One Day we are on our patient audit for 3-11 shift in the next day in one of the hospital in the Philippines. I was called by our Clinical Instructor (CI) and I was assigned in a patient with full thickness burns. The patient was in the 50's . During our conversation and Nurse Patient Interaction getting the necessary health data and information of the accident there is something I feel inside me, It is very strange, something unusual, my heart beats fast, and then suddenly I saw the scourged Jesus in Him , the one that is likely shown in the passion of Christ. I saw in his eyes the suffering that he was encountering as what our Lord experienced during the time he was hanging on the tree of cross. I heard in his voice the agony and pain, like Jesus whispering in me "Come my Dear, come and comfort me" . I feel the totality of putting myself before the tree of the cross when our Loving lord was in HIS last moment of His life.
As the time gone by, I am enjoying the moment with my Lord, but I cannot bear the felling within , I want to cry ! I want to hug him! I want to say "Lord I love you please forgive me of my hardheadedness!" . But I must do the right thing, maybe if I did such thing he may encountered more injury because of the open tissue ; or maybe get insulted. I did not show to my patient the tears within my eyes. I didn't want to allow my patient to see the uncovered pain of my sliced heart.
I politely excused myself and run to the chapel of the Hospital, where my tears burst and my heart weeps. Once again I felt that I am placed on the time where the Loving lord was being whip by the sharp metals of the Roman soldiers. I felt the pain of being scourged, persecuted and left.
During the night I can't sleep . All my mind was occupied by the tender love of God to us. Giving His most precious son Jesus Christ. Meditating on the Paschal mystery of Jesus. The pain and the joy combined. Pain because of my sins, my shortcomings and my naughtiness. Joy for this treasured moments and experienced that HE (Jesus) unveiled to me.
I had served the patient with all my Best. Serving a King. I saw in him the Lord . My Master my Love my all! And that experienced was cherished inside me. The calling within the call as mother Theresa said was experienced by me.. Thank you Lord... Thank you Jesus!!!
I'm quite surprised by some of the reactions to the OP's post. I once worked at a Catholic facility and many of our patients were homeless and had been living on the street for weeks or months. I'm sure everyone can imagine the state that many of them were in when they were admitted - weeks of dirt, lice, nits, smelling of urine and faeces, etc.
We were encouraged by our manager (a nun) to 'treat each patient as if he or she was Christ'. I'm not religious at all, but even I could well understand what was meant by this and I can't see how it could be considered offensive or inappropriate. All the patient would know is that the staff were treating them with respect. If a staff member happened to be devoutly religious, I CAN understand how that staff member may experience strong emotions and religious feelings when caring for some patients, and I don't see how that is wrong.
The OP posted about what he felt and thought when caring for a particular patient. Nowhere does his post indicate that he acted inappropriately towards the patient. As for him becoming overwhelmed, haven't we all become overwhelmed at certain situations occasionally and had to excuse ourselves so as not to 'break down' in front of the patient when that wouldn't be helpful. Or if not, surely we've all had the experience of needing to take 5 minutes to pull ourselves together AFTER caring for certain patients in certain situations.
For the past two days I've been hinking to write a response to this post. As an ex-catholic ( very devouted one) who reverted to Islam, in either religion this does not seem normal. In catholicism it would be taken as fanatism. A true catholic would never think like that. In Islam it is an insult to Jesus (Peace and Blessing be Upon Him).
Muslims believe, that Jesus was one of the mightiest messengers of God that he was the Christ, that he was born miraculously without any male intervention (which many modern-day Christians do not believe today), that he gave life to the dead by God's permission and that he healed those born blind and the lepers by God's permission. In fact, no Muslim is a Muslim if he or she does not believe in Jesus!
What will also surprise the christians is the fact that the Muslim does not take the holy name of Jesus, in his own language, without saying Eesa, alaihi assalam ("Jesus, peace be upon him")
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
staff note: some separating of text done to clarify who said what.
the author seems like he might be on the edge of some psychotic episode, cloaked in religious fervor. again....not appropriate!
seriously? a psychotic episode because he made a connection--an internal connection, mind you--between the suffering of a severely burned patient and the suffering of jesus?
yes seriously!!!! this was certainly not internal, otherwise he wouldn't have run from the room crying, or been up all night thinking about his patient, nor would he have written this.i found this entire article very disturbing. our job, as nurses, are to care for the physical and psychological health of our patients. what i read didn't sound even close to that. it was a nurse who was having "religious dreams" about his patient! you have a nurse who 1. has a poor grasp of the english language.- i seriously hope that the reason this post is so disturbing is because the op didn't have the correct grammer to get across his points. to me, this sounds like a very ethnocentric person who "sees christ"- as a non-catholic...i find this flat out creepy. 2. it talks about (again, in broken, hard to understand english) that he wanted to "throw his arms around the patient"- in this instance, it isn't a giving the pt. a friendly hug of support....but an embrace filled with religious zeal. don't get me wrong- i've had many instances where my interactions with patients has endorsed, or challenged my faith. but imagine how uncomfortable it would be if i submitted an article about how my ed patient "embodied the faith of wicca_ moving me to sobbing tears and making me want to go build a bonfire...." if i posted "calling the patient during the night i can't sleep . all my mind was occupied by the tender love of god to us. giving his most precious son jesus christ. meditating on the paschal mystery of jesus. the pain and the joy combined. pain because of my sins, my shortcomings and my naughtiness. joy for this treasured moments and experienced that he (jesus) unveiled to me.
sorry- this is not my faith, and the fact that he was projecting this on his patient seems wrong to me. i have no problems with a nurse seeing their care of a patient as a service to their higher power, again...i believe this might be directly caused by the words chosen. but i could honestly tell you, this entire post gives me the icks. i'm not catholic, nor do i agree with most of what is taught in their faith. it would make me very uncomfortable having this man care for me....and that is what makes this wrong.
i am catholic, and this post gave me a serious case of the "icks", too.
Hmm, I read Sparrowhawk's post as first noting that Bro. David was a little hyperbolic for her, but that subsequent, (presumably) non-Christian posters have been the least tolerant, while generally denouncing the intolerance of Christians.
That about sums it up. One or two posters have been very...opinionated..saying he is wrong and they are right, and no where did I feel he was saying he was absolutely right. And Im just saying *in general* most people that cry for tolerance are in fact in that moment being intolerant to the poster/speaker etc.
yes, he was a bit over the top for me, but that's cool if that's how he wishes to express his faith in Christ. I'm not judging any one's beliefs based on their reaction to his post positive nor negative, merely stating that those that state they do not have the same beliefs are the most harsh. Unbiased opinion and viewpoint.
Very few people find the happy medium of true tolerance. Whether you believe in God or not.
Meh, each to their own assuming there are no patient care issues or work place issues. Life is tough and certainly not for panzies, so if somebody needs to lean on a little faith to get through tough situations, so what IMHO. I'm not sure why so many here have mocked and joked about the OP? We've all been on the receiving end of bullying and I doubt any of us enjoyed it, why do some feel the need to do that here? If there are patient care issues or work place issues, then perhaps the dialogue could be different, but I'm not all that keen on burning somebody with faith that may or may not be different from the way I try to make sense of the deep philosophical issues faced by humanity.
I doubt anyone would make fun of a patient, even if they were seeing their dead loved ones in the room. At least I hope not.
This issue in this thread is what a care provider "saw" and felt. And, really, as long as the OP did his job and wasn't trying to convert the patient or do anything else that the patient would be aware of, no one should be making fun of him, either.
There's room for a little gentle humor on this this topic, I would think, but mocking and ridicule don't belong.
do you also make fun of your dying patients when they see their dead loved ones in the room and talking to this "supernatural" intervention?
would you transfer them to the er as well?
if you think a dying patient's mental state should be comparable to the mental state of a medical professional reading an ekg, i don't know what to tell you.
CompleteUnknown
352 Posts
I'm quite surprised by some of the reactions to the OP's post. I once worked at a Catholic facility and many of our patients were homeless and had been living on the street for weeks or months. I'm sure everyone can imagine the state that many of them were in when they were admitted - weeks of dirt, lice, nits, smelling of urine and faeces, etc.
We were encouraged by our manager (a nun) to 'treat each patient as if he or she was Christ'. I'm not religious at all, but even I could well understand what was meant by this and I can't see how it could be considered offensive or inappropriate. All the patient would know is that the staff were treating them with respect. If a staff member happened to be devoutly religious, I CAN understand how that staff member may experience strong emotions and religious feelings when caring for some patients, and I don't see how that is wrong.
The OP posted about what he felt and thought when caring for a particular patient. Nowhere does his post indicate that he acted inappropriately towards the patient. As for him becoming overwhelmed, haven't we all become overwhelmed at certain situations occasionally and had to excuse ourselves so as not to 'break down' in front of the patient when that wouldn't be helpful. Or if not, surely we've all had the experience of needing to take 5 minutes to pull ourselves together AFTER caring for certain patients in certain situations.