I'm going to probably open a can of worms here, but I want your opinion

when you DO have the information, ie knowing your patient is Jewish/Muslim and that the drug is of porcine origin, then I think you are obligated to inform.

I am bothered by the little "heh" at the end of your post. Do you think you are pulling some clever joke over on someone by denying them information they should have? If you know the patient is Muslim or Jew, you need to tell them what you are giving them.

Not informing them out of ignorance is one thing, but knowingly violating one of their deeply held beliefs is quite another and I would hope you would rethink your actions.

I agree.

A little disturbing to know that some know its origin, yet keep it to themselves ("heh"). I can only hope what goes around doesn't come around in some form or another.

I still believe that it's the patient's job to disclose their religious views and to ask what's in the drug before they take it, if it's important to them. I don't see how it's an ethical violation for a nurse not to disclose information that she was not told is significant. If the patient noted their religious requirements in their chart and their wishes were not honored, that's an ethical violation. With everything that nurses have to do/remember, I don't expect them to keep my religious preferences in mind unless I explicitly tell them. There are many different customs/rulings/practices even within Judaism or Islam and a nurse can't be expected to keep track of them all. I don't see why you'd want to even go there as a nurse - do you want to be blamed now for inadvertantly causing a patient to violate a religious stricture that they didn't inform you of? As a protection for you, the standard should be that the onus is on the patient to inform the healthcare provider of their religious needs.