Jewish patients: End of Life practices

[Girlygirl69]

This is not meant to be offensive but a serious question. Not to generalize, but in my experience, why do Jewish families agree to all and any extreme measures to preserve life even in the face of obvious suffering of the patient. A coworker told me it's because they don't believe in heaven and earth is all there is, but I did research and that's incorrect. I just want to know because I've never had a devout Jewish patient who was made a DNR.

Okay guys now blast me for being ignorant....'Go

[Girlygirl69]

Pretty much the only consistent thing I've seen in years of bedside care that relates to religion is that Jehovah's Witness pts don't get bllod products. And all our nuns and priests have DNR/medical management (the equivalent of no heroic measures), and ALWAYS have their directives/POA papers on hand. We've got several sisterhoods who place their members in the ALF and SNF on our campus, so we get a lot of nuns. :)

I don't think there's anything wrong with the question you raised, BTW. Don't we take classes in school that are geared specifically towards what certain religious or ethnic groups "generally" do?

My school didn't go in depth with eah religion, just the basics. Surprisingly I've had a number of Jehovah witness patients who has accepted blood, but many wanted it done in private and without their family knowing so.

[Girlygirl69]

I have never come across this before, and we have a very large Jewish community in my city. Is this an Orthodox preference or no? I've only been a nurse for 15 years, but I've never heard of this being the case.

We get a lot of Hasidic Jewish pts.

[Esme12, ASN, BSN, RN]

I have seen patients from all forms of formal and informal religions. The end of life issues are more personal based than religion, race, nationality or sex. Some people just can't or won't let there loved one's go.....