Causing offense

It is reported in the Sunday Telegraph today that a community nurse, Caroline Petrie, has been suspended from her employment for having caused offense to a female patient by offering to pray for her.

Caroline Petrie had, apparently, been warned previously about her practice of offering to pray for her patients and this previous warning reminded her of her Nursing Midwifery Code (NMC) which states that "you must demonstrate a personal and profession commitment to equality and diversity" and "you must not use your professional status to promote causes that are not related to health".

I have to admit to an 'interest' in this story in that firstly, I am not religious and also that I have an elderly mother who is religious. What I find disquieting about this story is (a) the idea that anyone would feel 'offended' by an offer of prayer and (b) can it not be argued that anything that improves someone's health, be that physical or psychological, is surely to the benefit of the patient. 

How can 'offense' be caused by an offer of help - it is an 'offer' and 'offers' can be accepted or refused.  On the second point,  I am sure we can all think of an incident, when not being well, where an offer of something of a non-medical nature has made us 'feel better'.

In a another incident, reported in the article, an offer to leave a prayer card with an elderly male patient was accepted however the man's carer lodged a complaint. It has to be made clear that the article has not given any details of this man's soundness of mind and therefore whether he was able to make such a judgement. If he was then the carer, in my opinion, had no right to make a 'secondhand' complaint. If the male patient did not have soundness of mind and the carer did not have Power of Attorney, again I do not see grounds for interference.

Readers of this blog will know that I have in the past complained of 'sloppy' journalism and without wishing to cause any offense to the journalist concerned, Andrew Alderson, it could be argued that this article is 'slanted' in favour of Caroline Petrie, with a view to 'catching the public mood'. Not all the facts are known and it will be interesting to hear the result of the pending disciplinary investigation, where Caroline Petrie is being backed by the Christian Legal Centre who have instructed a leading religious rights lawyer, Paul Diamond.