The following article, written by a foxhole atheist nurse, tells a story that hopefully will eradicate the untrue and discriminatory claim that “No Nurse is an Atheist”.
I am an atheist and a nurse. I have worked alongside other nurses who, regardless whether they adopt the formal term theist or not, are clearly not inclined to believe in supernatural beings or the healing power of prayer or any of the other trappings of religious life. I have found the quality and sincerity of nursing practice to be largely independent of any particular religious persuasion, or lack thereof.
Nurses who are atheists face challenges in a predominantly religious culture. As a nurse, I am often asked to pray for the sick. While this is a chaplain duty and outside the realm of nursing, I’m placed in the position of either making a patient or family uncomfortable while in a vulnerable state, or compromising my own beliefs. My own beliefs, which is to say medical science, tell me that medical science and human compassion saves lives, while prayer offers false comfort at best. Even those who say prayer affects healing they attribute that effect to any type of prayer from nearly any religion. Far from proving the truth of any religion, such questionable research only further condemns any but the vaguest theistic notions. Placed in this position, I do my best to simulate a sort of nonspecific spiritualism, so as to best provide for the request of patients, and of course, I refer them to the appropriate chaplains. Like other atheist nurses, I don’t condemn others whose beliefs are different; I provide the best patient-centered care I can provide.
However, I am still an atheist nurse. My atheistic perspective has provided at least two distinct benefits in my nursing practice. The first of these is my lack of prejudice regarding the afterlife of a patient or the destination of their “soul”. I, and other atheist nurses, care for our patients and their families without imagining them to be deserving of eternal suffering. Some nurses have been distressed personally or caused patients distress by frantically seeking absolution to avoid endless suffering. The atheist nurse serves the patient, working hard and hoping that our scientifically-validated treatments lead to improvements in health, and on the occasion when our treatments fail (as they all sometimes do) the atheist nurse knows their patient is at peace, and beyond suffering.
The second advantage of atheism has afforded me is that it places responsibility for the welfare of humanity in the hands of the only force capable of providing for that welfare: humanity itself. It is not coincidence that the secularization of the Western world in the 20th century coincided with substantial increases in length and overall quality of life, from reduction in disease to extended average lifespan. So much of what we do is based on the findings of secular research and acceptance of evolution and natural selection, including antibiotic therapy for drug-resistant bacteria or vaccine development to combat viral disease. To receive the benefits of these developments, or to administer them, while clinging to outdated and obsolete mythology and wishful thinking is to live a split life, torn between the desire to hold to unexplained mysteries and the value of adhering to proven medical techniques. I have benefited immensely from a commitment to reason, which consistently provides truth and comfort. I see no benefit revelations from ancient peoples who knew so little about the operation of the physical world that they truly believed the Earth was flat and that the sun circled around it.
There are indeed atheist nurses. There are many nurses who, while not formally referring to themselves as atheists, cannot be genuinely described as anything but atheist. I have never met a nurse whose religious beliefs were so critical to their practice that they couldn’t have been just as good a nurse if they had different or atheistic beliefs. Atheist nurses are not more caring, effective, educated, or skilled than their religious counterparts, but they are able to serve all of their patients to the fullest of their abilities and have no psychological conflict resulting from unscientific religious beliefs. When one’s God doesn’t prevent illness or disability, doesn’t cure them in any active or detectable sense, and fails to intercede with noticeable regularity, nurses come to the rescue. Someone has to order treatments and someone has to administer them. Someone has to monitor for effectiveness of treatment. And, of course, someone has to be at the hospital on Sunday morning.
We atheists will fill in on Sunday morning if religious believers can at least respect us as fellow nurses.