Got me thinking...

Another day at work and thankfully, not too many dilemmas.

Monday went by quickly and relatively painlessly for me and most of the unit. It wasn't so painless for some of our coworkers who were involved in an accident while parking their cars on our busy front thoroughfare. A lot of craziness ensued, and everyone's okay for now. We'll wait to see what happens.

Bubba feels sick, so I get to go into nurse mode at home. I see the oak trees in the yard are blooming. Makes me wonder if allergy season has finally claimed him as a victim this year.

I did some more certification studying and for a little break I ran into Kim at emergiblog's recent Don't tread on my conscience post. Oh, it made me think!

Yes, it is hard to blog about controversial subjects including this one. Did I think about it when I was looking at specialties in nursing school? You betcha. I would have serious issues if I were in anything remotely related to Kim's topic, and yes, I did turn down a position with a world-renowned surgeon just because it could potentially pose such problems. I have my own set of values, which I'd prefer to display in my work rather than to discuss directly with patients. Yes, Momma did tell me never to discuss politics and religion and I adhere to that with my patients and coworkers.

I often think about situations such as this recent one where a per diem nurse lost her job because she discussed one aspect of religion. Do I agree that she should have bounced that ball to the chaplain? Sure, but do we know if anyone was around to take the pass, let alone be present with the patient. Another incident in the UK got a nurse suspended in February.

Finally, I'm often disgusted that we can't agree to disagree and realize we live in a country of many faiths and traditions. Allowing a nurse to honor his/her faith does not mean he/she is shirking the work, it reminds us that nurses are people, not robots, with traditions, beliefs and feelings, just like the patients. If we denigrate the faith tradition (or lack thereof--if that's your choice) of a nurse, we, in turn, denigrate them, too.

Kim: keep lighting the fires and making us think.