An Atheist Nurse in King James Hospital

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Are there any other atheist nurses out there? How do you handle how religious healthcare is? I don't feel comfortable praying with a patient but I will find someone who is comfortable but the minute I say "I am not comfortable praying with you but let me go get you someone who can pray with you" and I go ask other people on the floor if they would pray with my patient I have been told everything from "just suck it up and fake it" to "I wish you atheists would quit trying to push your religion down our throats" to the other nurses saying I should be fired because this is a Christian (insert hospital or state or country).

i have never tried to convert someone away from their religion. There are not a lot off options since the hospitals in my area are St Joseph's, St Anthony's, Lutheran

I used to work in an extremely religious hospital. There was a full church inside of it, prayers before meetings (which were held in the church) and even prayer schedules posted all over the place. It never seemed to be much of an issue. I just ignored it.

The place I work in now is less religious, but one of our doctors loves to do prayer circles with his patients and nursing staff. They go something like this:

Doctor: No, I'm not going to order dilaudid for you. Let's pray about it.

Staff: *joins hands and prays* (or just stays quiet)

Patient: *seems to accept that god is on board with MD's plan*

It's actually quite amusing and works more often than you'd think.

If a patient asks me to pray, I simply state that I don't know much about that (which is true). If they push me further for my beliefs, I just tell them that I never discuss religion or politics at work. It's not that it's a secret, but I don't have time to answer twenty questions or listen to endless conversion attempts.

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Specializes in Registered Nurse.

I don't think it should matter. If you sit quietly and hold someone's hand, how would they know what you are thinking or if you are praying or not. Call it emotional support, if you have to...as others have eluded to.

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It seems like people are not reading my post where I stated that I have no problem bowing my head and holding hands it's the number I times where the person will look at me and say something like "and who would you like to pray for" or "now what prayer would you like to say"

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Specializes in Behavioral Health.
It seems like people are not reading my post where I stated that I have no problem bowing my head and holding hands it's the number I times where the person will look at me and say something like "and who would you like to pray for" or "now what prayer would you like to say"

No one reads most of the posts, it seems. They read the first page and then jump to the end and comment. So, threads become cyclical and repetitive pretty quick. :)

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Doctor: No, I'm not going to order dilaudid for you. Let's pray about it.

Staff: *joins hands and prays* (or just stays quiet)

Patient: *seems to accept that god is on board with MD's plan*

It's actually quite amusing and works more often than you'd think.

I'm still chuckling about the patient believing that God is on board with the no-dilaudid plan. That approach is genius.

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Specializes in Oncology.

What's worse than being Atheist is being Buddhist. Thankfully, I've only been bible thumped once, and that was when I lived in the middle Texas. I was a new grad then, so I didn't know I could say "this isn't the appropriate time for this conversation (the patient was talking about revelations and hell fire. Something bibley I don't know about since I'm going to hell :devil:). Anywhoo, at my current hospital patients don't seem to mind when I mention I'm Buddhist in casual conversation. Usually our spiritual advisors are pretty good at getting everyone's needs met. It seems here in CA patients prefer more meditative reading of the bible rather than praying out loud.

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Specializes in Registered Nurse.
It seems like people are not reading my post where I stated that I have no problem bowing my head and holding hands it's the number I times where the person will look at me and say something like "and who would you like to pray for" or "now what prayer would you like to say"

And you can respond...whatever you want to pray about. No?

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Are there any other atheist nurses out there? How do you handle how religious healthcare is? I don't feel comfortable praying with a patient but I will find someone who is comfortable but the minute I say "I am not comfortable praying with you but let me go get you someone who can pray with you" and I go ask other people on the floor if they would pray with my patient I have been told everything from "just suck it up and fake it" to "I wish you atheists would quit trying to push your religion down our throats" to the other nurses saying I should be fired because this is a Christian (insert hospital or state or country).

i have never tried to convert someone away from their religion. There are not a lot off options since the hospitals in my area are St Joseph's, St Anthony's, Lutheran

Quit and work somewhere else, Don't fake prayer because it may fire back on you. Just saying

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Specializes in Ortho/Neuro.

I'm an atheist and have just recently retired from Nursing. I worked at a hospital called Mercy Medical which was founded by nuns ages ago. I worked there for 20 years. First thing I would do is ask if he/she would like to speak with the clergy, if yes, problem solved. If no I would tag team with the team leader (if it wasn't me that shift) and I would start IV's for whomever would be willing to sit with someone that needed a fellow believer. How should you approach other people's beliefs? You've chosen to be an RN. You must like people correct? Your job is to help your patients. I had no problem with others beliefs and it was my job to do what I could to help them recover. Now what this boils down to is that you have to do what you need to do in order to sleep at night. Stay healthy! Not believing in a god should not be mutually exclusive with helping patients. Non-belief isn't a religion and it sounds like you may be a bit too defensive. Remember that Christians feel persecuted and that is only going to get worse for them as time and science marches on. Feel for your fellow nurses as they are worried that their life long beliefs are slowly becoming irrelevant. Seriously. There was a hospital across town that is a for profit. It was a horrible place to work. The bottom line was making money for the stockholders and it showed. That hospital has gone through a name change or two and was/is in all kinds of trouble from the feds, patients, etc. I know as I worked there per diem to see what I was missing out on by working in a Catholic hospital. One day I found a patients med drawers on top of their TVs! Full of meds. One could not tell the doctors, PT, RT, etc from each other or even the patients as it seemed like everyone was in shorts. It was a mess. So, feel sorry for the staff that seem angry with you. Because they are actually angry at the world as it's passing them by.

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Quit and work somewhere else, Don't fake prayer because it may fire back on you. Just saying

What can happen if you "fake prayer"?

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Specializes in Telemetry.
Quit and work somewhere else, Don't fake prayer because it may fire back on you. Just saying

Seriously? Have you read any responses here? There aren't other options in the area per OP. And OP never said a word about *faking* prayer.

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What can happen if you "fake prayer"?

You are not the OP so don't worry about it since it was directed to the OP not anyone else

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