Do you believe in the power of prayer, do you pray?

nurs4kids · Nov 8, 2001

canoe,

I think you're absolutely right!!! I don't think our personal religion belongs in the patient's room. If you want to pray for them silently w/o their knowledge, pray away. If they ASK you to pray, that's up to you. But for a nurse to even mention religion/religious preference to a patient is wrong, in my opinion. I don't even want a coworker pushing their religion on me. If I want to hear it, I'll ask...otherwise, please spare me the sermon.

I've never heard one person say, "Man, I sure do like that lady/man!! I really respect the way he/she PUSHES his/her religious beliefs on everyone!!!

However, we've all worked with those that had a contagious peace about them...a calmness, a pleasantness that could only come through faith. Those are the ones I want to hear from, those who lead by example. Those who do not preach, but teach.

tracy

nurs4kids · Nov 8, 2001

Originally posted by aimeee
Wish I knew how to answer this without sounding new agey and flakey because I really don't think I am, but I guess I'll just plunge in.

I think when we pray we open ourselves and connect ourselves to that power which is Everything--God in our culture...Vishnu, Buddha, etc. in others. Wisdom, healing, guidance, acceptance, love, and protection come from this source, and if we pray for THOSE kinds of things, and open ourselves to them, then yes, prayers are answered.

Aimee,

Very interesting way of looking at the whole picture. Thanks for sharing!

Furball · Nov 8, 2001

Originally posted by canoehead
After praying pleading and begging at times the only Bible passage I believe in is "God helps those who help themselves"

I understand that praying is comforting, and talking about God can help some people in dire straits, but please everyone remember that those that have had faith and been ignored find it extremely painful if a caregiver quotes Bible passages. Although you may have the best of intentions...

We need to respect the faith of others, even if their faith is that they will be left high and dry. It is a defense mechanism against being hurt, on top of the crisis, and I don't think anyone should proselytize (sp?) if ONLY for that reason.

I have also noticed that anyone who has to preface a statement with "I'm a Christian and..." is about to come out with a real clunker. In my opinion you should make decisions and statements based on more than religion. Religious teachings need to be integrated into real life before spouting off like Old Faithful.

Flame away folks, I've got broad shoulders.

No flames here canoe, I wholeheartedly agree. There was nothing more annoying in nursing school than the religious nut student trying to "save" his patients and fellow students. He got many stern tongue lashings from the professors to knock it off that it is ENTIRELY inappropriate.

hoolahan, ASN, RN · Nov 8, 2001

First I want to say I agree with you canoe. When I was 16, my father was dying, in a hepatic coma, from his cirrhosis, yes from drinking. Most of my life I feared him, many times I thought he would kill us the way he drove when drunk, but he was still my father. I guess someone thought it would be a nice touch for a clergy to come see him. I can't remember the last time my father went to church, there is a picture of me and my sister, (very young, like 2 & 4) and dad all gussied up on Easter, but I never remember him setting foot in a church. Since my parents went thru a bitter divorce, mom would wait for us in the waiting room, and we, my sister and I, would go in ourselves to his hosp room. Many times all my dads brothers and sisters would be there with me, but this time I was alone with dad.

Anyway, here comes this clergy, I don't know what religion. He introduced himself and said he "well I came to pray for your father, but I can see he is not able." Now remember I am 16, cocky, I say "Well, the nurses said he can probably still hear us, so if you want to pray for him, you certainly can." He looked taken aback, but not wanting to be outdone by a 16-yr-old, I guess he decided he would. I wish I had never pushed it. Do you know what passage of the bible he read from? The one which says you will reap what you sow, and it's not too late to repent. How comforting would that be to a man who laydying, from a disease he "reaped?" DAMN that man to HELL! I was so shocked, I couldn't even speak! So, my advice is, don't reach out to a clergy that you do not KNOW, it may not be comforting to you at all.

Back to the original question. Yes I believe in the power of prayer. I am sure I have a story buried in my head somwhere, but am too distracted now to remember it. And I too have prayed for people to have the strength to dealwith the inevitable, andI have prayed for God to take a pt who has been suffering, I have prayed for the docs and nurses to have the wisdom to do the right thing as well.

One story that is kind of on this vein. I was taking care of a pt, post-op cabg, on IABP,still intubated, but very alert. It was odd to me that he was so peaceful, alert, not anxious at all. I kept asking him was he comfortable, head shake yes, pain, no, would he like to change his position, no. It kind of unnerved me to have an intubated pt so alert yet so relaxed. I even offered him something to relax him, versed, no. On midnight rounds, the doc asked me if I needed anything, I told him he was having a few PVC's every now and then, and I had a gut feeling about it, could we put him on a lido drip. The doc, who happened to be in on his surgery said quietly in my ear, look, this guys heart is like mush, if he goes into VTach, nothing we do will bring him back, it will be a short code. (Gee, maybe this is the kind of info they need to tell us in report from the OR!) But, the doc let me start the lido drip. Anyway, the PVC's really weren't frequent enough to meet a protocol for lido, it was truly just my gut reaction.

The rest of the unit was quiet, after asking him again if all was well, he again denied any problems. I settled into a chair at the foot of his bed, and began to finish a book I was reading called "A Window to Heaven" written by a ped oncologist about children's near-death experiences. She was saying how when people have had a pre-death vision, they experience a great calming sense of peace. Hhhmmm. It was the last chapter of the book, and it was such an awesome and inspiring book,I was in a strange mood, ya know.

Later, about 4am, the float nurse and I were giving him a bath, and suddenly we heard the IABP go nuts, looked up at the monitor, VTach. We call a code, and true to his word, it was only about 20min long. I am thinking, this man knew he was going to die! He had that sense of peace, that was why he was anxious and freaking out like every other fresh post-op in his situation. (Twilight Zone music playing in the background here.) After the code I must have had a strange look on my face, and I was quieter than usual (If you worked with me, you could appreciate that!) The doc came up to me and said, Look Linda, there was really nothing you could have done. You didn't do anything wrong. I thanked him for saying that, but didn't explain what was really going on in my head, b/c how could you really explain that?? Would he understand that I thought this man may have known he was dying and saw the light and was glad of it??

I don't know if you all here read my story on the gen forum about death, but this book was one my pastor gave me after I had such a hard time dealing with that little girl's death. It seemed to have come full circle for me. Like God was sending down lessons for me to learn or something. After that I did a lot of research on near-death experiences, and even wrote about it for my English term paper for my BSN program (got an A too!)

(Once again forgive my spacebar, I do try to correct it all, but in my longer posts I invaribaly miss a few.)

nur20 · Nov 8, 2001

YES,i believe in prayer and i'm here to tell you that it does work. Things that have happened in my life that i overcame can only be contributed to sincere prayer and a belief in a higher being. please visit my website

StaceRacer1 · Nov 8, 2001

Hoolahan

Wow what a great story! It gave me chills as I was reading it.

I have always been fasinated with "near death experiences."

( By the way, I use the space bar quite frequently because I think it makes it easier to read! )

pkmom · Nov 8, 2001

Originally posted by canoehead
After praying pleading and begging at times the only Bible passage I believe in is "God helps those who help themselves"

Yeah, Um I think that is in the book of 2 OPINIONS right next to "Cleanliness is next to Godliness" in the same chapter as "you should go down to the street corner and yell to everyone you see telling them they are all going to hell."

That is NOT Biblical!

People please, don't let a few boneheads turn you off to the most beneficial truth that exists.

I don't like people shoving religion down my throat either, religion is meaningless. God is awesome and a person benefits immeasurably from a relationship with him. My witness, I pray, is my everyday workings with other people. My witness is TRYING to be Christ-like which is not condemning or judgemental. Here's my soap box: I get so angry when I see people telling someone else that they are going to hell for not _______. That is not what it is about and they are only making things worse. Part of my family has hearts hardened by that attitude, it's painful to see them suffering from it. I witness by trying to be compassionate, loving, caring, and forgiving. I say 'try' because I am so far from perfect and I mess up everyday. But God is faithful (that's scriptural) and he loves me despite my inadequecies.

When I pray, He hears me!!!! And he answers. like i posted earlier, sometimes its 'yes,' sometimes 'no,' but other times it's 'just wait.' He is sovereign. I have seen Him work in my life many times, and I have seen him work in others too. I know a bunch of people who will testify to His ability to answer prayer.

Grace and peace to you all.

Kara · Nov 8, 2001

pkmom, I agree with you totally. Religion can't be forced down anyone's throat and it makes me made when I see people trying to do that. Actions speak louder than words. Anyone can spout off what they believe or what they think others should do, but it is when you actually live out what you believe that others will notice and listen.

prmenrs, RN · Nov 8, 2001

I should mention that once I knew there was a problem (he wasn't having any signs), I rattled cages to get things taken care of, in part to minimize his recovery time.

The CAT scan was in mid-December; I checked the computer a couple of days later, called the NS; he decided he wanted to do a nuclear med shunt study. I called his "clinical coordinator", as soon as she got it approved by managed care, she called me back to say it was scheduled for January!!! I said, no, we need it done sooner. After going back and forth w/her and Nuclear Med, I called the doc again, HE called Nuclear Med and got it set up for the week between X-mas and NY's--they had told me they didn't have the contrast until p NY's! :rolleyes:

We got that done, of course, I knew from looking at it what was next. So, next challenge: get the peds surgeon and adult NS, both with heavy schedules at other hospital, in one of our ORs @ the smae time. The clinical coordinators were being DIFFICULT--one blithely told me, well I think it's scheduled for mid-Feb!!!

Finally, I started crying on the phone--"I'm sitting here watching my son get stupider! while you're telling to wait!"

About an hour later it was scheduled for Jan 14th!

THEN, I got out the holy rollers. By pushing as hard as I did, I prevented him from going thru the hell I know he goes thru while equilibrating to a new shunt pressure. I think the praying just got that gallbladder where it needed to be--had no control over that part!!

Is that what you mean by helping ourselves?

Sandi

CATHYW · Nov 9, 2001

in 1995 i experienced a total bowel obstruction secondary to old endometriosis. needed surgery with penrose drains for 2 abdominal abscesses that had formed. 2 weeks later, three doctors said it was necessary to do a hemicolectomy w/colostomy that would "probably" be temporary. folks at my church and others in the area began praying, 3 churches in fl, 1 in nc, and 1 in ny. signed surgical permit for 99.9% absolute necessity for colostomy, had preop teaching. it was not a good time for me. awakened in the rr of the hospital where i worked with the nurse saying, "great news, cathy-no colostomy!" folks that worked in the hospital stopped in for days, to share the good news. :eek: :)

i feel that answered prayer is what changed my surgical outcome. the surgeons were able to perform the hemicolectomy without the colostomy due to the "healthy condition of the bowel!"

Jenny P · Nov 9, 2001

There actually was some nursing research done on this recently. I can't remember all of the facts, but I did read it in a nursing journal (I get 8 different ones, so am not sure which one) sometime in this past year or so.

I think it was a group of nursing students that were divided up into 3 groups: one group would actively pray for acertain group of patients; one group would meditate for another group; and the third group of nurses were told about the 3rd group of patients. I believe the patients were randomly placed in the groups but all had similar illnesses and prognoses. The group that were prayed for (whether or not they knew they were being prayed for) did significantly better thatn the other 2 groups; and the 2nd group did better than the 3rd group. I will try to find this info for you and will post it here.

SbRN2002 · Nov 9, 2001

Hey. I just wanted to say that Hoolahan gave me chill bumps when I read her reply. Pkmom, you are so right. I believe in prayer. If it wasn't for prayer and God being here for me, I would not be still in nursing school. He has helped me tremendously. Everyday I feel him drawing me closer to him. WHen i take my tests, I feel his arms around me.

I dont believe in pushing my belief on anyone else. Like PKMOM and others said earlier, you witness to others by your actions. Actions speak louder than words. I have had one patient ask about my beliefs only. He asked me pray with him. I pray for all of my patients. Mostly,,praying that I won't hurt them or kill them.

I work in a hospital and I have seen a few codes. Its such a traumatic experience. I still think about one of them. He was only 35. I know that everyone is not promised tomorrow and that any day could be our last, but it really bothered me for a long time and I still think about it. I keep remembering seeing that lifeless body laying there while nurses are doing compressions and Dr. calling out orders.

I believe in prayer. I believe in God and his ability to do miracles.