Blood transfusions??? just say no...

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I would like to become a nurse, but I don't believe in blood transfusions, getting them or giving them. That said I would never tell anyone not to get one, or say anything against the doctors order, I believe it is a personnal choice but I don't want to have to give them. I'm in nursing school now. Do you or anyone you know have this issue and if so how do they deal with it and what areas or floors can they work on? I know oncology and ortho are poor choices. I was hoping for a job where It wouldn't come up often and if it did I could get the supervisor or another nurse to do that. while I did all other care.

It is unprofessional and unethical to refuse to provide treatment because of your religious beliefs.

That said, you are protected legally to refuse to perform any treatment which violates your religious convictions.

This issue has been all over the news in the past few years, mostly concentrated on pharmacists refusing to fill birth control. I think the law was reinstated/originally during the Busch W administration.

It also probably varies state by state.

For a full rundown:

http://www.thehastingscenter.org/Publications/BriefingBook/Detail.aspx?id=2266

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People who don't want to administer blood for any reason should not work where part of their job duties is to administer blood. Having the supervisor and coworkers reassign or do their work for them is not acceptable.

Religious beliefs are no different from any other. If I don't want to hang blood because I think that my red blood cells will be jealous and jump out of my body, my coworkers and supervisors should not have to alter their jobs to accommodate my personal beliefs.

If you have a job to do, you do it. If you don't want to do that job - for any reason - go find one you do.

Exactly. I'm gay, and I'm agnostic. But ironically I work in a Catholic hospital. I have a huge list of reasons why I should not want to work in a Catholic hospital. They broadcast morning and evening prayers over the PA system, which I find pointless and distracting. In addition to of course not providing abortions, they refuse to write scripts for birth control, and they will not allow vasectomies to be performed on males. I think abortions should be rare and legal, and I feel strongly that birth control should be available to all who request it. And, we all know what the pope believes about homosexuality.

But when I go to work, I leave that list at home. I like my job, I like my coworkers and for the most part I don't have too many axes to grind with my employer. It is my responsibility, both ethically and professionally, to not allow my personal beliefs to influence how I do my job or how I treat my patients. I really had to consider if my value system was too far at odds with a Catholic worldview to be comfortable working in a Catholic institution. In the end, I allowed my ethics to weed through all of that stuff and realize that the patient is my ultimate concern, not the Vatican and not my personal belief system. It's a different situation than a JW RN hanging blood, but not completely dissimilar.

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Specializes in Dialysis, Nephrology & Cosmetic Surgery.

why are people failing to read what has been written by jws in this thread but continue to rant about jws abandoning their patients and abdicating care?? it has been said that the objection is to actually spiking the bag and connecting the blood to the patient. it has been stated that they will do the paper-work and the clinical observations before, during and after the transfusion. in 20 yrs of nursing i've never been greeted with hostility from co-workers if i have asked them if they mind doing the connecting up if i do the observations & paper-work etc. i've helped my fellow nurses with their patients on numerous occasion, for instance if a patient had a really malodorous wounds and one particular nurse couldn't face it. i've stepped in on other occasions because perhaps a nurse is getting a rough ride from a particular patient or their family and it was geeting too much for them. i didn't accuse them of dereliction of duty or suggest they should not work in this particular area because of some situation easily dealt with by another nurse. we should be able to support each other and i'd be surprised if anyone has been greatly inconvenienced by a jw co-worker. be reasonable, some of you are blowing this out of all proportion.

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Geriatrics.

The advice not to go into nursing if you don't want to give blood products is simply wrong. I haven't touched a blood product in 10 years and even before that, I infrequently administered blood and I worked med-surg!

OP, you will simply need to choose a specialty in which your exposure to the likelihood of giving blood is extremely limited. Many of the specialties have already been mentioned: psych-mental health and mother-baby are first to mind. Once you get in a couple of years of bedside experience, you can leave the bedside and need never worry about it again.

Also, you will find that people IRL are not nearly as uptight as they are on this board about it. If you offer to take over a really difficult task for them in return, they will gladly spike a bag of blood for you especially if they don't have to be bothered with all the monitoring afterwards, which is the biggest hassle of all.

Good luck.

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Specializes in Med Surg - Renal.
be reasonable, some of you are blowing this out of all proportion.

some may be blowing it out of proportion. like the ones who say, "then you shouldn't be a nurse." i don't have any bad feelings about jws or any other religion.

the key for me here is your job responsibilities. if you don't want to or cannot perform them, then you should find a different job.

you mentioned someone having difficulty with wound care. if someone is having a tough time and needs help working through it, by all means, help them along.

however, if someone says, "i can do all aspects of monitoring wound healing. except i can't touch the patient while the wound is uncovered because the mighty god isis forbids it," well then there is a problem.

mn has a large somali population. a few years back there were some flare ups because a few of the more religous ones were taking jobs, then refusing to do them based on religious reasons. cab drivers who worked at the airport were refusing to transport people who were carrying alcohol. checkout clerks were refusing to scan items that contained pork. if i recall correctly, the employers did not accommodate these refusals.

now, if an employer wants to accommodate your religious beliefs, then good for you. but i think it is the responsibility of the person holding the belief to find an appropriate job.

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Specializes in Med Surg - Renal.

I had an additional thought on this issue. I would be in favor of nurses having restrictions placed on their licenses if there are procedures within their scope of practice that they refuse to do.

For instance when an employer does a license check with the state board, they would see a restriction noting the RN may not administer blood. Or do IM injections, or give PO meds, trach care, or whatever it is the nurse does not want to do. It would be similar to other license restrictions.

Then the employer could decide if they want to accommodate the nurse.

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Geriatrics.
I had an additional thought on this issue. I would be in favor of nurses having restrictions placed on their licenses if there are procedures within their scope of practice that they refuse to do.

For instance when an employer does a license check with the state board, they would see a restriction noting the RN may not administer blood. Or do IM injections, or give PO meds, trach care, or whatever it is the nurse does not want to do. It would be similar to other license restrictions.

Then the employer could decide if they want to accommodate the nurse.

That seems impractical.

I won't work pediatrics. Not ever. No matter the practice setting or the type of care needed. I am excluding a whole population from my practice. See? Lots of us have restrictions for what we will and not do. Should we all have a mark on our license? Of course not.

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Specializes in Med Surg - Renal.
That seems impractical.

I won't work pediatrics. Not ever. No matter the practice setting or the type of care needed. I am excluding a whole population from my practice. See? Lots of us have restrictions for what we will and not do. Should we all have a mark on our license? Of course not.

I made no reference to working with populations, I was talking specifically about procedures within the RN scope of practice that the RN cannot or will not do.

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Specializes in Peds Hem, Onc, Med/Surg.

:banghead::banghead::banghead:

Its like talking to a wall here. I think LiverpoolJane and I have given great examples but honestly I feel what it boils down to is because its a religious thing that is the problem. You can talk about ethics and provide real life examples but when people are set against something they are set.

Does it matter that I am a darn good nurse and I give 100% work? No. Just because I won't spike the bag of blood that automatically means I don't care about my patients, I've been refusing to care for numerous people who have received blood while its my shift and I shouldn't be a nurse. -_____- These 3 years I've spent working as an actual nurse have been a lie......

@MN-Nurse: ..... seriously? *sighs and slowly walks away*

Have fun discussing this peeps! I've given my dollar and 42 cents...

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Specializes in Med Surg - Renal.
:banghead::banghead::banghead:

@MN-Nurse: ..... seriously? *sighs and slowly walks away*

Yep. Seriously.

You can bang your head all you want, you are the one restricting your practice. My suggestion makes it official and transparent.

I personally don't care if the reason you refuse to do an aspect of your job is religious or not and I'm not saying you are a bad nurse or bad person. But if I was a manager and oversaw RNs who administered blood, I would much rather hire someone who had no problem performing all aspects of that job.

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Specializes in Plastics. General Surgery. ITU. Oncology.

It is not an area of nursing we are excluding but a PROCEDURE which may well arise in any speciality.

Now I'm English, by definition indifferent to religion. More than 94% of English people go nowhere near a church and we could not care less. Nominally a "Christian" country we are in fact pretty much a nation of atheists or at least agnostics. Religious people are an anomaly.

"Can't give blood" and the like tends to be filtered out ay applying for nursing school. Anyone who says that WILL be seen as a problem.

Just saying

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Specializes in IMC.
:banghead::banghead::banghead:

Its like talking to a wall here. I think LiverpoolJane and I have given great examples but honestly I feel what it boils down to is because its a religious thing that is the problem. You can talk about ethics and provide real life examples but when people are set against something they are set.

Does it matter that I am a darn good nurse and I give 100% work? No. Just because I won't spike the bag of blood that automatically means I don't care about my patients, I've been refusing to care for numerous people who have received blood while its my shift and I shouldn't be a nurse. -_____- These 3 years I've spent working as an actual nurse have been a lie......

@MN-Nurse: ..... seriously? *sighs and slowly walks away*

Have fun discussing this peeps! I've given my dollar and 42 cents...

Like being set against giving blood because of personal reasons?

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