Opinion
Vantage point
Spirituality at work
Do we need fewer, not more, nurses?
Bryan Tully argues that an understanding of how people’s faith, or lack of it, is important if good health care is to be provided patient’s rosary beads and offers to pray with the patient. Many of us would not fret at most of the above actions, acknowledging that professionals of any kind may draw on faith, so long as this does not conflict with professional ethics. But both the fictional Dawn and Mary have used their working hours and NHS uniform to proclaim their beliefs with patients to whom they owe a particular duty. Professional ethics This duty is to abide by evidence-based healthcare practices and to do so in a framework of professional ethics and management policy that is secular. This is what is expected from all staff. None of this contradicts another duty, which is to support patients and acknowledge their faith, or lack of faith, and the implications for them of any such life stance. Bryan Tully is a community psychologist, humanist celebrant and pastoral support worker Mr Tully spoke last month in an event run by the Florence Nightingale Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery at King’s College London. His topic was: should nurses be able to apply their religion directly and openly in caring for patients? Corbis
RELIGIOUS FAITH has always played a significant role in the delivery of health care. I work in London, at St Thomas’ Hospital, named after a Catholic saint. This is an acknowledgement of history. However, some of us would be uncomfortable if we found prayer cards on sale or a bowl of holy water placed in the foyer. Consider Mary, a Catholic nurse. Each day when she arrives, she pauses at the hospital door and recites silently a Hail Mary so that the mother of God will help her to be diligent and compassionate, and never forget that the safety and dignity of patients are paramount. During a coffee break, her friend, Razmin, a Muslim occupational therapist who wears the hijab, goes down to the office room, which staff are allowed to use for prayers. A third friend, Dawn, uses part of her coffee break to collect some leaflets she wants to give away outside the hospital. She has her principles too, as a humanist. On her return to the ward, Mary attends to a Catholic patient and mentions that she is a Catholic herself and will ask the priest to say an intercessionary prayer for the patient. Then she spots the
THE RISING demand for nurses is not a phenomenon unique to the UK. But while nursing shortages are global, their impact is at the point of care, with nurses having to attend to patients in environments where there are so few registered nurses as to test their resilience. At an individual level, resilience in nurses is a great asset; our ability to ‘bounce back’ from most situations, to cope with unplanned pressures while continuing to deliver compassionate care, has long been recognised. However, our ability to recover to a state that is neither clinically acceptable nor financially affordable or sustainable can perpetuate clinical inertia. Do we really want nurses to bounce back in these situations? When nurses’ energy is consumed by their efforts to be resilient, they can be so restricted that they no longer identify innovative and transformational solutions that can help them deliver high quality care. The current focus on safe staffing levels and difficulties in recruiting are also testing the strength of the healthcare system. The political parties make manifesto pledges about having thousands more nurses while hospitals continue to recruit staff from overseas and universities provide more places for nursing students and more return-to-practice courses. But the system’s resilience is also becoming restrictive and inhibiting innovative solutions to nursing shortages, which may not require more personnel. As nurses, we need to explore and create progressive, affordable and sustainable models of care, which may require less, not more, nurses. See also feature, pages 20-21 Ray Walker is director of nursing and secure services, Mersey Care NHS Trust, Liverpool, and a member of the Nursing Management editorial advisory board
NURSING MANAGEMENT
December 2014 | Volume 21 | Number 8 13
Downloaded from RCNi.com by ${individualUser.displayName} on Nov 21, 2015. For personal use only. No other uses without permission. Copyright © 2015 RCNi Ltd. All rights reserved.
Vantage point
Spirituality at work
Do we need fewer, not more, nurses?
Bryan Tully argues that an understanding of how people’s faith, or lack of it, is important if good health care is to be provided patient’s rosary beads and offers to pray with the patient. Many of us would not fret at most of the above actions, acknowledging that professionals of any kind may draw on faith, so long as this does not conflict with professional ethics. But both the fictional Dawn and Mary have used their working hours and NHS uniform to proclaim their beliefs with patients to whom they owe a particular duty. Professional ethics This duty is to abide by evidence-based healthcare practices and to do so in a framework of professional ethics and management policy that is secular. This is what is expected from all staff. None of this contradicts another duty, which is to support patients and acknowledge their faith, or lack of faith, and the implications for them of any such life stance. Bryan Tully is a community psychologist, humanist celebrant and pastoral support worker Mr Tully spoke last month in an event run by the Florence Nightingale Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery at King’s College London. His topic was: should nurses be able to apply their religion directly and openly in caring for patients? Corbis
RELIGIOUS FAITH has always played a significant role in the delivery of health care. I work in London, at St Thomas’ Hospital, named after a Catholic saint. This is an acknowledgement of history. However, some of us would be uncomfortable if we found prayer cards on sale or a bowl of holy water placed in the foyer. Consider Mary, a Catholic nurse. Each day when she arrives, she pauses at the hospital door and recites silently a Hail Mary so that the mother of God will help her to be diligent and compassionate, and never forget that the safety and dignity of patients are paramount. During a coffee break, her friend, Razmin, a Muslim occupational therapist who wears the hijab, goes down to the office room, which staff are allowed to use for prayers. A third friend, Dawn, uses part of her coffee break to collect some leaflets she wants to give away outside the hospital. She has her principles too, as a humanist. On her return to the ward, Mary attends to a Catholic patient and mentions that she is a Catholic herself and will ask the priest to say an intercessionary prayer for the patient. Then she spots the
THE RISING demand for nurses is not a phenomenon unique to the UK. But while nursing shortages are global, their impact is at the point of care, with nurses having to attend to patients in environments where there are so few registered nurses as to test their resilience. At an individual level, resilience in nurses is a great asset; our ability to ‘bounce back’ from most situations, to cope with unplanned pressures while continuing to deliver compassionate care, has long been recognised. However, our ability to recover to a state that is neither clinically acceptable nor financially affordable or sustainable can perpetuate clinical inertia. Do we really want nurses to bounce back in these situations? When nurses’ energy is consumed by their efforts to be resilient, they can be so restricted that they no longer identify innovative and transformational solutions that can help them deliver high quality care. The current focus on safe staffing levels and difficulties in recruiting are also testing the strength of the healthcare system. The political parties make manifesto pledges about having thousands more nurses while hospitals continue to recruit staff from overseas and universities provide more places for nursing students and more return-to-practice courses. But the system’s resilience is also becoming restrictive and inhibiting innovative solutions to nursing shortages, which may not require more personnel. As nurses, we need to explore and create progressive, affordable and sustainable models of care, which may require less, not more, nurses. See also feature, pages 20-21 Ray Walker is director of nursing and secure services, Mersey Care NHS Trust, Liverpool, and a member of the Nursing Management editorial advisory board
NURSING MANAGEMENT
December 2014 | Volume 21 | Number 8 13
Downloaded from RCNi.com by ${individualUser.displayName} on Nov 21, 2015. For personal use only. No other uses without permission. Copyright © 2015 RCNi Ltd. All rights reserved.
