A patient I know very well from my first job as a CNA in a nursing home went into hospice care this week. I stayed a volunteer at the facility after I left and visited him every couple weeks and over the years got to know him and his family very well. His decline had accelerated, he had fallen and broken broken his hip.
The patient, "Rick," was unconscious and I was chatting with his wife, "Carol" who is a devout Christian. She noted Rick, "Knew the Lord" and was ready to pass on. I mentioned that Rick had talked about being ready to die quite a bit recently. We talked a bit about Carol's continuing volunteer work with her church.
The nurse came in and was checking on Rick and updating Carol on the patient's status. The nurse did a fair job of explaining what is going on and that Rick would probably pass away fairly soon.
As the nurse was leaving Carol noted, "He's ready to meet Jesus."
The nurse stopped, turned to Carol and said, "I know what you mean - but I've already met Jesus," and he walked out. His tone suggested he was correcting Carol. Carol didn't respond.
The nurse's comment bothered me. No one asked this nurse if he had met Jesus or not or what his religious views were at all. The nurse didn't inquire as to any spiritual needs Carol or Rick might have, he just inserted his opinion and then left.
I understand you may be reading this and say from a spiritual care standpoint, "That nurse did nothing wrong." But in my opinion he did EVERYTHING wrong. He simply inserted his own personal religious views into the nurse-patient relationship while doing nothing to care for the patient.
Think about it for a bit. What if the nurse had said, "I know what you mean, but I'm a Muslim and don't care if I ever meet Jesus" or "I know what you mean, but Jesus is a character from Christian folklore." And then just strolled on out of the room.
In those cases, people would get pretty upset and say, "He was inappropriate and had no business interjecting his personal views." Same goes for this case.
This post is not a criticism of any religious or spiritual view, it is a criticism of a nurse caring for his own spiritual needs and ignoring the patients'.
