Can you be an atheist and be a good nurse?
It’s a question you don’t normally ask in the workplace, thinking that such link between Nursing and atheism doesn’t exist.
But only if you’re living inside your own bubble.
As a nurse, I have yet to meet an atheist co-worker. But unlike others, I don’t live in a box so I won’t assume that no nurse is an atheist.
Perhaps they work somewhere else or an atheist I know is too busy to even advertise his or her faith. Either way, atheism is not tantamount to lack of morals and it doesn’t make a nurse less of a person if she has no faith in a Divine Being.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m a Christian and my faith, although not as strong as others, is a work in progress. I find that one’s faith is pivotal in achieving emotional stability. After all, nurses face a huge amount of workplace stress every day, and we need a strong spiritual support system to keep us from burning out.
However, what works for me may not work for others, and I completely acknowledge that. I’m neither the type who shoves my religious ideas down someone else’s throat nor a passive man who shifts to atheism once things don’t go my way.
I recently, read an article about Nursing and atheism which further deepens my curiosity about the subject.
Can nurses who have no belief in afterlife or anything spiritual provide ‘holistic’ care to their patients?
Nursing and atheism seem to contradict each other, but reading the thoughts of nurse atheists gave me all the answers I need.
They may no longer believe in an afterlife but they take responsibility to their patients’ lives and try their hardest to provide comfort until all else fails. They may not be religious enough to go to church every Sunday but they know how to give the one essential thing that even some spiritual nurses fail to provide: RESPECT.
Perhaps the reason why I don’t know any nurse atheist is because they are too careful not to offend my beliefs or too compassionate to disappoint patients who rely both on them and on a Higher Being for strength.
Perhaps we should do the same to our fellow nurse atheists and never make an issue out of it. After all, Nursing is all about caring and respect–two things that transcend any color, race, or religious belief.
Your Turn
What are your thoughts about Nursing and atheism? Do you personally believe that atheists are better/worse than nurses with a strong faith in God?
