A new proposed regulation would increase awareness of, and compliance with, three separate laws protecting federally funded health care providers' right of conscience. This proposed rule was placed on public display at the Federal Register today by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)."This proposed regulation is about the legal right of a health care professional to practice according to their conscience," HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt said. "Doctors and other health care providers should not be forced to choose between good professional standing and violating their conscience. Freedom of expression and action should not be surrendered upon the issuance of a health care degree."
Over the past three decades, Congress has enacted several statutes to safeguard these freedoms, also known as provider conscience rights, and the proposed regulation would increase awareness of and compliance with these laws. Specifically, the proposed rule would:
Clarify that non-discrimination protections apply to institutional health care providers as well as to individual employees working for recipients of certain funds from HHS;
Require recipients of certain HHS funds to certify their compliance with laws protecting provider conscience rights;
Designate the HHS Office for Civil Rights as the entity to receive complaints of discrimination addressed by the existing statutes and the proposed regulation; and
Charge HHS officials to work with any state or local government or entity that may be in violation of existing statutes and the proposed regulation to encourage voluntary steps to bring that government or entity into compliance with the law. If, despite the Department's efforts, compliance is not achieved, HHS officials will consider all legal options, including termination of funding and the return of funds paid out in violation of the nondiscrimination provisions.
It is absolutely about us. Or should be. Any industry where the worker is disregarded is one that needs to be reevaluated and restructured. People in medicine put their backs, their feet, their nerves, their emotions and even their lives on the line for their patients. They are not just some lamb there to be sacrificed for the care of patients.
And people wonder why there's a nursing shortage and why the average new nurse lasts less than 6 years on the job.
You think just like the patients and administrators do.
It is absolutely about us. Or should be. Any industry where the worker is disregarded is one that needs to be reevaluated and restructured. People in medicine put their backs, their feet, their nerves, their emotions and even their lives on the line for their patients. They are not just some lamb there to be sacrificed for the care of patients.
And people wonder why there's a nursing shortage and why the average new nurse last less than 6 years on the job.
You think just like the patients and administrators do.
You're not putting anything on the line for a patient when you refuse to apply evidence-based standards of care to them based on personal belief. Starbucks is always hiring if this is your stance.
Well, we obviously disagree on this subject, so I don't see any sense in carrying our discussion any further. I'll close by saying that you put everything on the line when you give up your morality to do ANYTHING.
Well, we obviously disagree on this subject, so I don't see any sense in carrying our discussion any further. I'll close by saying that you put everything on the line when you give up your morality to do ANYTHING.
Then the obvious answer is to not choose a profession and a job where you just might be required to give up your morality.
What this regulation does is gives those that made a poor decision to choose a profession and job where they must face conflicts of conscience a legal out. Instead of accepting personal responsibility for a poor fit, they instead blame their employer for not bending to the their beliefs and/or whims.
When we discourage personal responsibility in favor of government babysitting, everybody loses.
So, since Catholics/Christians don't generally believe in abortions, some you you fellas don't think Catholics should be nurses...is that what I'm reading here?
Should no Seventh Day Adventists be nurses, since nurses might have to transfuse blood?
Oh, and now religious beliefs/moral beliefs are "naive illusions", are they? People who have these beliefs should accept them being "shattered", but don't you dare interfere with the woman who believes her fetus is just a soulless bundle of cells...amirite?
This blood thing could produce dangerous situations. There could be a long delay in giving a patient a critical blood transfusion because his/her nurse who happens to be a Jehovah's witness(or some other religion I am not picking on any particular one) and is refusing to do it. I could see it happening I really can. I have been in many situations where I could barely do my own work, if I had to repeatedly stop and give blood to another person's patient sooner or later there would be an incident. Somebody is going to bleed to death while they try to find a nurse who free to hang the blood.
This blood thing could produce dangerous situations. There could be a long delay in giving a patient a critical blood transfusion because his/her nurse who happens to be a Jehovah's witness(or some other religion I am not picking on any particular one) and is refusing to do it. I could see it happening I really can. I have been in many situations where I could barely do my own work, if I had to repeatedly stop and give blood to another person's patient sooner or later there would be an incident. Somebody is going to bleed to death while they try to find a nurse who free to hang the blood.
That's okay, though, because it's about us, not the patient!
Then the obvious answer is to not choose a profession and a job where you just might be required to give up your morality.
What this regulation does is gives those that made a poor decision to choose a profession and job where they must face conflicts of conscience a legal out. Instead of accepting personal responsibility for a poor fit, they instead blame their employer for not bending to the their beliefs and/or whims.
When we discourage personal responsibility in favor of government babysitting, everybody loses.
And lose years or decades of compassionate care from every person that chooses not to pursue nursing due to a moral incompatibility with a small part of the profession. I don't believe that's worth it.
I meant to say earlier, by the way, that I agree with you that a pro-life nurse shouldn't be working in an abortion clinic. However, I think this law is meant for workers who encounter an objectionable case in their everyday duties, no matter where they are, and not just some busybody Christian who demanded to work at Abortions R Us and then wouldn't do the work due to being pro-life.
This blood thing could produce dangerous situations. There could be a long delay in giving a patient a critical blood transfusion because his/her nurse who happens to be a Jehovah's witness(or some other religion I am not picking on any particular one) and is refusing to do it. I could see it happening I really can. I have been in many situations where I could barely do my own work, if I had to repeatedly stop and give blood to another person's patient sooner or later there would be an incident. Somebody is going to bleed to death while they try to find a nurse who free to hang the blood.
That may certainly be true. I don't know. But throwing the entire population of the JW church (or whatever they're called) off the healthcare bus can't be the answer.
We will never all agree on hight to life vs choice. So let's look at how this could impact us individually and as a profession.
Look at the list of specialties list in this forum. There many that do not have any connection to abortion. There are many specialties that have little chance of having to give blood.
Will this have any impact on the education the students will get. Knowledge about the procedures is not the same as performing them. Every nurse needs to know about the procedures without prejudice from another's belief system.
Choose the area that fits you. If that means going from school to an area that does not perform certain procedures, great for you. If it means being honest at interview and acknowledging your limitations due to beliefs, do it. Be true to yourself and be true to the patients you have chosen to serve.
And lose years or decades of compassionate care from every person that chooses not to pursue nursing due to a moral incompatibility with a small part of the profession. I don't believe that's worth it.
I meant to say earlier, by the way, that I agree with you that a pro-life nurse shouldn't be working in an abortion clinic. However, I think this law is meant for workers who encounter an objectionable case in their everyday duties, no matter where they are, and not just some busybody Christian who demanded to work at Abortions R Us and then wouldn't do the work due to being pro-life.
The regulation is being pushed hard by the Bush administration- the likely target is pharmacists who have refused to dispense prescribed birth control, including the morning-after pill, but also normal BC pills.
They want to give these people not only the right to refuse to dispense, but also the right not to refer the patient to any other pharmacies that would dispense.
Same goes with doctors and birth control prescriptions. Even though birth control pills are often used as treatment for gynecological disease, doctors against birth control can refuse to treat these patients and refuse to refer them to somebody who is willing to treat under this regulation.
Imagine a hardcore creationist doctor refusing to prescribe anything but penicillin for a staphylococcal infection because it's his belief that staph haven't adapted to the last 75 years of antibiotic therapy.
Where's the line between personal belief and malpractice?
We will never all agree on hight to life vs choice. So let's look at how this could impact us individually and as a profession.
Look at the list of specialties list in this forum. There many that do not have any connection to abortion. There are many specialties that have little chance of having to give blood.
Will this have any impact on the education the students will get. Knowledge about the procedures is not the same as performing them. Every nurse needs to know about the procedures without prejudice from another's belief system.
Choose the area that fits you. If that means going from school to an area that does not perform certain procedures, great for you. If it means being honest at interview and acknowledging your limitations due to beliefs, do it. Be true to yourself and be true to the patients you have chosen to serve.
I agree with every word here. Just don't knowingly enter something that contradicts your beliefs and then claim federal discrimination.
Bortaz, MSN, RN
2,628 Posts
It is absolutely about us. Or should be. Any industry where the worker is disregarded is one that needs to be reevaluated and restructured. People in medicine put their backs, their feet, their nerves, their emotions and even their lives on the line for their patients. They are not just some lamb there to be sacrificed for the care of patients.
And people wonder why there's a nursing shortage and why the average new nurse lasts less than 6 years on the job.
You think just like the patients and administrators do.