Council of nursing ethics has dealt with a case where a Muslim nursing student refused to serve pork or alcoholic beverages to residents in a municipal health center where he practiced.
Council leader Elisabeth Sveen Kjølsrud writes that serving and preparing food for patients and residents is considered part of nurses’ tasks.
She notes that the nursing school is committed to educating and forming nurses so that they build their ethical practice of nursing based on ethical guidelines.
Kjølsrud points out that the school can not educate students to a practice that is on a collision course between religious beliefs and nursing professional ethics.
– Food service consists of general Norwegian food and should not provide room for reservations. Religious freedom and respect for beliefs, in this context Muslim faith, does not include food service and is therefore not an agreed relevant argument in this matter, stressed the Council leader.
In the inquiry counsel received, the student had little capacity for reflection on this practice in a professional situation. The Council states that the student’s expectations are not compatible with the requirements of school’s education commitments and Norwegian nursing practice.
Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today
