Caring for Jehovah's witnesses

Nurses Safety

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I am pursuing my BSN. As part of my current class I am researching the difficulties of caring for patients with the Jehovah's witness' beliefs. If anyone has an experience that he/she can share with me about your personal feelings in caring for a Jehovah's witness, I would greatly appreciate it. I am new to the discussion board and look forward to hearing from you.

Lisa,

Thanks for sharing your personal story, its really great to hear someones personal experience. I am so glad everything turned out well with your baby.

We have a bloodless hospital in my town and although I only went in for minor surgery I was so very pleased with all they did to accomidate my beliefs they were really well informed and had alot of practices in place for those who wished to go blood free, it was very encouraging, and quite a change from the hospital I had had my daughter in.

catherine

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WE had an incident recently where the nurse had administered albumin to a Jehovah's Witness patient. Every safeguard was broken. Usually we have to have a blood consent to get the albumin because it was 2 am and the nurse could not find the blood consent (because it didnt exist) the lab dispensed the albumin thinking a consent was not needed for albumin. The next day it hit the fan..the nurse manger had to explain to the patients husband what had happened. He was ok with it when shown that the albumin was clear and had no "red" color but I would hate to think a nurse had

damned her poor soul for giving her something she didn't want. (the pateint was sedated on the vent)

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hello cu-n-hvn i am commending you for showing interest on the reasons why and how jehovah's witnesses deal with blood. while it is true that we value our lives, it is more important for us to follow what the bible said about the importance of obeying god and his principles regarding the use of blood. and with this principle in mind, we jws consider disobeying him worse than death itself. it is simply inspiring to know that other nonjw's could reach such extent as to give time and effort to understand our stand. thanks a lot.:thankya:

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Specializes in Day Surgery/Infusion/ED.
WE had an incident recently where the nurse had administered albumin to a Jehovah's Witness patient. Every safeguard was broken. Usually we have to have a blood consent to get the albumin because it was 2 am and the nurse could not find the blood consent (because it didnt exist) the lab dispensed the albumin thinking a consent was not needed for albumin. The next day it hit the fan..the nurse manger had to explain to the patients husband what had happened. He was ok with it when shown that the albumin was clear and had no "red" color but I would hate to think a nurse had

damned her poor soul for giving her something she didn't want. (the pateint was sedated on the vent)

While consent is certainly important and needed per your facility, let me assure you that her "soul" would not have been "damned." It was a honest mistake, first of all, and second, Witnesses don't believe in damnation of a soul.

Actually, albumin falls in to the realm of a personal conscience decision. It's considered a minor blood fraction, so some Witnesses will accept it and others will not. Other minor blood fraction products would include Rhogam, PolyHeme (or other synthetic blood substitutes), etc.

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Specializes in Day Surgery/Infusion/ED.

For anyone who is interested, www.noblood.org is an excellent resource for information on these issues.

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Specializes in Float.

This thread is a little old but I just came across it perusing this forum. I was curious about who all ORDERS blood other than physicians. Specifically - do advanced practice nurses such as CRNA order blood products?

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Specializes in L & D.

Congratulations on pursuing that BSN! I am a 53 y/o JW who just completed that process. I passed NCLEX (whew!) and start a new job on L & D floor at local hospital here in Colorado Springs. Your concerns were indeed answered very well by the other posters here, but I would add that a GREAT place to get information regarding not only Jehovah's Witnesses and their treatment, but information on non-blood management of many different diseases and medical conditions, is www.NoBlood.org. Thousands of medical professionals and lay people use the site from around the world, and all are welcome to discuss relevant topics specific to these subjects. So if you choose to do research involving non-blood management of some patient you encounter, check out that site.

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In previous posts, members of this forum who are Jehovah's Witnesses generically recommended to questioners that "state laws should be consulted regarding children of JWs who need blood transfusions."

The following website contains summaries of over 200 such court cases dealing with blood transfusions and children of Jehovah's Witnesses. The summarized court cases are broken down by category: Minors, Mature Minors, Unborn Fetuses, Responsible Parents, Misc.

WHY TAKE SOMEONE'S BIASED OPINION AS YOUR ANSWER, WHEN YOU CAN READ THE ACTUAL COURT DECISIONS?

http://HTTP://JWDIVORCES.BRAVEHOST.COM

The name of the website is:

DIVORCE, BLOOD TRANSFUSIONS, AND OTHER LEGAL ISSUES AFFECTING CHILDREN OF JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES

The section which contains summarized divorce cases can also shed light into how JW Parents interact with their children, which knowledge can sometimes be of use to health care providers.

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Again, the best course of action is to deal with individuals as just that. Individuals. If you have a patient that is a JW and have questions about treatments, then talk to them. No one on this board can give anything more than a "generic" answer because the patient is the one who knows what they are and are not comfortable with. Just like with any thing else, ask and assess.

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Sorry, SMK1, but children whose Jehovah's Witness Parents are refusing to consent to a medically necessary blood transfusion are NOT all treated as adults whose individual whims are catered to.

Different states have ruled differently depending whether the child is a "fetus", a minor, a mature minor, etc., plus there may be impacting circumstances.

Thus, by reading and studying some of the actual court decisions will at least give a student a "feel" for a given scenario.

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Specializes in Day Surgery/Infusion/ED.

Well, that website certainly doesn't have an axe to grind.

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Sorry, SMK1, but children whose Jehovah's Witness Parents are refusing to consent to a medically necessary blood transfusion are NOT all treated as adults whose individual whims are catered to.

Different states have ruled differently depending whether the child is a "fetus", a minor, a mature minor, etc., plus there may be impacting circumstances.

Thus, by reading and studying some of the actual court decisions will at least give a student a "feel" for a given scenario.

This may be true but it isn't the nurse's responsibility to bring up court decisions to make a medical decision. Talk to the parents and find out what treatments they do agree with as in many cases there are productc that will work for the situation that the patient or guardian will agree with. (volume expanders, blood fractions etc...) That IS a nursing duty. In any case the nurse is never the one making the decision to tranfuse so looking up court cases really isn't a relevant focus for teaching a student. A more valuable approach would be teaching the student how to develop a therapeutic relationship with the family and how to maintain that relationship to some degree if the doctor transfuses the child because the transfusion doesn't end the discussion it is going to open up a whole host of issues for this family, child and the staff treating the child. So don't feel sorry for me, I think I have a pretty good handle on things.

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