Are personal faith and medical care compatiable?

[Burnzonemt]

There are a lot of burn outs out there.

I hope your wrong, but unfortunately you're probably right. This is what scares me about these laws being put into effect. What is to keep some burnout from skipping necessary treatment, be that what it may, and then claiming it was because of his/her religion. So we offer Catholics, Methodists, Jehovah's Witness', Protestants, and any other religion you can think of concession based on their belief, what is to keep me from forming an obscure, off the wall religion that will allow me exemption in the event my negligence gets called into court? Now I'm all for nonemergency exemption (abortions, birth control pill, circumsions, etc.) but my opinion is that blanket exemption for all health care providers is BAD, BAD, BAD. After rereading the origanol post it seems that some states are considering broad exemption laws. This is just wrong on so many levels.

I hope Kansas isn't in that number considering these B-R-O-A-D exemptions. If they are I might have to move......

GGGGRRRRRRRRRR (insert angry chainsaw noises here)

So do personal faith and medical care mix? Not sure. Looks like a grey area to me. I'm still on the wall on this one.

~Just my few cents worth~

[buckeyedoc]

I'm sorry to admit that I have not taken the time to read all 7 pages of the replies. As you can see below in my signature, I have a B.A. My degree is in Theology. I have worked as an Associate Pastor for a church and worked with youth for 13 years. I am a firm believer that there is a time and place for everything. I am not about to quote scripture to a 13 year old girl in the back of my medic who is pregnant. That is not my place. I do, however, believe that she has sinned and will be judge accordingly, BUT NOT BY ME. God doesn't need my input. I do believe that God has given me the medical abilities that I have. I have had patients who have wanted to discuss the Bible and I was delighted too. I WILL NOT make the back of my medic a pulpit to preach to my patients. One patient comes right to mind. We had a lady, a hospice pt., who we took from the hospice hospital to her residence so she could die. She was absolutely the sweetest lady I've met. We got to the house and she wanted us to wait with her for a while. Our dispatch approved (surprisingly). You could just tell that she only had minutes left. She asked if I would do the last rites for her. I politely told her that I wasn't qualified to perform last rites and would gladly say a prayer with/for her. She smiled and said that she would appreciate that. Her husband was right there with us the entire time. My partner and I took her hands and I said about a couple of minute prayer with her. She died during the prayer. Although my partner and I really didn't know the lady all that well, we had only transported her a few times, we felt grief when she died. My partner and I attended her funeral (which I don't normally do, BTW), and her son came up to us and said that he really appreciated the few minutes we spent with his mom and dad.

I believe that medicine can't exist without faith.

[john51071]

I didn't have time to read many replies, and will keep mine short. By all means, faith and medicine mix! Keep up the faith and keep up the good work.

[Xiaomei559]

I don't think the question is whether faith and medicine mix or not. The question is should faith complicate or impede on patient care. You could have your faith but if you allow that to interfere with patient care then you are betraying your faith and the practice of medicine. A good example is some of the Hatzolah units here in NYC. I've witnessed Hatzolah units not treat a patient based simply on the fact that the patient was not hasidic. (And no it's not true of all Hatzolah units, so relax) I've also witnessed a muslim doctor refuse to treat a man because he was gay.

The bottom line is do your job, and if your faith takes precedence over your patient then become a preacher.