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 Critical Care.

The personal nature of Hogan's comments are indirectly ON topic. Hogan has stipulated that the problem with Catholic hospitals is that they don't respect the religion and culture of others. I disagree. But, more to the point, his OWN thoughts regarding the respect of religion and culture POINTS OUT the backdrop from which his comments come.

The discussion is Catholic hospitals. The fact that the chief poster dismissing the validity of Catholic Hospitals for employment is, in his words, a 'recovering Catholic', and his apparent disdain of religion generally, and Catholicism specifically, go far to explain his POV.

I'm not disagreeing with you. The thread should stay on topic and not the participants, otherwise, you get a flame war. A warning at this juncture is well on point to prevent the thread from going there.

But, addressing the nature of the religious comments by Hogan IS on point to his assertion that Catholic hospitals don't respect religion. It speaks to evaluating the nature from which his comments about the thread come.

~faith,

Timothy.

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Specializes in ER/Trauma.

Hi Timothy,

I don't think I disagree. I think it can be discussed - I just don't want members to take it too far. I'm not admonishing anyone - just urging everyone to remember to not make participants the center piece of their posts.

Personally, Jolie (post #4 on page 1) answered it best for me:

Like any other hospital, the environment in a Catholic facility is set by the administration that runs the hospital. Some are quite good, others really bad. I don't think faith has much to do with it!

Staff and Administration are what make a hospital - people come in all hues and colours. Some profess faith and some don't. And there are good and bad apples in every bunch.

If Catholic facilities are superlative, does that mean Baptist facilities 'get by with the bare minimum' ?[Just making an example. Not a sattement]

Organisational ethos go a long way in setting the climate for provision of services in any hospital - I just don't think that claiming affiliation with any particular group/belief/sect automatically makes a spot instantly better or worse.

cheers,

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Specializes in school nursing.

I am a nursing student and I started a clinical rotation in a Catholic hospital a few weeks ago. When we came in the front entrance there was a big cross on the wall with a man affixed to it with nails. My instructor said that if any of us screw up in this place during clinical - we would be next. I don't know if this only happens to students - or if employees have to follow the same rules as well. Needless to say I have been very carefull.

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Specializes in Critical Care.
I am a nursing student and I started a clinical rotation in a Catholic hospital a few weeks ago. When we came in the front entrance there was a big cross on the wall with a man affixed to it with nails. My instructor said that if any of us screw up in this place during clinical - we would be next. I don't know if this only happens to students - or if employees have to follow the same rules as well. Needless to say I have been very carefull.

The DIFFERNCE is that Jesus was INNOCENT of wrongdoing.

My advice: don't screw up.

LOL.

Never fear, though, I AM an employee of a Catholic hospital and I just don't see the sisters comparing an employee they see as a 'screw-up' to Jesus, in any way.

~faith,

Timothy.

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Specializes in ER, Peds, Charge RN.
Ash Wednesday, one of the important holy days in the catholic calendar...not something to laugh at....

I'm sorry I don't know the intricacies of your religion. Being that I am not a Catholic, and do not plan on becoming a Catholic, I didn't realize a Catholic would be offended by my comment. My friends at work (many of whom are Catholic) thought it was quite funny as well.

I was only laughing at myself.... for me it was kind of odd, people walking around with ashes on their face and not wiping it off. I'm Church-of-Christ, so we don't do all that ritualistic stuff.

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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.

a different view - my insurance covered a tubal but the hospital refused to do it causing me to have to drive an almost extra hour to get it done. was not happy that they did that just because they are a catholic hospital and dont believe in it - it was for very good reason ( another pregnancy would probably kill me - nearly lost both last babies and nearly lost me on last one - next one am told i would probably have done even worse or died )

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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.

I have worked for Catholic hospitals nearly my entire career. The only post-abortion patient that I have ever taken care of was in a Catholic hospital. There wasn't any problem with her getting a theraputic abortion there. And with regards to pay, I have worked for the same Catholic institution for nearly 20 years. Maybe I am the exception, but I make darn good money.

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Specializes in Cardiac Interventions/Surgery/ CCU.

I work in a Catholic Hospital..nothing is different than working at any other hospital except for the evening prayers and the OB unit. Being a catholic hospital in a largely catholic area we were unable to do any sterilizations etc.. but our hospital has an outside source that comes in to perform any of these procedures and they are not affiliated with my hospital...its like contracting a job out for hire...and no one seems to mind.

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I work in a Catholic Hospital..nothing is different than working at any other hospital except for the evening prayers and the OB unit. Being a catholic hospital in a largely catholic area we were unable to do any sterilizations etc.. but our hospital has an outside source that comes in to perform any of these procedures and they are not affiliated with my hospital...its like contracting a job out for hire...and no one seems to mind.

wish your hopital wsa here - would have saved me a lot of time, anxiety and an xtra long painful ride ( had another surgery with tubal so i was in hurting shappe) would not allow doc ( who is not from their hopital but affiliated with many hospitals ) do it.

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Specializes in OR.
seems to me she wasn't laughing at anyone but herself...

relax

the church takes itself WAAAY to seriously at times

Yup, they surely do..I was raised a Catholic and worked for 2 years at a Catholic hospital. There was a fair amount of hypocrisy at this place-the environment was toxic, people treated each other like garbage, and tons of married people sleeping around. Then Ash Wednesday would come and they'd all be prancing around with ashes on their heads, proclaiming what good Catholics they were. :madface: Corrupt too and money was the god there. I always said if I were raped don't ever take me there because no way in hell you'd get emergency contraception. There are some good Catholic facilities, though. This places' faults were so glaring because you'd think a Catholic hospital would epitomize Christian behavior.
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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.

I work in a Catholic hospital and we had a very similar situation - watched this poor woman's labs tank hourly. They called an emergency ethics consult as soon as they figured out what the problem was, including a priest. The nsg sup asked everyone involved if they had a problem caring for this woman or participating in the procedure and offered to find substitutes if needed - this was a 0200 Sat situation. No one declined to care for her and I like to think that she got excellant care physically, emotionally and spiritually for both her and her husband. Tough situation, but I thought it was handled wonderfully.

She recently came back and gave birth to a very healthy baby. It feels good that she felt good enuf about us to have her baby with us.

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Specializes in Orthosurgery, Rehab, Homecare.

I work in a catholic institution. (4 yrs) I am not catholic, not christian. I have never had any problems with their policies, conduct, or care. They seek to serve under-served populations and provide caring and compassionate care. I have no issue with that. Religion is not a focus of what they do. There are crosses, mass and non-domonitational services are held for those who wish to go, we treat and see the occasional nun or preist. But again, there is no focus on religion. I have never heard of a staff or patient feeling uncomfortable because of their religous orientation. I know that we have staff who are Hindu, Jewish, Muslim and Seik (sp?). We have staff who are openly bi or homo-sexual. None of it is a problem.

~Jen

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