Any RN or Midwife fundies?

[Rachel333]

The hospital I go to is Catholic and some of the nurses are nuns. I think they're the first nurses I've seen who wear skirts (and wimples). That hospital also has the first Catholic monks I've ever seen.

[RosyDaisy]

In Tiny Town there is one fundie I know who is a certified nurse midwife, and good at what she does. She delivered my neighbor's grandson, but at the birthing center which is part of the hospital. It's illegal for midwifes or medical professionals to assist PLANNED homebirths in Alabama.

[NotALoserLikeYou]

I know there is one in my hospital. She's an ICU nurse, wears skirt scrubs with leggings underneath, doesn't wear makeup, and has super long hair. Thinking maybe she's Pentecostal?

Ironically, she is actually showing more skin than all the other nurses who are wearing scrub pants.

It seems like a lot of fundie Pentecostal women work so that makes sense. Interesting all the fundie sub groups.

[susykt4]

In the fundie church I grew up in, it was frowned upon for women to work outside the home. However, it was somewhat acceptable for them (even married with children) to be teachers or nurses. I have several relatives who joined the church and are nurses and one aunt who taught 30+ years. College for women was very valued, however, I don't know of anyone from the generation before my mother's who went so it was a pretty new thing in the church. My mom has a degree in English, but has never worked outside the home. There was one woman who interested me when I was young because she had 3 children and worked as a nurse at the church-owned nursing home even though her husband had a very successful contracting company. She was the first woman in the church I realized worked because she WANTED to. I didn't really know her, but she was one of my earliest role models.

My parents are in their late 60s and their church is slowly dying, with the vast majority of the young people leaving for fundie-lite alternatives. The twenty-somethings who are still members are definitely moving toward the homeschooling, having lots of children, young earth creationism beliefs. I'm not sure about college, but the town and surrounding area are upper middle class and highly value education. The boys will be inheriting some very successful trade businesses, so many of them will be able to avoid a uni education and I can totally see the girls being discouraged from college or at least sent to a strict Christian college. Weird how those values can change so much in just 3 generations!

[Arete]

When I taught bio in grad school, all the undergrads were told at the start of their degree (in the beginning bio classes) that only science is taught here, and evolution is taught. They're told whether or not they believe it, they have to answer the questions on tests and write papers the way the subject is taught. If they have issues with evolution and need to talk about it, they are told they need to make an appointment with a professor or a TA, and not use walk-in office hours unless they set up the appt for that time. In the years that she has been telling this to her students, my advisor never had someone make the effort to set up an appointment to talk. I had an undergrad in my lab who was Greek Orthodox and her personal belief was that only microevolution occurred, not macroevolution. Meaning, cells and viruses can change over time but not whole animal bodies and therefore not groups or species of animals. We just said "hmm, really?" and went on with our work. Privately we all figured that if she was going for a career in the field she was doing her undergrad research in, that she'd eventually accept evolution or she'd drop out of that field.

Odd, considering the Greek Orthodox Church has no problem with macroevolution. They reconcile with the belief that God set up the "ingredients" needed for the universe to evolve, but have no issue with an earth and universe in the billions of years old, or the fossil record. GOs don't read the creation story in Genesis literally.

There are splinter sects in GO that are basically the theological equivalent of Haredi Jews, so it is possible her family belonged to one of those sects. I met 2 girls like that in college, and the university experience was uh, life changing for them.

[chaotic life]

Most major fundamental schools have nursing programs, Pensacola Christian, BJU, Liberty, etc. I don't know if it relates to the historical development of nursing or because it's a helping profession, or because it's an easy degree to obtain and maintain even if you stop working to stay home. Whatever it is, nursing is common fundamentalist acceptable degree for women. I once attended a Mennonite church where literally only one woman in the church wasn't a nurse.

It's also common for fundies to be lay midwives. However, advanced practice nurses, both midwives and nurse practitioners are fairly rare in fundamental circles. Advanced practice requires at least a year working as a nurse first and an advanced degree. I have known countless fundies who were nurses but I have personally never known a fundie who was an advanced practice nurse of any kind.

[smittykins]

Most major fundamental schools have nursing programs, Pensacola Christian, BJU, Liberty, etc.

Isn't the nursing program the only state-accredited one at PCC?

[chaotic life]

I'm not sure how it's structured. I know at graduate from it and you can get a valid nursing license with it but she can't automatically get it counted for grad school or teaching credentials. I would guess that means it's accredited by one of the nursing credentialing bodies but the school has not credentials as a whole. Licensure as a nurse requires AACN or NLN (I think) accreditation in order to sit for the NCLEX.

[lilwriter85]

I know a fundie lite woman who started off her career as a RN, but later went back to school to get respiratory therapy training. She works as a home health RT.

[Mama Mia]

It's actually kind of interesting that nursing is seen as one of the only acceptable professions for fundamentalist women, since there would be a need, in most cases to have to touch men. That seems like a big jump to go from basically never even having conversations with men outside your family to examining and treating naked men :shock: . I know they could just work in specialties that don't require it, but it seems like that might limit their employability, and I would think they couldn't be too picky while doing their training or during internships or emergencies.

[RosyDaisy]

My sister told me that the midwife who worked for her OB is a member of the Church of Christ and goes to church with one of my sister's friends. But she sounds more fundie-lite than fundie. According to my sister she wore regular nursing scrubs and not a skirt.