Any Muslim Nurses/Student Nurses in Allnurses?

As far as Jawhara. From her post we know she currently wears it but we do not know if she is going to continue to wear it during clinicals. Maybe before jumping to conclusions that she is going to scare patients we could ask her how she is going to handle the wearing of a veil during school/future career.

Also, I have thoroughly enjoyed this conversation and that the 0.1% of non-english did not have a negative impact on me enjoying it or understanding it.

I also wanted to say thanks for an interesting topic that I felt compelled to reply too though I am not muslim.

On the topic of this religion and modesty...
Are Muslim women allowed to provide nursing care to men?

I should have been clearer in my post - it is against our terms of service (which every member signs prior to becoming a member) to post in any language except English.

Good question! As a matter of fact, yes, they are! In the Islamic faith, the administering of medical care is a condition under which the prohibition of male/female interaction is lifted. An example of this would be during the early days of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), when the Muslim female nurses would tend to the men on the battlefield.

Take care!

I was curious about that too, since in our "culture" lectures we're told that Muslim women generally request to be cared for by female nurses...we also have one girl in our class who wears the hijaab and long sleeves under her uniform. Any public school, at least, will make reasonable accomodations for anyone to observe their religion.

There is so much variation in Muslim women's dress. In my OPINION, the shalwar kameez is beautiful but the burkha and the abaya are not. And some Iranian women make the manteau and head scarf very stylish, but the most stylish were being chased and beaten by Iranian police lately.

Some of the clothing is compatible with safety, mobility and comfort, and some is not.

For me, the niqab goes too far. It says, "I don't trust you to see my face. You are apart from me." I don't trust someone who doesn't trust me that far to be caring for me or my family the way a nurse does.

Charleta gives one analysis of the rules for caring for men but Islam is not monolithic and Jawhara might have another. Caring for non-Muslim women might even be an issue for her.

There is another issue, that of hearing impaired patients (or fellow health care workers and staff) who rely on reading lips to make up the deficit.

I love to learn about different cultures and customs. Thanks so much to our Muslim sister/brother nurses for sharing their culture with us.

Birdgardner - I never thought about the hearing impaired - my husband reads lips a lot of the time.

Assalaamu alaykum....Hi everyone. Wow I feel popular. I have a ?. Who "spoke" a non-English words? Did I miss something?

For Birdgardner and everyone wondering about my "mask" (niqab), well this is something I have been thinking a lot about lately. I have worn the veil for 5 1/2 years and it has really become a part of me. Even though the ruling goes that I CAN take it off (it is optional) but like I said it has become a part of me. However, if I somehow can't make it work, then I will remove it while at work. Cultural tolerance IS a two-way street, but this is more than a culture to me. Culture to me is something that is done simply because the people in that area do it. This is different; this is RELIGION, a belief system. That said, since people aren't as used to Muslim women in niqab, until they do, I will accommodate them as much as I can.
In the future, I plan to work with women/kids, but I will cross that bridge when I get there, God willing.

As far as the niqab/abayah NOT being "pretty" or whatever, to each their opinion but in the Muslim world (the PIOUS Muslims anyway), the more a woman obeys her lord and follows her religion, the more beautiful she is. There is nothing more beautiful than a woman who cherishes her body and preserves it, at the same time forcing the world to see her "mind" and who she is inside.
I have spent half my life here, always observed Islamic dressing, and I have always been able to do anything and everything! People who react to me in a certain unpleasant way when they first see me, change their minds about me very quickly when they get to know ME. Just goes to show that you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, so to speak.

I for one think it is great that so many muslim women are entering nursing. When I work in a big multi-cultural city in the UK years ago, we actively recruited muslim women to come train and be nurses because there was a huge need. We had big problems and had very few applicants mainly because the muslim community frowned upon their nurses entering the nursing profession. I do believe however this was a time when the dress code was very strict in nursing and all nurses (female) wore dresses and hats.
Now of course in recent years trousers are the normal uniform in the UK. One thing however in the UK you have to have shorter sleves and cannot wear anything on your lower arm when tending to a pt, ie no sweaters etc because of infection control.

Re the uniform here, the muslims where I work now wear normal scrubs and long long lab coats buttoned up which preserves their modesty and respects their religion.

For the record the muslim women I have met and worked with are some of the most gentle, caring people I have ever had the good fortune to know.