Religion Needed to be a Good Nurse?

Updated:   Published

We just covered a spiritituality/religion lesson in our BSN course and the instructor (religious) came out and said good nurses had spirituality and would be there for whatever spiritual needs the PT had. I understand the benefits of PTs being able to express their own spiritituality, but not being spiritual myself, I always assumed this could happen without me losing my own identity/belief system by praying with the PT. There are professionals in this area afterall and it's not as if nursing doesn't have enough on its plate already.

So the question is, does the nursing career, with all it's specialized education and skills, also view good nurses to be spiritual/religious or is this instructor taking some liberties with the topic?

Specializes in Acute Care Psych, DNP Student.
Give me a break.

I there are a TON of websites out there that bash christians or any other religion for believing in a spiritual being greater than us, and they mock with a mean spirit. I HARDLY believe your statement to be true. I've seen vicious attacks from "enlightened, upright" athiests that are meant to bring people down and feel bad. And there are those that are on the flip side that say everyone is going to hell. Putting the blame on christians is a cop out...

How about letting people believe in a God or whatever, without getting wadded up over it? Anyone could waste their life away worrying about what OTHERS believe.

Let people live their lives and live your own. And maybe quit worrying about someone else making you "feel like nothing."

This is quite harsh. We can find various websites on the Internet that help people express themselves and vent, but real life is quite different for non-believers. Of course it matters where one lives in the US. I know of more than one atheist/agnostic, who while living in the Bible belt and US South experienced outright discrimination. A good friend (agnostic Jewish teacher) experienced outright persecution and was locked out of job choices at a school district in the deep South. She was the only one who wasn't an evangelical Christian. Her fellow teachers and principal seemed to think someone who didn't believe in God shouldn't be around children. She has excelled in other less religious school districts.

We seem to hear non-stop about religious tolerance and how much religion helps people. We don't ever hear about how sometimes religion harms people and the bigotry of some religious people towards non-believers.

It is a relevent issue for nursing because highly religious nurses may view their atheist/agnostic co-workers as incapable of moral/ethical behavior to the level of Christians. This could have serious implications for the agnostic/atheist nurse. I do think this is more of a potential problem in the US South.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Progressive Care Unit/Observation, Critical Care.

As had been said previously...a religious orientation is not necessary for nursing.

But, we Christians should never be ashamed of our beliefts.

Offered kindly,

Steven King

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in critical care transport.
This is quite harsh. We can find various websites on the Internet that help people express themselves and vent, but real life is quite different for non-believers. Of course it matters where one lives in the US. I know of more than one atheist/agnostic, who while living in the Bible belt and US South experienced outright discrimination. A good friend (agnostic Jewish teacher) experienced outright persecution and was locked out of job choices at a school district in the deep South. She was the only one who wasn't an evangelical Christian. Her fellow teachers and principal seemed to think someone who didn't believe in God shouldn't be around children. She has excelled in other less religious school districts.

We seem to hear non-stop about religious tolerance and how much religion helps people. We don't ever hear about how sometimes religion harms people and the bigotry of some religious people towards non-believers.

It is a relevent issue for nursing because highly religious nurses may view their atheist/agnostic co-workers as incapable of moral/ethical behavior to the level of Christians. This could have serious implications for the agnostic/atheist nurse. I do think this is more of a potential problem in the US South.

Not saying your post does not have some merit, but bigotry runs on both sides of belief and non-belief, as our points and experiences have clearly indicated. My main point was- quit targeting one specific group when the guilt runs the entire gamet of people. The "blame game" gets really old after a while.

For the record, I really don't care what other people believe or don't believe personally, but have personal interest in the study of other cultures (and religion always weaves into that).

You know, many evil deeds have been done "in the name of religion," but what it really is, is people twisting the tenets of their own religion to satisfy their own greed and views. The rest of them get along just fine with eachother.

I did not mean to be harsh or antagonizing, just matter-of-fact. Just my nature.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

im a christian and im not bashing anyones belief got better things to do than bash.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

:deadhorse God the horse died last month!...and now it's just getting stupid.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Med-Surg.
:deadhorse God the horse died last month!...and now it's just getting stupid.

And this helps contribute to intelligent conversation how? It may help it getting this thread locked if that's what you're interested in. :troll:

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Critical Care.
And this helps contribute to intelligent conversation how? It may help it getting this thread locked if that's what you're interested in. :troll:

(and I somehow have this image that everytime this thread re-appears in the current posts that the mods cringe, just a little.)

LOL.

~faith,

Timothy.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Cardiac/Telemetry.
As had been said previously...a religious orientation is not necessary for nursing.

But, we Christians should never be ashamed of our beliefts.

Offered kindly,

Steven King

Absolutely agree!

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Cardiac/Telemetry.
(and I somehow have this image that everytime this thread re-appears in the current posts that the mods cringe, just a little.)

LOL.

~faith,

Timothy.

:lol2: :rotfl:

Up Vote Up Vote ×
(and I somehow have this image that everytime this thread re-appears in the current posts that the mods cringe, just a little.)

~faith,

Timothy.

surely you mean the mods and a few thousand members.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

well said......AMEN! :)

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Med-Surg.
(and I somehow have this image that everytime this thread re-appears in the current posts that the mods cringe, just a little.)

LOL.

~faith,

Timothy.

Without a doubt. The same way they cringe when they see BSN vs ADN in a thread title. Heck, I cringe too and I'm not a mod. :eek:

But no need to disrespect those who continue to want to post to it. :cool:

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Join the Discussion