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

[djm4]

I don't think I know enough about it.

The facts as presented could cover everything from the nurse, as part of a conversation in which the patient said she was a Christian, asking whether in that case she'd like the nurse to pray for her, to the nurse forcefully and aggressively asking to be allowed to pray for her despite the patient obviously not wanting her to. In the former case I don't think any disciplinary action should be taken; suspension without pay seems harsh for the latter, but as a repeat offence I suppose it might be warranted.

And, of course, we've no idea whether the nurse is at all liked at her work. If she's known as 'that annoying religious nutter who creeps us all out', any excuse to get rid of her might seem reasonable to her employers.

I suspect the truth is somewhat in between. It seems odd to me to discipline a nurse for something of this nature that the patient themselves didn't complain about (I can see that it would be appropriate in some circumstances, but here the degree of actual offence - or lack of it - does seem significant).