Catholic Nurses

Oh, two new members and both students! Are you still online?

I will be a senior in nursing school this fall. I am very interested in contributing to this forum. I am hoping to someday join or help to establish a religious order of nursing sisters, but have not been able to find many that wear the full traditional habit. I'm an older vocation, too, and many of the more traditional orders do not accept people in their 40s or 50s.

Hey! I am a soon-to-be nursing student and I'm interested in picking this group up again also. I would appreciate any support from my fellow sisters in Christ who are also going through a nursing program or have already completed it.
Thanks a bunch!

I noticed this group and wondered if any nurses were interested in picking it up again?

Anyone wish to wake up this group again? Let us not forget that this is a calling, a vocation, not just a job!!! Oh, Mary keep us in your maternal mantel, guide us in our day to day calling, all in all to do the charity, which is the love of your Son, Our Lord, Jesus....Amen

Hello out there. I am a second semester nursing student. The Lord has given me an opportunity to fulfill a dream. I am interested in the issues that Catholic nurses are faced with and how they handle them in today's society. I am in NJ, USA.

I agree in the following statement, that we are not to pass judgement...but judgement is the key. We know that as Catholics, we are called to a Holy call, that of protecting life. We are given the knowledge of truth, which as a Catholic, we know, is never relative, we believe truth is absolute...when possible, when the Spirit that dwells in us, moves us to invoke truth in a world that maintains that of the culture of death...woe to us if we do not! Contraception is proposed to be apart of the culture of death we live in. It tells one spouse to the other that they are open to the expression of love, in the most intimate way, yet not being open to life, says that one or both partners agrees to "hold" back...lets pray, that we find courage in todays day and age, to utilize the God given knowledge we have entrusted to us, to do good, and spread the good news, whenever possible, while witholding judgement on anyone.

I appreciate what you are saying, but I cannot think of a way or a situation where it would be acceptable for you, as a Nurse, to pass judgement on the medication that someone is taking, because that is how they will view their birth control, as 'necessary medication'.

If they are not Catholic, they will not think that their relationship needs to be life-giving until they want it to be and they are completely entitled to their own opinion. Health care is not dependent on your faith, at least not here it isn't, and as such, when we are taking care of someone who is ill or injured, it is not our place to make them feel worse by telling them that their choices regarding birth control are 'wrong'.

I would love to be in a position to say that arificial forms of birth control are wrong to my patients, but especially as a student I have no grounding to 'inform' people that legal, licensed medications are wrong and they shouldn't be taking them just because I have a moral objection to it.

If they do not believe in God, even if you do inform them that their relationship is not life-giving, they will not care, and also, there are women who take birth control pills for reasons other than to prevent conception, which is allowed by the Church and you cannot know the reasons that a patient is taking their birth control unless you make a specific point to ask them, and if it has no relevance to their needs whilst in Hospital, it is not really acceptable to discuss it, I don't think it is anyway.

Not to mention the thousands of men that you may be taking care of who regularly use condoms with their partners, unless you are going to start asking every patient about their sexual habits with their partner/spouse etc why would it be 'ok' for you to quiz women about the birth control that they take but not remind men that using condoms is just as bad?

No, I realize that it is not my place to tell people the evils of birth control. But there must be some way to help people come to know the truth. Our whole nation lives with a contraceptive mentality. Relationships are not life-giving when we are not open to life. It's all about control, self-centeredness and greed.
Isn't there some politically correct way to say"there is a better way"?

One small, prolife,thing that I have done is when I do dental health presentations to kids, or others, is to ask if they know when they started developing teeth. A quick study of embryology will show that tooth buds for the lower anterior primary teeth are present when the embryo is 5-6 weeks old. I show and pass around the 12 week fetal model that we have available through many pro-life resources. People like to see how small they were when they started to develop teeth.

Any other thoughts out there on the subject of being pro-life in a pro-death culture?

Second Year Student Nurse here, studying for my DipHE.

Reading through the discussions, at our University not many people support Euthanasia, and I certainly don't, as for DNR forms, I think sometimes it is best to let people go peacefully rather than trying to bring them back to life so they can suffer more pain. I am currently on a surgical ward and when I admit patients and they tell me their religion is Practising Catholic or Christian I always offer to pray for them, I don't see why I shouldn't, they share the same faith as me and if it will comfort them and make them feel better before they have major surgery then why not? I do pray for my patient's anyway and we're all about advocating hollistic care, well, spirituality is a part of hollistic care, therefore it is important. That's my opinion anyway.

I think the hardest thing I have come across so far is being given placements that I do not feel comfortable attending and have no interest working in after I qualify, such as GUM clinics or General Day Surgery Wards where abortions are performed. The University does not seem to care about my religious objections and I have had to swap this placement from General Day Surgery to the Ward I am on now so that I didn't have to take 1-2 days off a week to avoid participating in taking care of women who would be having surgical terminations.

I appreciate why you would cringe upon hearing or seeing that patient's are taking birth control pills/ injections/ implants etc but unfortunately it is not our place to start telling people what they should or should not take, especially in such a sensitive area. We have to remember that whilst we have moral objections to it, many people do not, and it's probably best just to avoid the subject.

I will, and do, refuse to do TTOs and give medication to patient's who are taking birth control pills (and they are being kept in the locker and therefore you would actually have to give them to the patient) and I will explain why to other members of the nursing team. If they have an objection they can take it up with the ward sister etc, but I have every right to have a religious objection to certain things and as long as there are other members of staff on the ward qualified to do drug rounds or check TTOs then I do not need to be in a position where my religious views are compromised.