Catholic hospitals-yes or no?

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what would working in a catholic hospital be like? is there any reason to be concerned about the atmosphere in one? i have a job offer and have heard some negative things about catholic facilities.........

Specializes in NICU.
The one thing that was different was that our insurance at the Catholic hospital did not cover contraception or elective sterilization.

Yep, same thing here. I've worked in two Catholic hospitals and both had the same policies on contraception and surgical sterilization. I have gotten prescriptions for birth control from doctors at these hospitals, but my insurance didn't cover them in the least. I even sent doctor's letters to the insurance company explaining that they were for treatment of Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (hormone regulation) and they STILL wouldn't pay. :( I finally decided on my 30th birthday that I was tired of paying $45 a month for the Pill...and now instead of paying $540 a year for my birth control, my insurance company is spending THOUSANDS of dollars on my high risk pregnancy. Ha!

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Specializes in OB.

I'm going to throw a different view in here. I had a difficult experience while on a contract at a Catholic hospital working in OB. I am going to have to be somewhat vague as I don't want to skirt the edge of a privacy violation. I watched a woman in a situation where the only possible way to treat her life threatening problem was termination of a not yet viable pregnancy. She was much too unstable to transfer to another town for alternate care. Because the Catholic facility required two physicians to sign for this and multiple others refused to do so, this woman's condition became worse and worse while administrators and ethics commitees were called in to debate it.

This raised such ethical issues for me that I have decided that I will not again work in a religiously affiliated facility that espouses such views.

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They serve fish every Friday...

Some of the ER docs claim they aren't "allowed" to write for the morning after pill...

One night, I found one that wrote it for a pt however...

Religious bias has no place in a hospital...

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Specializes in EC, IMU, LTAC.

What about pay? I worked at a Catholic facility, and they justified the crap pay with lectures on how we were doing God's work out of the goodness of our own hearts.

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Specializes in CT ,ICU,CCU,Tele,ED,Hospice.

besides what everyone else has said they won't cover most infertility issues either.

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I am a postpartum nurse in a large, urban Catholic hospital and it's the best place I've ever worked. Our clientele runs the gamut in race, culture, religion, education, and socio-economic group. We have Hmong patients, African tribal patients, Hispanic patients, Russian patients. One night, each of my four mother/baby couplets was from a different continent and one spoke no English at all. We are located in a neighborhood that has a large number of Orthodox Jewish families who tend to be within walking distance of their synagogues.

From orientation onward, we are taught to be respectful of the needs of our patients. The spiritual directives (Respect, Integrity, Stewardship, etc.) apply to US in giving care. We make no spiritual demands of our patients, although spiritual support is readily available should they want it.

One example of spiritual values in action is that we have been instructed to contact the chaplain on call (drawn from a large group of varying denominations) whenever there is a situation where death seems imminent. This is not only to offer support to the family (who can request their own clergy person or someone of their own faith), but to minister to staff who may be disturbed by the situation. Chaplains have held on-the-spot debriefing sessions after rough ED cases or NICU losses. That the administration considers our needs as staff members means a lot to us.

There are some limitations on reproductive issues (moms can have a tubal after the third child), but whenever possible, these conditions are discussed with the patients at the inception of prenatal care.

I like working in a facility that is run according to openly stated values. Our pay is quite competetive because, "the workman is worthy of his hire." Decisions are made with the big picture in mind and I don't have the feeling that the administration is constantly trying to put on over on us.

There is another large healthcare system in our area that feels the exact opposite. I feel very blessed indeed not to have to work for them.

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Specializes in Nephrology, Cardiology, ER, ICU.

I worked for a Catholic hospital for the last 10 years and loved it. I was raised Catholic and went to Catholic schools. I was very happy with the benefits, the environment and especially the mission to help the poor. Last year, this hospital provided $54 million dollars worth of charity care.

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Specializes in critical care transport.
While I can't imagine a Catholic hospital even considering the notion of domestic partner benefits, what you say is true, it's common not to offer domestic partner benefits in quite a bit of hospitalis, Chritsian and non-Christian.

Totally to save money, for sure. I doubt it has anything to deal with personal "feelings" on the issue. Hospitals will always try to save money and cut costs. Eventually, in the future, they will have to pay.

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I worked at a large Catholic teaching hospital in the mid-west for years. It was a great place to work. Competitive pay, good benes...complete tuition coverage. Pension plan wasn't great....but that was my only complaint.

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Specializes in Critical Care.

I work in a Catholic hospital. It's a great place to work. The 'Sisters' seem to me to place how they treat their employees as one of their 'missions'.

Now, I HAVE had co-workers complain that the insurance won't cover BC, and I suspect that is both true, and their right to respect their religious beliefs.

But, if you ask me, popping a few bucks a month for your own BC is WORTH decent pay (one of the highest cola adjusted salaries in the nation), defined benefit AND contribution plans, educational reimbursement, and ratios on par with the California law - here in Texas.

And there ARE crosses and Bibles in the rooms. But now, that doesn't bother ME. I'm not Catholic, but as far as I can tell, their Christian mission does not compromise my very own in any signficant way.

You don't have to be Catholic, or even Christian, to work in a Catholic hospital and respect your contribution.

And there IS a different focus working for a not for profit over a for profit. I've worked both. The difference: the chief 'Shareholder' of a not for profit doesn't balance the books in this lifetime.

~faith,

Timothy.

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What about pay? I worked at a Catholic facility, and they justified the crap pay with lectures on how we were doing God's work out of the goodness of our own hearts.

New grad pay is $20 here.

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Specializes in Day Surgery/Infusion/ED.

Wonder if that facility covers Viagra, though.

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