Muslim Nurses Administering Haram Medications

patwil73 · Sep 12, 2009

how do you other muslim nurses out there deal with this? haraam is haraam is haraam! is there such a thing as refusing to administer medication? is there a way to obtain the ingredients in all medications? when in doubt, should i just make du'aa'?

i know you have asked for muslim nurse response and i am not, but i hope you will take it in the spirit which it is offered. as a supervisor i have worked with a few muslims, on every floor of the hospital. i have not seen or heard of any having any problems giving any type of medication. that being said i can't tell you if the were devout or not, just that they were practicing muslims and gave medications.

yes you can refuse to give a medication if you truly believe it to be harmful. for instance if my patient had q2 hr dilaudid 4mg ordered and was asleep and breathing 8 a minute when i came in and could barely arouse himself - i could refuse to give the medication based on my judegement that it would be unsafe. i would think that it would be more difficult to make the case based on a religious commandment (which probably doesn't help you to much - sorry).

you could check each medication from the manufacturers website or from your pharmacy who should have the complete info - it will tell you ingredients, how it was made, what it was made in, etc. so, yes it could be done. i tried to do a search for haraam (i hope i'm using the word correctly) medications and only came up with "seldane caps and heparin". once you have the list, either through your own compilation or anothers you could then look for jobs that limited exposure to such medications. for example, working general medicine in a hospital would be difficult to avoid them, but perhaps working surgical circulating, or endo, or school nursing would allow for limited contact (and if contact did arise it might be easier to get someone else to administer.)

from a very limited research it seems that the prevailing theories on giving haraam medications break down to 2 camps - 1) you can give haraam medications if they are necessary and no other alternative exists and 2) you can not give haraam medications as you don't know they will cure the disease and allah might provide a cure instead. if the muslims i have worked with are as devout as you, i would be willing to bet they fall into camp #1.

hope this helps

pat

SolaireSolstice, BSN, RN · Sep 12, 2009

for those of you so very insterested in my belief, i have transposed an excerpt from fatwa (islamic religious ruling based on scholarly opinions formed on the basis of the qur'an and authentic hadith that outline the sayings and actions of the prophet muhammad, peace be upon him):
from sheikh muhammad salih al- munajjid (in part) " ...hadeeth [states] 'allaah has sent down the disease and the cure, and has made for every disease the cure. so treat sickness, but do not use anything haraam.'..."
although that wasn't the point of the original question, perhaps it's helpful to know the reasons behind certain actions

i'm curious. how often do you run across this conflict? is it daily? what have you done in those situations? it could help others in these situations. thanks for your teachings.

CaribMuslimah, RN · Sep 12, 2009

wa'alaikum as-salaam wa rahmatu allahi wa barakatuh (may the peace, mercy, and blessings of god be upon you as well),

al7amdulillah (praise be to god) sister and thank you for your reply. the jello is funny, because i will be working (for the most part) with geriatric patients for a while..and well, they eat lots of jello! insha'allah (god willing), this patient population is encouraged to do for self, and should the need arise and they want jello and can't feed themselves, there is support staff (for everyone's information: i won't have individual pt assignments, so no..this would not be passing the buck. and if i asked someone to do for me, for sure i would strive to return the gesture many times over).

i believe that hand sanitizers have been ruled as allowed because it isn't the etoh, just as you have stated.

for the time being, i do not have any particular medications that i am questioning, but if i do in the future, insha'allah, would you mind if i msged you if i couldn't find the answer to my question elsewhere? one of the psychiatrists is actually a muslim, so god willing i will get a chance to speak with him soon.

jazakaallahu khair ukhti (may allah grant you goodness sister). ramadan mubarak!

salaam alaikum sister.
alhamdulillah i've been a nurse for almost 3 years now and the only conflicts i've had were a patient going through etoh withdrawal for whom whiskey shots were prescribed by the md tid (he didn't even drink it though... it'd just sit there on his tray until it was time for the next shot), giving patients jello (which contains gelatin that may come from pork), coated capsules (which sometimes contain gelatin that may come from pork and i've never had even my jewish patients ask or have a concern about these), and wondering about alcohol-based hand cleansing foam. with the foam, i have concluded that it is not haram b/c it is not etoh which you ingest and become intoxicated with. you are using it to clean your hands and ultimately prevent the transmission of illnesses to you or patients.
we don't use pork-based insulin at my hospital anymore, which was a concern to me when i first took the position there... if that were the case, i wouldn't administer the insulin.
the whiskey patient was while i was still under orientation, so i think i only administered it one time. in that case, i "justified" it by reminding myself that this man was sick, and if i didn't give it, he'd get even more sick. allah knows best.
is there a specific concern you have as far as haram/halal meds to give?

CaribMuslimah, RN · Sep 12, 2009

i haven't started patient care at this facility yet, so i don't know. god willing, i will be glad to post about any issue that may arise and how it was handled.

i previously stated that i never thought about the issue before out of ignorance and not practicing the religion as i was supposed to. i would just give pills. *plop* "open up wide, it's medication time." lol

but now that i've actually put thought into what i am giving and know laws and scholarly opinion concerning it...i have to do what i believe to be right.

i'm curious. how often do you run across this conflict? is it daily? what have you done in those situations? it could help others in these situations. thanks for your teachings.

NurseStephRN · Sep 12, 2009

So if I believe that the true cure contains haraam, then I can give you heparin or pork insulin because I'm looking out for the patient? I'm sure you'd throw an absolute fit if I forced my beliefs on you, why should you get to force your beliefs on me if I'm your patient?
Just because I'm not muslim doesn't mean I don't face situations where I have to put my beliefs aside for the patient. There's a lot of days at work where I'm doing things that I'd come back and haunt my family if they allowed done to me. Would you want a christian scientist as your nurse, refusing to give you any medical care because that's their belief? I'm ok with blood transfusions, should JW's be forced to undergo them because I think it's ok and I'm their nurse that day? Perhaps if you aren't able to put your beliefs aside for the good of the patient, then nursing is not for you. Because it is NOT about you or your beliefs, it's about the patient's beliefs.

I agree somewhat with this post. It is permissible as far as my studies have led me to have pork/pork products in absolute extreme situations. both you and i know that especially in the medical field, these situations exist. what would you do if a patient came in with a blood sugar of 650 and only porcine insulin was available? let's say it's a facility where you are the only RN and the only one allowed to give meds? this situation is extreme on purpose, btw, lol. i totally understand where you're coming from and your concern, but Allah does allow for exceptions sometimes. i don't believe this is a cut and dry situation. i'm having a friend of mine talk to our imam about this and inshallah we could get a learned answer :)

ma salaam

CaribMuslimah, RN · Sep 12, 2009

thank you so much, pat. i did ask for muslims, but i should have clarified and asked anybody who's willing to help. so, thank you.

fortunately, i am not working in a hospital. i mean, they have hospital after their name...but, no.

i actually have decided that i should look up routinely administered medications in the facility and check their ingredients (on my own time). finding a complete list of haram medications is probably impossible because nobody wants to spend the time to compile one, lol. most capsules and heparin and some insulins are obvious, and i have support staff to help with that. the fact of the matter is that most medications probably have some kind of an animal derivative in them, in which the use of them is only acceptable depending on the animal and how the ingredient (for instance d3) was extracted.

and you were so right..i fit into category 1--only when you have exhausted looking for alternatives and cannot find one should any haraam be used. this allowance is acceptable in any circumstance (such as in the instance of starvation and you only have a pulled pork sandwich to choose from), not just medication administration.

thank you so much for your help, i have plenty to ponder.

i know you have asked for muslim nurse response and i am not, but i hope you will take it in the spirit which it is offered. as a supervisor i have worked with a few muslims, on every floor of the hospital. i have not seen or heard of any having any problems giving any type of medication. that being said i can't tell you if the were devout or not, just that they were practicing muslims and gave medications.
yes you can refuse to give a medication if you truly believe it to be harmful. for instance if my patient had q2 hr dilaudid 4mg ordered and was asleep and breathing 8 a minute when i came in and could barely arouse himself - i could refuse to give the medication based on my judegement that it would be unsafe. i would think that it would be more difficult to make the case based on a religious commandment (which probably doesn't help you to much - sorry).
you could check each medication from the manufacturers website or from your pharmacy who should have the complete info - it will tell you ingredients, how it was made, what it was made in, etc. so, yes it could be done. i tried to do a search for haraam (i hope i'm using the word correctly) medications and only came up with "seldane caps and heparin". once you have the list, either through your own compilation or anothers you could then look for jobs that limited exposure to such medications. for example, working general medicine in a hospital would be difficult to avoid them, but perhaps working surgical circulating, or endo, or school nursing would allow for limited contact (and if contact did arise it might be easier to get someone else to administer.)
from a very limited research it seems that the prevailing theories on giving haraam medications break down to 2 camps - 1) you can give haraam medications if they are necessary and no other alternative exists and 2) you can not give haraam medications as you don't know they will cure the disease and allah might provide a cure instead. if the muslims i have worked with are as devout as you, i would be willing to bet they fall into camp #1.
hope this helps
pat

CaribMuslimah, RN · Sep 12, 2009

al7amdulillah sister, in that instance i would not hesitate to give the medication. yes, allah allows for exceptions by his mercy. in extreme cases i would not hesitate. so ppl, don't be scared, lol.

but every situation isn't extreme, and those are the instances i am seeking guidance on. i will await the response from your imaam since i have to wait on mine

i agree somewhat with this post. it is permissible as far as my studies have led me to have pork/pork products in absolute extreme situations. both you and i know that especially in the medical field, these situations exist. what would you do if a patient came in with a blood sugar of 650 and only porcine insulin was available? let's say it's a facility where you are the only rn and the only one allowed to give meds? this situation is extreme on purpose, btw, lol. i totally understand where you're coming from and your concern, but allah does allow for exceptions sometimes. i don't believe this is a cut and dry situation. i'm having a friend of mine talk to our imam about this and inshallah we could get a learned answer :)
ma salaam

NurseStephRN · Sep 12, 2009

you may most definitely message me. my email is : email removed by moderator

have a blessed last 10 nights... this month has flown by!!!

CaribMuslimah, RN · Sep 12, 2009

wa salaam

i got your email down...pls pls edit your post in case some troll takes down your email and decides to use it to cause fitnah. i will pm you mine.

yes, this month has flown by so quickly. every day i'm like, "slow down ramadan" lol

may your prayers be accepted and may your ill deeds be replaced with the good during these last 10 nights. insha'allah in my du'aa'

salaam ukhti.
you may most definitely message me. my email is not anybody's business, lol
have a blessed last 10 nights... this month has flown by!!!

wooh, BSN, RN · Sep 12, 2009

This is totaly diffrent. We are talking about religious concepts, you are talking about a personal choise. BIG DIFFRENTs:confused:

Not to me. In reality, isn't religion a personal choice of what you believe?

wooh, BSN, RN · Sep 12, 2009

I don't care if your muslim, Jehovah's Witness or pregnant. You've got to do your job or find an alternative. My point is, you have to treat your non-Muslim patient with the same respect that you'd expect if you were the patient of a non-Muslim nurse. If that makes me "ignorant" then fine. But I think you only want to hear, "Yeah, fine, you don't have to give it if it goes against your beliefs." Sorry, but the patient gets the meds (and their ham sandwich too), whether you believe in it or not. And if you expect others to give all the meds and hand out all the food you don't believe in, people are going to be resentful. Not because you're muslim, but because you're giving them more work to do.

CaribMuslimah, RN · Sep 12, 2009

religion itself is not the choice. the choice (i could make a long story out of that but i wont) is yours to follow the religion or not. islam is there whether people want to be muslims or not

not to me. in reality, isn't religion a personal choice of what you believe?