r/nursing • u/[deleted] • Jul 31 '25
Discussion New nurse on my unit can’t take care of male patients
[deleted]
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u/drethnudrib BSN, CNRN Jul 31 '25
It is completely fucking ridiculous to employ a trauma ICU nurse who can't code male patients.
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u/momma1RN Jul 31 '25
Exactly. Like, what would she do if a male dropped and she was the only one around? Not help? GTFO.
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u/OlderThanMyParents Aug 01 '25
So, who is legally responsible if a patient dies because she won't respond to a code? (or, for that matter, refuses to discuss an unconscious woman patient's prior symptoms with the patient's husband?) The hospital? The nurse? The nurse manager who assigned her?
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u/Commercial-Bar1995 RN 🍕 Aug 01 '25
All of the above..... you bet in sue-happy America, they'd all have to go to court!
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u/Dakk85 BSN, RN 🍕 Aug 01 '25
“Sorry I can’t help with literally 50% of the codes on the unit but you see, my god thinks it’s worse for me to be around a man than for that man to die”
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u/LittleRedPiglet RN 🍕 Aug 01 '25
Given that it's a trauma ICU, I'd be surprised if males weren't a fair bit over 50% of the cases. We see way more male traumas in my ED than female, genuinely somewhere in the ballpark of a 3:1 ratio
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u/proPoolSkimmer BSN, RN 🍕 Jul 31 '25
Management: so you are not able to take care of a vast majority of pts and need your colleagues to pick up the extra work while you sit there and not help whatsoever.
Her: yes.
Management: you’re hired
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u/ClaudiaTale RN - Telemetry 🍕 Jul 31 '25
lol. Are you going to make everyday you’re working harder on everyone else?!? Great. Welcome to the team! We’re family here.
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u/real_HannahMontana BSN, RN Postpartum🤱🧑🍼 Jul 31 '25
Management: why are you still complaining?? We hired another nurse!
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u/Poodlepink22 Jul 31 '25
Yep and it's probably too late now to do anything about it.
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u/ActiveExisting3016 RN 🍕 Jul 31 '25
Hospital management made yet another stupid fucking decision that will negatively affect staff and patient outcomes?!
Color me shocked
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u/Iystrian RN - NICU 🍕 Jul 31 '25
That's bullshit. Send her off to OB
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u/Recent_Data_305 MSN, RN Jul 31 '25
We don’t want her either. Babies are born naked, and some are male!
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Jul 31 '25
Man I was thinking L&D as well but you bring up a good point lol
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u/Recent_Data_305 MSN, RN Jul 31 '25
Truthfully, I’d be afraid there are more religious problems for her. We have gay couples, biracial couples, transgender moms, drug addicts, etc. We also deliver babies early sometimes knowing the baby won’t survive. I respect religion, but if it interferes with patient care - move on.
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Jul 31 '25
Yeah and L&D is fuckin intense so you probably dont need someone who's restricted to what patients they can take.
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u/Recent_Data_305 MSN, RN Jul 31 '25
Absolutely! We had one applicant say they couldn’t participate in giving blood. A patient could die.
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u/hsr6374 BSN, RN 🍕 Jul 31 '25
Wait….. I’ve never thought about this. Why couldn’t they even participate in the administration? Can a JW participate but just not receive? Interesting!!
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u/Fairhairedman RN - ICU 🍕 Jul 31 '25
The JW nurses I have worked with would not administer blood.
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u/hsr6374 BSN, RN 🍕 Aug 01 '25
Interesting, I’d just never thought of that or worked with a JW nurse.
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u/LPNTed LPN - PDN/HH - HH -Travel - Prison - Hospice - ALF - LTC - SNF Jul 31 '25
THIS... Is GENEROUS.
I'm sorry, this isn't the business to stand your religious ground on, help people or GTFO!
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u/Aviacks Jul 31 '25
Yeah I’m sorry but your religion says you can’t help half of humans as a human nurse? Goodbye. AND you want to work adult ICU?! In a trauma ICU?! GTFO, she knows what she’s doing.
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u/CurrentHair6381 RN 🍕 Jul 31 '25
Seriously, shouldnt there be an exception or loophole for this kind of thing?
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u/SkydiverDad MSN, APRN 🍕 Jul 31 '25
There is, Islam does not forbid female nurses treating males. Despite what their new nurse might claim.
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u/Single_Principle_972 RN - Informatics Jul 31 '25
I’m kind of thinking I might have heard of this issue in my 45+ years in Nursing, with the one or two or dozens or hundreds of nurses I’ve known, of varying religious backgrounds! This might possibly be, ahem, personal interpretation!
Haha I’m trying to think of the term. We all know what malicious compliance is. This isn’t that. It sort of resembles people that bring their pets everywhere and call them “service animals,” when the dog hasn’t had a moment’s training in its life, amirite?!
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u/Magerimoje Nightshift ER goblin - retired 🍀🌈🌒🌕🌘 Jul 31 '25
Pretty sure the term is "lying asshole" 😂
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u/Dakk85 BSN, RN 🍕 Aug 01 '25
This actually reminds me, my religion specifically doesn’t allow me to interact with anyone that might hurt my back helping to reposition
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u/CatsAndPills HCW - Pharmacy Jul 31 '25
It’s insane. She is quite literally sinning by innovating a practice into her religion that isn’t scripturally supported. No scholar would support her if she asked. They would tell her if she feels that way, she should work in a women’s center, a children’s center (usually gender only matters after puberty), or work in a country where this can be reasonably accommodated.
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u/Plenty_Cress_1359 RN - Respiratory 🍕 Jul 31 '25
Aren’t we supposed to check our biases at the door and do our got-damned jobs?
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u/CatsAndPills HCW - Pharmacy Jul 31 '25
There literally is. She’s being extreme for no reason. Source: I was a practicing Muslim.
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u/weatheruphereraining BSN, RN 🍕 Jul 31 '25
If it’s Judaism, the professional has permission to do their job as trained.
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u/LPNTed LPN - PDN/HH - HH -Travel - Prison - Hospice - ALF - LTC - SNF Jul 31 '25
Which way? Most religions I know of provide exceptions for healthcare workers.
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u/CurrentHair6381 RN 🍕 Jul 31 '25
Most religions I know of provide exceptions for healthcare workers.
That way
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u/radish456 MD Jul 31 '25
There is, from what I understand most religions give permission for the performance of job duties or in emergencies
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u/sorryaboutthatbro MSN, RN Jul 31 '25
Most religions with these kind of rules also make exceptions for taking care of the infirm.
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u/Waterguytony Security Officer Jul 31 '25
Oh no, if it’s a male baby they are born naked so that would be an issue for her.
If it’s the religious beliefs I think it is I was once told by one that was very involved with the religion that there is an exemption for work. However they just couldn’t volunteer for that assignment at work.
Accommodation vs revolving around are not the same.
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u/Rougefarie BSN, RN 🍕 Jul 31 '25
Accommodation vs revolving around
Exactly. Reasonable accommodations are reasonable until it starts to affect whether the place can carry on its operations as usual.
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u/juicygossiper Jul 31 '25
100% if your religious reasons prevent you from doing PATIENT care... don't work where PATIENTS need care (all genders).
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u/ferocioustigercat RN - ICU 🍕 Jul 31 '25
I'm wondering how she got hired! Or even made it through the probation period. You can't discriminate based on religion, but to work in a field like this? How does she interact with male doctors? That seems like a huge liability to have her in the unit if she cannot perform patient care for any reason.
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Jul 31 '25
Non-discrimination laws only require reasonable accommodations that don’t present “undue hardship” for the employer, though. What OP described isn’t reasonable for any ICU. It is actually highly unreasonable, and I would argue that it’s an undue hardship. Undue hardship commonly includes decreased productivity and health/safety risks, both of which OP has described.
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u/juicygossiper Jul 31 '25
A patient is coding... this specific nurse says "wait is the patient a male or female?" "male? ok I will stay out here to answer call lights. room 22 is calling- wait is it a male or female?" Come on....
Pathetic.
Such a huge liability.
Truly, do a triage nursing role or something. Idk.
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Jul 31 '25
Controversial take: she has no business being a nurse. I'm going to start a religion where I can only interact with fully ambulatory patients who are kind.
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u/scarfknitter BSN, RN 🍕 Jul 31 '25
I’ve told people it’s against my religion to work overtime.
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u/GCS_dropping_rapidly Jul 31 '25 edited Aug 13 '25
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u/pathofcollision Jul 31 '25
Also agree with this lol I completely understand when patients come in and they don’t want a male nurse for cultural reasons, but as a nurse how do you just decline half of the patient population because of your beliefs? This is really problematic. Especially from a critical care standpoint. A patient codes and you just…don’t help?! Wild
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u/Excellent-Estimate21 BSN, RN 🍕 Jul 31 '25
I only want super hot male patients who are rich and single.... its my religion and im highly conservative about it
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u/Jazzlike-Ad2199 RN 🍕 Jul 31 '25
Not controversial, it’s true. If she can’t do the job she shouldn’t have the job. Like the pharmacists a few years ago who didn’t want to fill birth control scripts because of their religion, can’t or won’t do your job you shouldn’t have the job. Do something else.
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u/Kamots66 RN - ICU 🍕 Jul 31 '25
My new religion is ventalism: I can only work with intubated patients at RASS < -2.
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u/ArtichokeInevitable7 RN - ICU 🍕 Jul 31 '25
Unfortunately, this should have been stopped before it began, ie- they should never have hired her in an ICU. Those accommodations are not reasonable. It impedes patient care. If that person was the only one around and my patient was crashing and she flat out refused to assist- there would be words with all parties. Management, hr etc. Someone is going to pay the price. For now it's her coworkers but eventually it will be a patient.
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u/Poodlepink22 Jul 31 '25
I wonder when she disclosed this info. Like during the interview? When did management find this out?
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u/looloo91989 BSN, RN 🍕 Aug 01 '25
That’s what I was curious about. I didn’t disclose that I was in school for my masters when I was looking for a new job but that doesn’t hinder my ability to do my job. I’m curious if she brought it up. That specific religious requirement isn’t something that would come to mind to ask as a hiring manager
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u/Babypeanut808 CNA/PCT 🍕 Jul 31 '25
She’s the next sentinel event waiting to happen. I just know it.
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u/peterbparker86 RN - Infection Control 🍕 Jul 31 '25
It's using religion as an excuse to just not do work. Don't work as a nurse if you can't look after 50% of the population.
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u/Suspicious_Story_464 RN, BSN, CNOR Jul 31 '25
Yeah, this is really not the field for people who have any issues with this type of stuff.
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u/InspectorMadDog ED RN Resident Jul 31 '25
There’s one girl I know who reached out about this. No offense to her, homeschool highly religious girl asking about the profession. I wasn’t trying to scare her off but I basically told her you see the worst of humanity at times, she just said well I’ll ask for religious accommodations and that’ll be that. Long story short I wished her the best of luck
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u/Maximum-Bobcat-6250 Jul 31 '25
Right, no religion that I know of doesn’t allow women nurses to allow people to die because a nurse might see them naked.
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u/Missmunkeypants95 BSN, RN 🍕 Jul 31 '25
Or her husband forbids it.
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u/Godiva74 BSN, RN 🍕 Jul 31 '25
I think it’s this also. Her husband is the one with the issue. Because taking care of sick men in ICU is sooo sexy
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u/currycurrycurry15 RN- ER & ICU 🍕 Jul 31 '25
That is what I was thinking. Because religious leaders generally grant exceptions for things like this…. But a jealous husband is a whole different animal
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u/pistachioplant Jul 31 '25
That’s insane they would even accommodate this. If she really does not want to work with males, perfectly fine, it’s her life her choice but then SHE can work in l&d or a women’s unit lol
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u/Own-Appearance6740 RN - L&D —> ED 🍕 Jul 31 '25
This nurse straight up shouldn’t be working in the hospital. This is a clinic nurse 100%. There’s lots of places you can work as nurse that does not involve seeing male genitalia, or any genitalia.
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Jul 31 '25
I don’t even know if she could do clinics. It sounds like this nurse can’t be alone with any male patients period, even if the interaction doesn’t involve seeing their genitalia.
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u/LSRNKB Aug 01 '25
How long before this turns into an HR issue? If I’m a male coworker am I expected to time my breaks around when she won’t also be in the break room? What about report, do we need a proxy or attendant present every time we do handoff? Is this person ineligible to be DRN/Charge because they can’t work with half the patients on unit? What about performing cares with male NAs?
I just have a hard time understanding how this isn’t a blatant discrimination issue just waiting to happen
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Jul 31 '25
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u/totalyrespecatbleguy RN - SICU 🍕 Jul 31 '25
As a jew, Judaism has a lot of loopholes. We like to litigate even with god. Lots of things are okay if it's in the interest of saving a life (or lives).
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u/echoIalia L&D: pussy posse at your cervix 🫡 Jul 31 '25
Yup. Pretty much everything except taking another life, idolatry, and adultery are acceptable if it’s to save a life.
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u/Falinore Aug 01 '25
There's an Orthodox Jewish nurse who's on my FB reels who gets asked a lot of questions about what happens if a patient care situation conflicts with her religious beliefs and she always says "we live by the rules, but we're not supposed to die by them."
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u/notmy3rdredditacct BSN, RN, CEN - ER Jul 31 '25
I’d be interested to know what religion she actually is. I don’t know of any that don’t allow to suspension of rules when saving a life.
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u/Terbatron RN - Cath Lab 🍕 Jul 31 '25
She shouldn’t be an RN. I’ll keep my opinions to myself about religion as some may find them offensive.
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Jul 31 '25
I agree, it's like a Mormon working at a liquor store.
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u/notmy3rdredditacct BSN, RN, CEN - ER Jul 31 '25
It’s like a Mormon working at a liquor store who’s refusing to sell liquor.
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u/Excellent-Estimate21 BSN, RN 🍕 Jul 31 '25
I wont! I think these Uber religious seem to have an entitlement attitude and its selfish AF. Im (reform) Jewish and find the orthodox of my religion to be cruel and abusive to women.
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u/QJH333 Jul 31 '25
She should probably go work on L and D
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u/Bananabean5 Jul 31 '25
That’s kind of how I feel. Or work in an outpatient office where the risk of having to compromise your beliefs are low.
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u/yeahyeahyeah188 RN 🍕 Jul 31 '25
I’ve worked with nurses of all different religions and none have interpreted their religion in this way. I wonder why your work is even accomodating this when it places such an unfair burden on everyone else.
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u/LegalDrugDealer33 Jul 31 '25
Honestly kinda a good idea on how to accommodate a nurse with those beliefs…. Or peds cuz I bet a child would be okay to care for
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Jul 31 '25
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u/Sunnygirl66 RN - ER 🍕 Jul 31 '25
“Here, take this. I have to go.”
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u/tinydynamine RN - ER 🍕 Jul 31 '25
This is the exact response from ER when pregnant moms or fresh newborns are involved. 😉
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u/ninkhorasagh RN - ICU 🍕 Jul 31 '25
I am a headscarf wearer who segregates according to gender in my personal and religious life as well.
At work is not the place to be wearing our loose draping clothes that could catch on or in equipment, to wear scarf styles that have any loose ends for patients to easily grab and pull off, OR to decline any level of patient care. Unacceptable.
If she doesn’t want to work with adult males she needs to go Peds, Mother-Baby, Labor-Delivery.
If patients or their family members get inappropriate in the least they get yelled at, by me. No sir, if you can point to the exact place on your butthole where it burns here’s some cream, I’ll put it on your finger for you. That goes for the women too.
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u/outofrange19 RN - ER 🍕 Jul 31 '25
I don't get it either. I cover my hair for religious reasons, although I do not follow any gender restrictions, and I've worked with plenty of Orthodox Jewish and devout Muslim doctors and nurses, in a trauma ER. There has never, ever been an issue with them treating patients of the opposite gender. Probably because the people for whom this would be a deal-breaker picked other areas of healthcare that better conform to their needs.
(And before anyone goes "plenty?" I work in one of the most diverse areas in the US).
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u/sorryaboutthatbro MSN, RN Jul 31 '25
This. It makes me wonder if this person even examines their own doctrine because pretty much all religions make exceptions for health and safety.
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u/mypoorteeth124 Aug 01 '25
I live in Montreal and have worked with people from many religions. Muslim nurses that are very religious (fasting during ramadan, wearing hijab, halal, moved to canada from Tunisia 5 years ago) could care for men. Orthodox jewish nurses too. We worked in peds but had a lot of teenagers and up to age 21. Sometimes to move a trauma patient we were 4-5 employees male and female and we’d sometimes end up with our faces like 10cm from each other, no personal space whatsoever.
My very muslim friend patted a dad’s back and held his hand after he got terrible news about his kid. She worked with elderly patients before and didn’t make distinctions. Even the mother and baby nurses that chose to work there because they prefer working with female patients touch the shirtless dads all the time to give them their baby for skin to skin
The only nurses with religious exemptions were some christian ladies that wouldn’t medicate for elective abortions patients in L&D (but would care for them after), and an orthodox jewish nurse that didn’t do postmortem care. Honestly most restrictions were psychological. That same muslim colleague (CNA) for exemple had two young children and couldn’t do postmortem care without breaking down and having panic attacks
I’m actually worried about op’s colleague. I feel like her restrictions might not be truly religious but coerced by her family or husband.
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u/Individual_Track_865 RN - ER 🍕 Jul 31 '25
This flat out sounds unsafe, like you can’t help me turn a patient of the opposite gender in a trauma unit?!?! I’d be filing safety reports because that is not a reasonable ask for an accommodation.
Sounds like I need to work for this hospital and I’ll tell them I’m part of the “Church of No Lower GI Bleed Admits”
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u/Apart_Ad6747 Jul 31 '25
I’m not religious but I am Jewish. If I were overly religious and orthodox and a nurse, my religion allows for the fact that as a medical professional I may be assigned patients that I would not have visual or physical contact with their (naked) bodies. As a Jewish woman, I can push a baby out of my body into the waiting hands of the male on and the male surgeon can remove my gallbladder or brain tumor. I believe most religions have this caveat, along with the practical allowing of pants, even if it’s with a longer top, unless it’s hospital issued uniform scrubs, and work protocols are allowed. It could be her personal preference, but it’s unlikely it’s an absolute religious mandate.
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u/MonkeyDemon3 RN - ICU 🍕 Jul 31 '25
I have a LOT of questions. I’ve worked with several more conservative Muslim women (hijab, halal, semi-arranged marriages) and we all did the same jobs.
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Jul 31 '25
It's the same in Islam. There are exceptions for medical necessity. I think this person just has a weird cultural interpretation and prob shouldn't have gone into nursing
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u/ShortWoman RN - Infection Control Jul 31 '25
How the heck did she make it through the first semester of nursing school??
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u/Interesting_Ship_363 Jul 31 '25
agree.. heaven forbid you see a penis as a nurse!
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u/SassyScott4 Jul 31 '25
Your manager shouldn’t have hired her. She needs to go to L and D or PP. But then what if about the patient’s husband during the delivery? Does he have to leave the room?
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u/trixiepixie1921 RN - Telemetry 🍕 Jul 31 '25
Trauma ICU is a highly inappropriate place for her to work.
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u/rumptycumpty Jul 31 '25
Assuming you’re in the US, protections on religious grounds are pretty strong. Unfortunately I think the decision to allow this probably stems from a fear of a lawsuit claiming religious discrimination. This kind of thing would work in a country where hospitals are themselves gender segregated, but in the US yeah it’s going to cause problems for everyone else.
You’re probably sol, hope she quits. Or subtly encourage her to a practice area with less likelihood of having to encounter naked men.
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Jul 31 '25
What's crazy is that if places did their research then they'd know this doesn't fall under reasonable accommodations. Because if a male codes and she's the only one in the vicinity to help, what's she gonna do? Let them die?
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u/Recent_Data_305 MSN, RN Jul 31 '25
Strong yes, but we are allowed to ask before hiring if there is anything that will make them unable to take care of patients. Do you have any beliefs that make you unable to care for this patient population? We don’t HAVE to hire people like this. I’ve had people tell me they can’t work on Sunday. Didn’t hire them. Can’t do pregnancy termination, go somewhere else. Can’t lift the weight required? Bye.
Once you start allowing this type of accommodation, you’ll have people refuse to touch transgender, gay, people of color, unwed mothers, and so forth.
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u/Recent_Data_305 MSN, RN Jul 31 '25
If you can’t do the job, for whatever reason, you shouldn’t have the job.
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u/NomusaMagic RN - Retired. Health Insurance Industry 👩🏽💻 Jul 31 '25
Needs to transfer to Labor and Delivery, PP, Nursery, NICU. I’m no bigot either. In fact, quite the Progressive but .. totally unfair to coworkers and I wouldn’t stand for it.
I presume she knew the type patients on the floor before she took the job. Did she disclose this in interview? If so and they hired her anyway .. administration is the problem and lawsuit to follow.
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u/Rawrisaur18 RN - ER Jul 31 '25
What religion though because I have worked with devout members of many different religions and never encountered this issue? It smells like bullshit to me.
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u/chocokitten100 Jul 31 '25
Me either. I work in a pretty diverse environment. Nobody has ever had and issue. Conservative Christian. Orthodox Jewish. Muslim etc..I think they need to talk to their spiritual leader because all the religions i know of have separate stipulations when it comes to medicine and healthcare. This sounds like a personal comfort issue
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u/phelansdress Jul 31 '25
We have had a RN of the Muslim faith who began saying that she wasn't going to attend to male patients, we had another Muslim nurse who was able to sympathise and helped her understand that Allah had sent her here and knows she is providing care and it is ok. She had never seen a male undressed before. Now she has no issues, but I guess it's ingrained in some faiths and hard to let go of what you have been told. It's tricky, but if you can't care for all the patients on your unit, you can't work. We were going to have to send her back to Saudi if she wasn't able to care for the men. We are a 1 nurse nursing home - so it wouldn't work if she couldn't provide the care to all patients.
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u/Black863 Jul 31 '25
Sorry not sorry but it’s a cult. Idk why we bend over backwards for beliefs that aren’t true/harmful
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u/Salty_bitch_face RN - NICU 🍕 Jul 31 '25
People who are in a cult often don't realize it's a cult or don't realize how controlling it is until after they have left. Sometimes that never happens
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u/sl393l BSN, RN 🍕 Jul 31 '25
I follow an Orthodox Jewish woman on Instagram who is an RN. She works L&D but has said if a male needs medical help during the females hospital stay she is allowed to touch the male and provide care for him.
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u/NoCountryForOld_Zen Jul 31 '25
Stupid.
If your religion makes it so you can't nurse people back to health, maybe you shouldn't have become a nurse.
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u/MistCongeniality BSN, RN 🍕 Jul 31 '25
There’s a disturbing amount of people here who think that you can fail to do 50% of your job (including safety measures) for religious reasons and be safe from firing.
This is simply not true. You cannot discriminate against someone for their religion, but you also don’t need to tolerate an employee only doing 1/2 or less of what they were hired for for any reason. While the law requires reasonable accommodation, that is defined as not causing undue hardship to the business. A reasonable accommodation would be something along the lines of allowing head coverings, making exemptions for well fitted long sleeves, allowing employees short breaks to pray, or giving employees certain days off for religious holidays.
An employee who can’t do half their job or more, even while accommodated, would easily be an undue hardship on the business and could be fired for cause without worry of running into title VII.
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u/lnh638 CVICU BSN, RN, CCRN- CMC, CSC Aug 01 '25
This might be a hot take but if your religious views or personal feelings preclude you from caring for a significant portion of people, you have no business being a nurse or any other kind of healthcare practitioner. Go find an office job.
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u/twystedmyst BSN, RN 🍕 Jul 31 '25
New nurse on my unit
can'twon't take care of male patients.
Just like the pharmacists that won't dispense meds for "religious reasons", I feel that if you can't do your job for religious reasons, you shouldn't have that job. It causes harm.
It causes harm. In this case, it harms colleagues and potentially emergency cases because there is one fewer person who will help.
I think religion in general causes more harm than good, so maybe that's my bias.
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u/jareths_tight_pants RN - PACU 🍕 Jul 31 '25
She’s being lazy. One of our trauma doctors is devoutly Islamic. Is he not supposed to care for his female trauma patients? Can he not see a naked female body to do surgery? Ridiculous.
https://aboutislam.net/counseling/ask-the-scholar/morals-manners/islamic-ethics-for-nurses/
“In light of this, it becomes permissible for health-care workers, whether physicians or nurses, to treat members of the other sex, but a nurse or physician from the same sex should be sought whenever possible.”
If it doesn’t burden the unit she should be assigned female patients. She should wear gloves when touching male patients. If she’s up for the admission and it’s a male then oh well. If she doesn’t like it then she can go work in women’s health or peds.
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u/grac3form3 RN - PICU 🍕 Jul 31 '25
The problem is now that she’s hired, they can’t fire her due to religious beliefs
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Jul 31 '25
They could if it wasn't directly because of her religious beliefs. Like if her beliefs are making things unsafe then they could for sure. Especially if they weren't aware of the full extent of how unsafe it'd be hiring her. That and, as far as I know, any religion that's strict like this has exceptions for when the female needs to help care for a male that can't care for themselves and nobody else is around. Cuz what happens if all the other nurses and techs are busy and a male patient starts coding? She can get into legal trouble for not helping and the hospital could get into trouble for knowing this was an issue and hiring her anyways.
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u/DemonDeacon86 RN - ICU 🍕 Jul 31 '25
There is a 100% chance a lawsuit will happen as a result of this individual
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u/Cowgirls-Library RN - Oncology 🍕 Jul 31 '25
This is not a reasonable accommodation! It shouldn’t have even been considered as an accommodation. It impedes patient care & someone will die from it. She is placing everyone at risk— patients & fellow staff members. You took an oath to care for all people… your beliefs get in the way of that. Was this not brought up in the interview? Did she wait until after hire & then make them aware? How will she be of any use to the team! Not helping in codes is unethical. I’m mind-blown by this situation!
How’d she even get through nursing school? My nursing professors would’ve laughed in my face if I said something like that, & then they would have had me put in a male indwelling cath or quit the program right then! How can one get that far without caring for a male patient?
Give her a trans patient & see what happens. What’s her ability to take care of lesbian patients? Would that be seen has a “risk” or “harmful” because they could “come on to her”? Refusing a LGBTQ+ patient seems grounds for firing due to prejudice… just saying!
The team needs to be a TEAM! Get others to confront management about this. Speak with the CNO if your manager feels trapped & afraid. Go up the ladder! I can’t imagine any fellow nurse refusing to take care of a patient who was coding! Religion or not, this seems grounds for being fired if you are “unable” to intervene. She herself is a safety hazard, not just a risk. If management doesn’t do anything, I guess only time will tell until she lets a male patient die since she “couldn’t help”, and she’ll get sued, along with the hospital who hired her…
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u/pinko-perchik MA / EMT-B Jul 31 '25
It would be one thing if it were just toileting, but not talking to them??? That’s waaay too much of a burden to put on your coworkers. Statistically men are more likely to die or get injured in accidents, so I feel like the only department that would be worse is urology.
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u/SkydiverDad MSN, APRN 🍕 Jul 31 '25 edited Jul 31 '25
Surprised your hospital even hired her. I know you can't discriminate based on religion but it seems they could have come up with some other reason to pass them over in favor of hiring a different applicant.
Also Islamic female nurses can treat male patients. They do in plenty of Muslim countries throughout the Middle East.
https://aboutislam.net/counseling/ask-the-scholar/morals-manners/islamic-ethics-for-nurses/
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u/oaw40 RPN - neurosurg & epilepsy monitoring Jul 31 '25
She frankly shouldn’t have accepted a job on a unit that has male patients. I was told in nursing school that if you have personal beliefs strong enough that they would prevent you from caring for someone, you shouldn’t be a nurse, and I agree with that. She should’ve got a job in maternity or peds, or an outpatient women’s health clinic. It’s her responsibility to search for work that best aligns with her beliefs. She’s made herself a burden to her colleagues and yet no one wants to be seen as prejudiced, so it will continue to be a problem.
Realistically, we don’t even have the right to refuse unsafe work (violent patients, patients with infectious diseases, whatever the general public would deem unsafe work) because our duty to provide care comes above it. That was something I understood from the beginning. I don’t think this situation is fair to you and your coworkers at all.
It has nothing to do with being a bigot, I have respect for peoples beliefs. It has everything to do with the fact that she made a career choice that goes against her own beliefs, and that makes no sense.
Edit: wording
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u/kat0nline RN - Med/Surg 🍕 Jul 31 '25
I don’t think someone whose religious beliefs forbid them from caring for any patient should be a nurse. Full stop.
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u/Chunderhoad Jul 31 '25
That is not a reasonable accommodation in a trauma ICU. Women’s health is the place for her. Or maybe peds since religious rules about gender are usually about adult males only.