Catholic Hospitals

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Specializes in Emergency, Trauma, Critical Care.

I worked for a CHW, they had daily prayers over the intercom, a small chapel and offered mass and communion. All the rooms had a little cross from what I remember too.

My new hospital is also Catholic, and you will see the nuns around, dressed in regular clothes, but they are so sweet.

BTW, I'm not Catholic, but I will say the facility I'm at now takes care of the employees. My CHW hospital though didn't.

tokmom, BSN, RN

4,568 Posts

Specializes in Certified Med/Surg tele, and other stuff.

Another Catholic hospital worker and love my organization and hospital. Their mission statement is everywhere and they give out kudos based on it. It's very much alive in our system.

We have a priest that comes through once in a blue moon, but for the most part, we have basic Chaplains that cover everyone that needs their services on a daily basis. When the nuns come through it is a super big deal and sort of cool.

When our hospital opened, we had it blessed by the Archbishop. I'm not Catholic, but the ceremony was beautiful and very spiritual.

We also have crosses in every room and big ones in the nurses station. We also have a beautiful chapel.

One funny about the nuns. The day the Archbishop came to bless the hospital, there were many religious people running around getting ready for the services. I was there as a volunteer and to be on our floor the day of the blessing.

I cut through ED thinking I could skirt all the important people and head to my floor. As I turned the corner I literally almost ran into a group of nuns. Now these were the real thing, habit and all. What was so funny, was the fact they were trying to get a drink out of the eye wash station.:lol2: They saw me and asked me how it worked. I told them what it was for and they laughed (thank goodness!) and I ran frantically looking for cups!

tokmom, BSN, RN

4,568 Posts

Specializes in Certified Med/Surg tele, and other stuff.

I also have to say that my facility was really great with the recent death of our young assistant manager. They kept us informed, and they had vigils at her beside with the chaplain, priest and were there when they took her off life support. When they told us at work, the entire management team came to the desk with religous support and told us together. We then had prayers. All of us holding hands in a circle. They kept watch over us, constantly being there if we needed support and had the chapel available with help. Flowers from the other sister hospitals arrived to our floor adding to the outside support.

The hospital had her service, and held a nice reception for the family. They wanted to make sure we could go, so we could have closure.

DoGoodThenGo

4,129 Posts

The next hospital that I am going to be working at is a private, catholic hospital. I haven't really had experience with this type of hospital before. Is it still okay to ask patients what type of religion they prefer? If they are something other than catholic, can we still call in their healer or practice their type of religion?

Sorry if this is a really silly question. I don't want to step on any toes, patient's or the hospital's!

Thanks.

Of course, and it really almost never matters what religion the the patient "prefers". Both federal and state laws give all persons equal protection and (for the most part) access to medical care.

The only thing you *might* run up against is a patient who is Catholic but has different views on the church's teachings. For instance when admitting a woman who is in for a C-section, gives her religion as "RC" but decides she want's her "tubes tied" at the same time. It may not seem like a big deal to either you or her, but it maybe depending upon hospital policy.

CFitzRN, ADN

385 Posts

Specializes in L&D; GI; Fam Med; Home H; Case mgmt.

tokmom, I adore your signature line. So succinctly beautiful and true!

tokmom, BSN, RN

4,568 Posts

Specializes in Certified Med/Surg tele, and other stuff.
tokmom, I adore your signature line. So succinctly beautiful and true!

Aww thanks, it it very meaningful to me. :redbeathe

Specializes in Oncology/Haemetology/HIV.
what is catholic about a catholic hospital? I ask because I don't think I have ever been in one.

As a general rule, most do not permit abortion, or sterilization procedures on their premises. And birth control, emergency contraception is not available through the pharmacy, ER, or inpatient. Lack of BC drugs can be problematic in oncology treatment, especially in hematology pts.

You will also get told that they do not permit "euthanasia". Given that it is illegal in the majority of the US, it tends to be religious hyperbolie. However, "euthanasia" can take many meanings, with some facilities permitting/not permitting withdrawal of care, futile or otherwise, or limiting pain control because of fear of "killing" a pt prematurely, or forcing extreme care, especially in pregnant patients. The are wide variations between Catholic hospitals on how these issues are interpreted and handled.

You will also find that facilities that publically say that they do not do sterilizations, sometimes actually do them by subterfuge in "certain" cases. The daughter of a coworker, wanted a tubal after 3 pregnancies in 5 years (never married, all different fathers), had one done in a very strict Catholic facility that publically preached the "no birth control, no sterilization" policy. The consent was worded, interestingly, to the effect of " tubal blocking for uterine isolation, to aid in the prevention of disease". The pt did not have any STDs or any "disease" that needed to be isolated, other than repeated pregnancies.

I guess it comes down to semantics.

Advanced Practice Columnist / Guide

Corey Narry, MSN, RN, NP

8 Articles; 4,361 Posts

Specializes in APRN, Adult Critical Care, Cardiology.

I've worked for a Catholic hospital as well. The Catholic hospital was fairly large (400+ beds), some residency programs, and a wide range of medical and surgical specialties both adult and peds. I guess what stood out was the hospital and it's parent hospital system's mission of caring for the poor and underserved. Patients are admitted regardless of religious belief and employees are not required to belong to the Catholic faith either. There were crucifixes in the patients' rooms, and there were religious imagery and art in common areas, lobby, and hallways. That's really about as Catholic as the place was because while there was at least one Catholic nun in an executive level management role, the rest of the individuals in upper managerment are secular people who have degrees in healthcare management and finance. Managers in the nursing units didn't care one way or the other about their staff nurses' well-being and working conditions were horrible in terms of staffing, workload, and retention. I have sinced moved on to hospitals with no religious affiliations and are university affiliated. I like where I am now better. We have many chaplains including a Catholic priest who gives communion to Catholic patients and say Catholic Mass on Sundays in the chapel so I don't really see any difference in how we meet the needs of our Catholic patients in my current work setting.

Specializes in L&D/Maternity nursing.
As a general rule, most do not permit abortion, or sterilization procedures on their premises. And birth control, emergency contraception is not available through the pharmacy, ER, or inpatient.

this is true of our hospital too. Also, if you have their health insurance, it will not cover the cost of contraceptives, tubals or vasectomies.

TeleMeMore

51 Posts

I work at a Catholic Hospital and although I do not have much other to compare it to, it is a nice place to work. I am NOT Catholic but I do appreciate all that the hospital does, it is a spiritual place whether you are Catholic or not thus, a lot of the care given focus's on the patient, what the patient really wants, the patient's spirituality, it is a calming force in the chaos that is healthcare.

Ok maybe not so mushy but every now and then you I do get a warm, fuzzy, spiritual feeling. Of course our patients are mix of religions and ALL get treated the same. We even have our chaplains speak openly to patients of ANY religion to provide comfort. I think we even have a buddhist monk roaming around. We also have a GORGEOUS chapel that is a wonderful place to go to if you are feeling overwhelmed, ******, stressed, burnt out - it has calmed me down in the past and again, I'm not catholic.

The sucky part is that they do not perform tubals, sterilization procedures and our INS does not cover contraceptives which I'm on so.. :(

Oh well.

nola1202

587 Posts

Our chapel is Catholic, we offer mass and communion, have Chaplains and priests. In a recent partnership with another hospital Bishops were involved in making sure the merger didn't break any tenets of the Catholic hospital framework.

That is all I can think of at the moment.

the Catholic hospitals I've worked for don't perform abortions. One poster said her hospital wouldn't allow Nurses to discuss birth control with post-partum pt.s

DizzyLizzyNurse

1,024 Posts

Specializes in Peds Medical Floor.

I do know someone who had a choice between working at 2 hospitals, one a Catholic hospital and she chose her job based on the fact that the Catholic hospital wouldn't cover contraceptive as part of her insurance.

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