Prayer goes a long way.

Prayer is good for the soul. Each of us will experience death at some point in our career. Even if you do not believe in prayer helping people die in peace is the best option. If that means a little prayer just to help them get to the other side than it's OK. Nurses Announcements Archive Article

Prayer goes a long way.

I felt a strong feeling as a teenager that nursing would be in my future. I helped my mother take care of my grandmother, and watching her slowly die was more than heart felt for me. To see someone happy in her last few hours talking about God was amazing. I was only 16 years old and I knew right then and there I wanted to help take care of people.

As a caregiver, the key word giver, you have to give more than just physical care. You can physically care for some one while that person's mind is dead. Everyone has heard the saying "My body is there but my mind isn't." That is true; taking care of a person involves caring for mind, body, and soul.

Can you imagine watching someone in severe pain and there is not much you can do, but keep them comfortable as possible. That's when prayer comes in.

Having a spiritual relationship sometimes takes the pain off of the mind of the patient. Praying soothes the soul, when you have a relationship with God you are at peace with yourself, so it impacts the patient as well. You can keep them uplifted at that moment when they have had just about enough; that one verse, or that one little prayer keeps them going another day.

Taking care of a elderly person or sick person its not a job; it becomes personal as they become a love one. So you want most to meet every aspect of their needs.

Working in Hospice is the most rewarding because they know that they are dying. And they sometimes ask about religion and spiritual needs to keep them at peace. You watch that patient as they go through the various stages of denial, anger, frustration, confusion. They even ask why me?

A true caregiver cares you just don't tell them what they want to hear, but what they need to know! It is okay I am here with you.

Having a spiritual relationship of your own can help you to better assist the resident or patient in coping. Religion and spirituality has a lot on impact on how you care for a patient; give them your all. Even if they do not want you to pray for them, do it in your mind.

Prayer goes a long way; it saves lives. I love being a caregiver. if you have so much love instilled in your life and heart you can not help but give.

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Tyanna

About Tyanna

Live, Laugh, Love and be free of any hate in your life. And be a giver to those who cannot help their self.

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Specializes in Emergency, Med-Surg, Progressive Care.

Religion and spirituality have no bearing on the quality of care I provide to my patients. Christian, Buddhist, Muslim, Jewish, Pagan, Atheist, Pastafarian...I could not care less about the preferred faith of my patients, nor do they seem to care about my beliefs. In school I had rotations to care for specific populations of patients based on their needs (psychiatric, pediatric, medical-surgical, etc.), not the faith to which they belong.

Please provide a peer-reviewed article which provides evidence that praying for patients who are unaware of this praying will help ease their passing. That, my friend, is the standard to which nursing must be held if we are to be considered the science-based practitioners which we claim to be.

"Even if they do not want you to pray for them do it in your mind. Prayer goes a long way, it saves live [sic]."

Demonstrably false. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/31/health/31pray.html?pagewanted=all

The abstract for the study may be found here. Study of the Therapeutic Effects of Intercessory ... [Am Heart J. 2006] - PubMed - NCBI

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I could not agree more!!! If you ignore the patients faith then you ignore a large part of their care. There is more to nursing than science based information. People are a complicated and both spiritual and physical beings.

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So in other words, you can use religion the way you'd use a syringe of dilaudid.

Prayer is useful for people who are unable or choose not to do anything constructive for a person in need; it helps them feel better about themselves, and gives them the illusion that they have power over things they do not. It may serve as a for of meditation for the person doing the praying.

It serves no purpose, however, for the object of the prayer. I expect that if there is a god, he or she doesn't need you to tell him/her what to do.

When it substitutes for effective care (for example, when a parent prays that their child's broken leg be healed rather than taking the child to have the bone set), then it's not merely a placebo for the "provider."

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Specializes in PACU, LTC, Med-Surg, Telemetry, Psych.

One time, I walked into a patient's room to check his blood sugar. I saw him praying at the TV set to that Peter Popov guy. You know the guy who got in trouble for stealing money and staging fake faith healings back in the 80s? Yeah... that con artist. Now he is on TV selling "holy oil" and "healing prayer rugs". I made the comment to the guy out of general concern about this guy ripping folks off, particularly the elderly.

Well, the next day, I was called by my agency saying I had been DNR'ed from that facility for being not understanding towards a patients religous beliefs!!!

Yall must remember, as long as their religion is on a certain long list of "accepted" religions, it is a resident right.

No matter how hokey or freaky thier religion is. Nowadays, I usually just nod and let them be and never get into a discussion about it. My own agnosticism notwithstanding.

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