Sunday, April 26, 2009

Prayer on the NHS

Helpful article by Fay Wilson Rudd, a local hospital chaplain, on how she tackles the issue of praying with patients, and her take on the recent furore over a nurse offering to pray with patients. It concludes:

As NHS North Somerset has said “...it is acceptable to offer spiritual support as part of care when the patient asks for it...but the initiative lies with the patient and not with the nurse.” To this I would add “or the Chaplain”. This is a view held by many patients; some have said they would expect a chaplain or faith community leader to offer prayer but certainly wouldn’t want a nurse asking to pray with them. Similarly some nurses were uncomfortable with the idea that they might pray with patients even though they prayed regularly for them.

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