Catholic Hospitals

melmarie23, MSN, RN · Jul 23, 2011

I work at a Catholic Hospital. And its absolutely okay to ask pt's what religion they are! We are a charitable organization and largely serve the under insured and uninsured. My city also has a large percentage of refugees from all over the world, so as you can imagine, we have patients from all walks of life/religious backgrounds.

lady constance · Jul 23, 2011

that would be one of the questions you willbe asking your nurse who orients you.... she ought to know the answer....

personally, i prefer religoius institutions versus secular ones... they seem to treat thier employees better....( but i am sure this just may be my expereince)

CBsMommy · Jul 23, 2011

I will ask the nurse but I'm updating some of the assessment forms I use and was just curious. Thanks for the reply.

Tait, MSN, RN · Jul 23, 2011

I have worked for two Catholic hospitals and both encouraged fair treatment of all patients across the religious and spiritual spectrum. I have enjoyed working for both hospitals :)

CBsMommy · Jul 23, 2011

I have worked for two Catholic hospitals and both encouraged fair treatment of all patients across the religious and spiritual spectrum. I have enjoyed working for both hospitals :)

Thanks. I was hoping that was the case for the patient's sake and their families! I'm not too intelligent about religion!

Dezy · Jul 23, 2011

what is catholic about a catholic hospital? I ask because I don't think I have ever been in one.

Tait, MSN, RN · Jul 23, 2011

what is catholic about a catholic hospital? I ask because I don't think I have ever been in one.

Our chapel is Catholic, we offer mass and communion, have Chaplains and priests. In a recent partnership with another hospital Bishops were involved in making sure the merger didn't break any tenets of the Catholic hospital framework.

That is all I can think of at the moment.

CFitzRN, ADN · Jul 23, 2011

I absolutely hated working in the hospital, but if there were a Catholic hospital anywhere near me, I'd be excited to work there.

lckrn2pa · Jul 23, 2011

what is catholic about a catholic hospital? I ask because I don't think I have ever been in one.

Back east (I'm in Cali) the nuns roam around but not dress in nun gear so I had to watch my tongue and they did prayer over the PA. In Cali I've worked for a couple CHW hospitals and never saw any nuns and don't remember the daily prayers.

xtxrn, ASN, RN · Jul 23, 2011

Catholic hospitals are run by usually charitable Catholic organizations (same with Catholic nursing homes). I've worked at one of each. There are usually priests and nuns, but also protestant clergy. Patients of all religious backgrounds are admitted. (I remember finding a cigarette lighter for a Jewish patient on Friday evening- his rabbi brought the candles, but forgot matches- this was back when people smoked in hospitals, so not hard to get him fixed up to have his Sabbath service:) ).

I am not Catholic- so no preference for Catholic institutions based on personal reasons :)

The hospital I worked at was wonderful. One of the nuns ran around with her guitar, singing at random- she was a hoot- a lot of fun to have around! :) It was a large hospital, with many specialties, and it was common for floors to call another floor (I worked neuro, and if there was a really hard Foley to insert on a male, we'd call the urology floor and they'd send someone...or if ortho had an MVA patient who was also getting neuro checks for a possible concussion, one of us would go up there if they had questions- major team atmosphere within the whole hospital- not just on the floor). During bad weather (like ice in central TX), they had a deal where they'd pay a nurse for her regular shift- if he/she stayed in the hospital during the next shift, and worked the one after that, they got paid for all 3, and got free reign in the cafeteria, and a cot in a conference room. The only catch to that was if they had come to get you for your scheduled shift, they didn't take you home- LOL...but bus service was good. :lol2:

The nursing home chain, that happened to be Catholic, had a very nice facility where I worked (they have a lot of hospitals and LTC/SNF facilities)- but not a great place to work. :uhoh3:

Basically, it's like any other place- some good and some not so much. And I haven't heard of any that restrict admission to Catholic patients (they'd lose funding, for one thing- like Medicare and Medicaid), so it should be absolutely ok to ask patients their religious preference or affiliation. :twocents:

APRN., DNP, RN, APRN, NP · Jul 23, 2011

I worked at a huge Catholic hospital in California. During the admission assessment, it was a required question to ask the patient if there was a religious preference of choice, and if there was contact information for the spokesperson for that religious preference.

I don't think the nuns were as involved in the hospital chain that I worked for because they didn't have as much of a presence in later years as the early years decades ago. Every morning and twice on Sunday, there would be a devotional given over the PA system. All the religious holiday culture was practiced in the hospital. There was no "Winter Holiday" it was "Christmas Holiday".

It was, however, a very sucky hospital to work for. I cannot account for the times that I saw fellow nurses standing in the hallway in tears over the cruelty of management. It kinda turned me sour towards Catholic hospitals. It is refreshing to hear that there are other Catholic hospitals out there that are a nice place to work at.