Praying nurse offered her job back – but nothing has changed

The National Secular Society has welcomed news that Community Nurse Caroline Petrie has been offered her job back after being suspended for asking patients if she could pray for them.

Terry Sanderson, president of the NSS, said: “Community Nurses are a great resource, particularly for the elderly who might otherwise find visiting a doctor difficult, and we value them. We didn’t want to see Mrs Petrie sacked, but we did want her to abide by the code of practice that all her colleagues abide by. That code of practice is still in place, so in effect, nothing has changed. Mrs Petrie still has the opportunity of doing her job, but she must do it on her employer’s terms”.

Mrs Petrie however was cautious about the offer from the North Somerset Health Trust. She told the Daily Mail “I’m not too sure I would go back to work until I know what the implications of that would be. I would want to know what the terms were before I made a decision. On the issue of praying for my patients I’d want to continue and if they won’t allow me that I don’t think I would return. It’s very difficult for me not to ask patients if they want me to pray for them when I feel that prayer works for the sick. It’s a matter of conscience to me. I should not have to choose between being a Christian and being a nurse.”

Terry Sanderson said: “This whole case has been misrepresented by the right-wing press. Nobody is persecuting Mrs Petrie for her religion, they are just asking her to abide by the rules that have been set in place to protect vulnerable people from exploitation. Mrs Petrie may not be an aggressive evangelist — although her belligerent insistence that the rules do not apply to her because she is a Christian — does her no credit. But other religiously-motivated health workers might be less restrained. The rules are there to curb any such people going into the homes of their patients and foisting unwanted religious rituals on to them. We wholeheartedly support those protections.”

6 February 2009