you ate to whether you're wearing nail polish or not they should also as what religion you belong to, then if you say christian the christians on staff will now if they should ask you those pesky prayer questions.