How Should Hospitals Handle Atheist Patients?

I find the idea of some person I don’t know being invited into my hospital room when I am dying to be unappealing. I have family and friends that will be there for me, but not everyone has that so a group dedicated to helping/counseling the non-religious in the hospital is an excellent idea.

I’m confused by this. I always thought that chaplains were available if requested. Do they actually go from room to room, preying on the sick? That’s barbaric. Even if I was devoutly religious, I’d find this practice awfully intrusive.

My late companion was hospitalized a lot, and though she was a devout fundamentalist Christian herself, she grew to resent the hospital chaplain, who was practically harassing her with a repeat visit every day she stayed there, even after she sent word (through the nurses) for him not to come. He would even leave little cards for her when he happened to miss her while she was out for a treatment, or when she was asleep. He was more like a stalker than a comforting presence.

To the best of my knowledge, that chaplain at least never proselytized to her, never told her that she was following the wrong faith, nothing of the kind. He was just far too persistent in foisting his presence on people who didn’t particularly want it. But given that latter characteristic, I would bet that he would have been ready to proselytize full tilt to an avowed atheist patient.

~David D.G.

Hi,

I am the president of the Humanist Association of Manitoba, in Canada and we have members on the spiritual care visitation team for our local hospitals.

In order to qualify as a spiritual care visitation team member all (including the religious members) must attend training that teaches us to respect the dieing wishes of patients and to refer them to the appropriate counselor. When an atheist asks for an atheist or humanist to visit, they get one. End of story.

This is thanks to good public policy and a number of humanists that are willing to step to the plate and actually “visit” people who request it.

Oddly, this does not stop the occasional pastor from “just checking” if someone needs Jesus. I mean, you never know. 😉

I once woke up from back surgery with a priest and a rabii waiting for me. Apparently, when I was coming to, I had been mumbling something about …priest …electric …perpetual eye

I had to explain to them that I’d been talking about a Judas Priest song called Electric Eye. They seemed disappointed.

My son (12)was recently in the local Children’s Hospital. During the prep before surgery, the nurse asked what religion he was, to which he replied “I am an atheist”.

The nurse looked at my son, looked at my wife and myself, and excused herself.

A new nurse took over. Throughout his stay, we several times noticed hospital staff in small groups whispering, but the word “atheist” could clearly be heard.

We had no visits from clergy.

Of course, I live in a community that has an elected theocracy for a local government, so it gives you an idea of the religious climate.

I live in a small, catholic dominated town. Years ago, when I first moved here, I was hospitalized. The hospital was historically a Catholic hospital, but like all hospitals in Canada, it is now run and funded by a public health board.

Since I was bedridden, my husband filled out the admittance papers. The admitting nurse would not accept “none” as an answer when she asked him for my religion. He grudgingly allowed her to put down the name of one of the local protestant churches.

I soon realized why they asked this question. A priest came by each day and offered communion to my roommate, then left without saying a word to me. Fortunately the clergy representing the protestant church didn’t make regular rounds, and I was left in peace.

The hospital’s policy seemed to be “we have to assign a clergy to your case,” as if religious support were a crucial part of medical care. The patient’s privacy didn’t seem to matter much – local clergy were automatically entitled to a list of people admitted and their illnesses.

Hospitals should never gather this information and clergy should never visit unless the patient specifically asks for it. The default assumption should always be that the patient is an atheist.

“Has anyone here encountered the religious presence in hospitals or do you know someone who has?”

I had my last surgery at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Tampa, no choice on the hospital.
There were crosses in every single room, even ICU. They had a channel on the tv that was always on the hospital church, and I’d fall asleep watching discovery channel or the sci-fi channel, and when I’d wake up, the church channel would be on again.
Nurses either asking if I wanted them to pray with me, or offering to pray for me, and so much more.
That 9 days in there, was torture for me, not once did anyone ask me if I was religious, they just assumed I was and treated me as if I was.
If I said I was atheist, they treated me like they didn’t hear what I said.

I really wish more hospitals would take into account that not everyone believes in a god, and treat us better, listen to us, stop just assuming, stop praying over us etc.

The city where my parents lived had a choice of Catholic, Protestant or Jewish hospital. When my mother was first diagnosed with advanced lung cancer, she was admitted into the protestant one and according to the female chaplain who came in, “someone had asked that she stop by to see if my mother needed spiritual guidance.” Unfortunately for the nice woman both my brother and I were present and in not in the most tolerant of moods, so the poor chaplain had to back-peddle her way from the room. I am actually grateful for that intrusion, if only because the chaplain’s hasty departure one of the very few things that made my mother laugh through the duration.

hahaha Hopefull, that made me laugh so much

I think it is ok for the hospital to ask about religion but must accept graciously any answer including no answer or none. They maybe should ask also whether there is any outside clergy or other person outside of immediate family who should be cleared to visit (a religious person might well find comfort if their minister, rabbi, etc can visit even if other visitors are prohibited, anyone might want to have a dear friend be able to visit).

At least one major hospital chaplain code of conduct prohibits any proselytization or evangelism. Their job is to support the patients not convert them; they should be listeners if the patient wants to talk even it it is about the patient’s grandchildren (the chaplain might be the only person within the hospital willing to listen). However not all chaplains subscribe (and some might follow it for ‘religious’ people but consider ‘non-religious’ legitimate targets) and hospitals are not necessarily off-limits to other clerics.

There are a few humanist hospital chaplains and also in Britain.

I recently had day surgery at a “non-religious” Toronto hospital. During the pre-admission, I was asked for my religion. I said “none”.
On the day of the surgery, I was lying on the gurney in pre-op. The chart was sitting on my chest so I leafed through it. Under religion it said “refused to answer”.
As I was minutes away from the operation, I didn’t say anything, but I did wonder if that was the hospital policy or just the admitting nurse’s opinion.

Unfortunately I’ve spent months at a time in the hospital and have enough stories to fill a couple hundred pages.

I’ve been on both sides of this issue. I’m atheist/Buddhist.

I was hospitalized for several days and someone holding a Bible came into my room wanting to pray with me. I was feeling well enough at that moment to clearly let him know I did not want to pray with him or anytime in the future. I believe he was a volunteer, although I never found out. For the rest of that visit, and subsequent visits to the same hospital, I felt wary and anxious that I’d wake up with someone praying over me.

I don’t want to be prayed for. I don’t believe I’m full of original sin & need to be saved.

On the other side of the situation…I used to volunteer at a hospice. At one point one of the residents asked me to read some Bible verses to her. I read the verses she asked without any commentary on my part. As a hospice volunteer, I felt privileged that these people had let me into their lives. I wanted to learn from them, not teach them.

I firmly believe that hospitals are NOT the place for missionary work or random offers of prayer. The audience (patient) is captive and in some physical/emotional crisis. I don’t believe it is ethical to push religious practice (prayer, Bibles, cruicifixes, etc) in this situation. If someone asks for something (e.g., hospice patient who wanted to hear Bible verses) then I believe caregivers should provide it. But ONLY if asked.

I recently had an interesting debate on this issue with a Christian friend and fellow blogger here in Scotland. She reported on a nurse apparently being discriminated against based on her Christian religion.

A little digging revealed a different story, which I described here and later here. Turns out that the nurse had been pushing her religion on patients against hospital policy, and despite previous reprimands.

In general, I think UK culture has a fairly laid-back view about religion. Sometimes that means we get fair and balanced treatment of religious and non-religious views and practices. And sometimes it means that people don’t make any fuss when religious people get special privileges.

Clearly, people in a position of power have an obligation not to abuse that power. It is frustrating that religious people do not recognize that pushing their beliefs on vulnerable people – such as hospital patients – is inappropriate.

I like the quote in your post – comparing their proselytizing to an atheist trying to demolish someone’s religious comfort in the hospital setting. Maybe that image would help my friend understand my position better.

For what it’s worth, my mother is a reform Jewish chaplain. Where she works, at least, chaplains only go in if requested – although I’d assume the option is specifically offered to most people. She was frequently the only chaplain on duty, and would go talk to plenty of non-Jews. It’s interesting, actually, because she herself doesn’t actually believe in any type of anthropomorphic god, or even necessarily a god at all (yay reform judaism) – in her experience, it’s more like hospice work, being there to comfort people. She sings the beautiful jewish prayer for healing frequently, which people like, and then beyond that usually just talks to them, or sits with them while they pray, if that’s comforting. I’ll ask her specifically about atheists next time we talk – I’ll also ask the same question of my father, who is a hospice doctor. I KNOW it is at best inappropriate and almost certainly a violation of hospital policy and at worst illegal to have a chaplain force themselves on you – whoever has experienced that should immediately take it up with the highest powers at the institution. Hospitals are bound to honor patient’s wishes, and although we all know that doesn’t always happen, especially at religious institutions, letting it slide without comment implicitly endorses the behavior.

I spent two weeks in a local hospital last year with a bad infection in my leg.

One day a man came into my room and asked if he could leave some (obviously religious) reading material in my room. I told him I didn’t have a problem with that.

He then asked if he could sit and pray with me. I told him I was not interested in that, but he kept pushing me to pray.

I was too stoned on pain medication to get too bent out of shape, but did manage to smile and politely as I could ask him to please leave his papers and excuse himself.

Wonder how the hospital would react to an Atheist going room to room and leaving some Dawkins or Hitchens for the patients to browse through. Not a bad idea actually.

When I was hospitalized for an eating disorder in my teens, Easter fell during one of the weeks early in my stay. An extremely ancient pastor and his wife came in and we had a mandatory group session in which we had to sit and listen to him preach about hellfire and redemption and the whole lot. It was one part boring, one part mind-boggling and one part infuriating.

Other patients complained and we were told that, in the future, we would be given a choice regarding religious activities and would have the option to take some free time instead. Still, I wonder what my health insurance company would have thought if they knew what sort of crap they were paying for.

I was a little surprised by point #5 from the Center for Inquiry. One of the oncology Chaplains at Mass General, that I know, is a Humanist Chaplain and an Ethical Culture Officiant. She also pushed for and got an EC Chaplaincy program created.

I’m writing to her, asking for more details. Personally, I don’t know the Chaplaincy policies at Mass General.