Praying nurses

[ciphergoth]

Nurse suspended without pay for offering to pray for a patient during a home visit - what do you think?

(Snowed in today, trying to work from home but it's not really a workplace atmosphere around here today :-)

Updated: the patient is described as a Christian in the article. One wonders if this means Christian as in really a Christian, or "Christian I suppose" which AFAICT is the majority religion of the UK. Updated: actually "have Christian beliefs myself" is more like the phrasing I'd expect from someone who takes it seriously.

Comments

[feorag.livejournal.com]

It's at least her second offence.

Plus, the prayer studies have shown that patients do worse when they know someone is praying for her.

[andrewducker]

Oooh - can you give me more info on that?

The stuff I've seen shows a mild positive effect when they know they're being prayed for - but I can't find any of that either!

[johncoxon.livejournal.com]

New Scientist has reported studies that showed that a couple of times IIRC, tried looking there?

[ciphergoth.livejournal.com]

Ah, yes - "Petrie said she had been reprimanded over her faith before, in October, when she gave a homemade prayer card to an elderly patient."

It probably warrants another disciplinary hearing and a written warning, but suspension without pay still seems over the top when the second offense is far less egregious than the first. OTOH as I say we may not know the whole story - if there's a string of occasions then eventually you do get to this stage.

[purplerabbits.livejournal.com]

It's not so much suspension without pay as that, being a bank nurse, she gets paid for jobs she's sent on and they're not sending her on any...

[ciphergoth.livejournal.com]

That does make a big difference. Still, down with casualization!

[ergotia.livejournal.com]

Surely that makes it even harsher? If she was salaried and suspended without pay pending an investigation she would at least have a chance of getting the lost wages paid once the suspension was over.

[ciphergoth.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's not necessarily any fairer in an absolute sense, just a lot more commonplace.