An Atheist Nurse in King James Hospital

[EMSnurse411]

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

[applesxoranges, BSN, RN]

One thing that irritated me is that I told a teenager on the web that I didn't bother to study science and why evolution/big bang theory/physics/string theory/Richard Dawkins/whoever wasn't really worth my energy to devote trying to learn it. He said I wasn't a true atheist. I was like, um, I don't believe and have other stuff to do because I'm out of high school?

I think being an atheist is great. It doesn't consume me. However, a lot of people fanatically worship the latest and read their books cover to cover at night. I don't know if that is necessarily healthy.

[Halfwit]

I felt awful the only time I ever pretended to pray with a patient. I just cannot do it. I think it is really disrespectful to that person to lie to them and tell them I am praying with them. I imply say I am not comfortable with that and offer to find another nurse or call the chaplain. Even though I am not at all a believer, I do what I can to facilitate prayer.

Having said that, there are some instances in which I would do it. If I was a pre-op nurse, and there was not time to get someone to pray with them before they were knocked out, I would pretend to pray. But in most situations that lack of integrity is just not something I can stomach.

[CelticGoddess, BSN, RN]

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 ). 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.

Or being pagan. Being a Pagan in the bible belt is not always easy. (Especially when you want a chaplain but they have no Wicca or Pagan chaplains) I have been told I am going to hell more times than I can count. (Actually, I think I was told that more when I was still ELCA Lutheran).

I do have to ask those who are saying that the OP should just pray with the patient. what would you do if a Pagan or Wicca, or any other nontraditional religious belief were to ask you to prayer for them, using their prayers. How would you feel if I asked you to please pray to my Goddess as God means absolutely nothing to me? Would you find said prayer? Somehow I seriously doubt your would.