Faith-based Hospitals.. can anyone apply?

Nurses General Nursing

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Can anyone apply to Faith-based Hospitals??? or are they only looking for particular religious candidates...?

Wow- that is refreshing to hear someone actually praise their hospital!! Nice to know places like that actually exist! :up:

StudentNurse2011, your story brought tears to my eyes! I'm not done with school yet, but I hope to be able to have coworkers like that around me when I'm an RN!

As for the original post, I think the biggest thing they're likely concerned about is whether you'd MIND if someone prayed in the workplace, or if a patient asked you to pray with them at the bedside, etc. Some folks would feel uncomfortable in that situation, and that wouldn't be very conducive to a healing environment for the patient, IMO.

That hospital (and the one I currently work for) are both very small, very intimate hospitals. I've worked for larger hospitals, but the culture shock was just too overwhelming for me. I really prefer smaller hospitals where everyone gets to know each other and you become a second family. Nurses and staff at both hospitals treat patients and visitors as if they're visitors in our own home, and that is extremely important to me. Nobody is just a room number or a job title. I've learned that's the kind of environment I need in order to thrive. I can't stand the anonymity of a larger hospital.

Personally, I don't think I could actively pray with a patient. I'll stay there with them while they pray, or I'll call a chaplain (again, staying with the patient or family member), but I can't pray myself. (I'd be afraid lightning would strike us on the spot. :devil: hehehe) That's never been a problem (in any facility that I've worked for). I can be as supportive as all get-out for somebody else, but I can't and won't pray for someone myself. To the best of my knowledge, no patient or family member has ever noticed anything amiss.

Brillo, I hope you can find a group of teammates as caring as the ones I've been fortunate enough to work with. Coworkers truly make or break our day. We can deal with anything as long as we have a good group of people to share it with. High-maintenance patients, unyielding and uninformed family members, and pain in the tushy doctors come and go; it's the coworkers that we spend most of our waking hours with. I can honestly say that my coworkers are every bit as much family as my own family at home. We're dysfunctional, but we put the FUN in dysFUNctional. :D We might argue like brothers and sisters, but we have each others' backs. And I wouldn't have it any other way.

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Academics.
Personally, I don't think I could actively pray with a patient. I'll stay there with them while they pray, or I'll call a chaplain (again, staying with the patient or family member), but I can't pray myself. (I'd be afraid lightning would strike us on the spot. :devil: hehehe) That's never been a problem (in any facility that I've worked for). I can be as supportive as all get-out for somebody else, but I can't and won't pray for someone myself. To the best of my knowledge, no patient or family member has ever noticed anything amiss.

That's how I feel, and I, too, would have no problem at all smiling at them in acknowledgement and holding their hand while they prayed. Probably 50% of the hospitals around here are Catholic-based, and I suspect it will happen one time or another when I start working as a nurse.

ETA: I think an atheist like myself or someone from a clearly different religion flat-out saying no would be unprofessional and self-serving to no conceivable good purpose.

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Specializes in OB-Gyn/Primary Care/Ambulatory Leadership.
I worked for an Adventist medical center in the past, and I'm certainly not LDS.

I'm confused - what do Mormons have to do with Adventists? (this sounds like the beginning of a bad joke)

I recently applied to an Adventist hospital network, and I had some of the same concerns, but everyone I've talked to have had nothing but good things to say about this network. I may just remove the "pro-choice" bumpersticker off my car, though (although I will leave the "Jesus was a liberal" one on :D).

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Academics.
(although I will leave the "Jesus was a liberal" one on :D).

I've always thought of him as more of a rebel than a liberal. :clown:

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Specializes in Cardio-Pulmonary; Med-Surg; Private Duty.
Personally, I don't think I could actively pray with a patient. I'll stay there with them while they pray, or I'll call a chaplain (again, staying with the patient or family member), but I can't pray myself.

I was thinking more along the lines of "hold their hand while they (or a family member) prayed" rather than actively praying for them yourself. Being willing to support the patient in what makes the patient comfortable is what's important, not whether or not you're repeating the words in your head. :)

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Adventist aren't LDS. They are 7th Day Adventist.... noting to do with Latter Day Saints.... except the long name!

I'm confused - what do Mormons have to do with Adventists? (this sounds like the beginning of a bad joke)

My bad -- thanks for catching that. I'm not really (usually) confused about Adventists and LDS; I just worked nights and haven't been to bed yet. Obviously I'm too foggy-brained right now to be doing this! :D

(BTW, I used to have a "Jesus is a liberal" bumperstick on the wheels, too (until that car got totalled). I was amazed at how many people took great offense at that and felt v. free to berate me about it (I guess they're not reading the same Bible I am ...)

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Academics.
(BTW, I used to have a "Jesus is a liberal" bumperstick on the wheels, too (until that car got totalled). I was amazed at how many people took great offense at that and felt v. free to berate me about it (I guess they're not reading the same Bible I am ...)

Aw, c'mon! :) You knew exactly why they were offended by it. Most people who buy that particular sticker--not saying YOU or the other poster who has one--identify themselves as liberals and post it as a big ole' F-you to the far right-wing Bible-thumping pundits in this country. Isn't that what divisive, politically-based bumper stickers are for? To make a bold statement?

I'm an atheist, and even I know that! :D

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Specializes in Med/Surg.

I work for a Catholic hospital, which is part of a 13-hospital Catholic system. You do not have to be Catholic to work there, it is not addressed in any way, shape, or form in the hiring process. As long as you are comfortable with it being a part of the everyday life of the facility (overhead prayers at the "start" and "end" of the day...as if the day really starts and ends, haha :p, meetings starting and concluding with prayer, nuns and chaplains being in house, etc), then you are ok. Our insurance doesn't cover birth control (although if you have a medical reason for needing it, like me [endometriosis], a waiver from your doctor will allow coverage) and our facilities do not perform procedures like in vitro, or abortions. They will do tubal ligation.

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I have found that Catholic hospitals give great care; just my experience; I am not Catholic but I have learned so much from working with mostly Catholic coworkers and patients and I loved to go to Mass at work whenever time permitted. I was always made to feel most welcome.

Same when I worked for a Jewish Old Folks' Home and a Unitarian or Methodist hospital.

I think the patients love being cared for by whoever is competent and kind but always feel most comfortable with someone who shares their religious views, no matter the religion. We all like to feel part of the group.

Good luck to you, OP.

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I worked for an Adventist medical center in the past, and I'm certainly not LDS. Most of the people I knew there were not. I was not even asked about that in the application process, as I recall. It was a v. good hospital and a good employer. As a previous poster noted, the cafeteria and meal trays abided by the LDS dietary restrictions (helpful tip -- turns out "vegetarian" does not necessarily equal "healthy"; they only avoided meat, not fat, salt or sugar :D), and all meetings were officially mandated to begin with devotions/prayer. The minimally-staffed/ancillary-departments-closed day for them was Saturday and Sunday was just another work day. Other than that, there wasn't much that was different from the other hospitals I've worked at over the years.

I think Adventist would be the Protestant group known as 7th Day Adventists, not Latter Day Saints, right? Totally different groups.

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I'm confused - what do Mormons have to do with Adventists? (this sounds like the beginning of a bad joke)

I recently applied to an Adventist hospital network, and I had some of the same concerns, but everyone I've talked to have had nothing but good things to say about this network. I may just remove the "pro-choice" bumpersticker off my car, though (although I will leave the "Jesus was a liberal" one on :D).

The vast majority of Adventists are pro-choice, so keep that bumpersticker. We believe it's strictly a woman's right to choose. You know, I thought I made up the whole "Jesus was a liberal" thing -- that's what I keep telling my husband, anyway.

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Aw, c'mon! :) You knew exactly why they were offended by it. Most people who buy that particular sticker--not saying YOU or the other poster who has one--identify themselves as liberals and post it as a big ole' F-you to the far right-wing Bible-thumping pundits in this country. Isn't that what divisive, politically-based bumper stickers are for? To make a bold statement?

I'm an atheist, and even I know that! :D

I considered it a simple statement of fact, a correction of all the misinformation floating around about Him ... Even so, when I see bumper stickers on other peoples' cars with which I disagree, I don't swerve through traffic to pull up alongside them and yell at them about it, which is what lots of people did to me (am I a bad person if I point out that doesn't seem v. Christian?? :D)

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