Sunday mornings off! Religious exceptions!

[Geronimo]

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Sunday mornings off! Religious exceptions!

Okay, I’m curious how many of you have had “serious religious convictions” or teachings in your religion that prohibit certain things or require certain things and whether your medical school worked with you in order to accommodate your beliefs/religious preferences/etc…?

For instance, I believe that it is essential to my faith to be involved with a local congregation of like-minded people. So, I will be willing to work weird and crazy schedules during the 3rd and 4th years to assure that I can be free Sunday mornings to attend a religious service at my place of worship.

Anyone ever have this come up over .... say ....a “Religious Holiday” or some sort of restriction of work, etc…? I’m looking for an education on such matters. 😀

 

[porscheman]

Hey there. Sorry, but medicine requires lots of sacrifice. Your religion probably values qualities like compassion, sacrifice, and willingness to do difficult things over observing its sabbath. I think that it's difficult for adherent followers to any faith to go into medicine, due to the myriad of ethical and moral issues. So, I guess I'd say that planning a career around the sabbath is impossible until you go into clinical practice.

 

[AStudent]

Church still happens on Sunday nights/Wednesdays at most places....God will understand.

Sunday mornings off! Religious exceptions!

Okay, I’m curious how many of you have had “serious religious convictions” or teachings in your religion that prohibit certain things or require certain things and whether your medical school worked with you in order to accommodate your beliefs/religious preferences/etc…?

For instance, I believe that it is essential to my faith to be involved with a local congregation of like-minded people. So, I will be willing to work weird and crazy schedules during the 3rd and 4th years to assure that I can be free Sunday mornings to attend a religious service at my place of worship.

Anyone ever have this come up over .... say ....a “Religious Holiday” or some sort of restriction of work, etc…? I’m looking for an education on such matters. 😀

 

[AJM]

It's not the 3rd and 4th year of med school you need to worry about -- it's residency. Med students are rarely considered to be integral members of the medical services that they are on, so while difficult, it's still possible to get specific days off. You might not be able to get the entire Sunday off, but if you work it out with your school, you might be able to get at least part of the day off to attend services.

Residency is a different story. You will be required to make sacrifices during this time. For you, one of the sacrifices will almost surely be to work on many Sundays. You will be a vital and necessary part of a medical team. You will be required to be a bit more flexible in the practices of your faith in order to adequately take care of your patients. I highly doubt that there is any residency program willing to accommodate your request to have every Sunday off during residency. Some residencies are easier than others, however, and will require you to work fewer weekends -- but you will still have to work at least some Sundays...

 

[superdavykinz]

Church still happens on Sunday nights/Wednesdays at most places....God will understand.

Of course this probably varies with the Christian doctrines but "chuch" or worship is not restricted to a specific day. Christians can worship any day of the week. You do not have to go to "church", that is, go to the specific building of worship as all you need for worship is two or more individuals worshiping God with his word.

 

[ChiefToma]

dude, Jesus healed on the sabbath.

 

[v-tach]

Hey there. Sorry, but medicine requires lots of sacrifice. Your religion probably values qualities like compassion, sacrifice, and willingness to do difficult things over observing its sabbath. I think that it's difficult for adherent followers to any faith to go into medicine, due to the myriad of ethical and moral issues. So, I guess I'd say that planning a career around the sabbath is impossible until you go into clinical practice.

It's not a "sabbath", and it's not prohibited for Christians to work on a Sunday. It's just that the worship and fellowship with other Christians are important, and going to church is a great way to do those things. However, I do realize that patients will need us on Sundays too! And it's true that our religion DOES value compassion and sacrificial service to others. To the OP, maybe you could set up a Bible study with other Christian physicians etc. at some odd time during the week that works for people, since you won't always make it to church. Also, it's good to have your own devotional/prayer time each day--maybe first thing in the morning.

 

[v-tach]

dude, Jesus healed on the sabbath.

🙂 Good point!

 

[synapse lapse]

Maybe the OP is orthodox Jew and can't perform work on Sunday. Anyhow, who cares, you go into medicine you have to work, you shouldn't get any days off because of religion.

 

[Megalofyia]

Maybe the OP is orthodox Jew and can't perform work on Sunday. Anyhow, who cares, you go into medicine you have to work, you shouldn't get any days off because of religion.

That would be Saturday.. and there is a way around that for people who are Jewish.

I can't think of a religion that this would cause such problems. So I'm guessing that the OP is not a member of one of the major religions.

 

[synapse lapse]

That would be Saturday.. and there is a way around that for people who are Jewish.

I can't think of a religion that this would cause such problems. So I'm guessing that the OP is not a member of one of the major religions.

I stand corrected. I do know Jewish doctors can work on the princple of saving lives as this is an exception to the no work rule.

 

[The Engineer]

I agree with most of what I have read here. I do believe that it is very unreasonable to request all Sunday's off or at least the morning during residency. As an Ex-missionary I understand the internal conflict that you must be going through. I kind of think of it like this... The Pharasees condemned Christ for "working on the sabbath" when he was healing. Christ responded with a question that I have used in my discussions with modern day Pharasees. "Is is wrong to do good on the sabbath day?"

I praise you for your religious convictions. You are part of a dying breed. I would suggest prayer and scripture study to help you resolve this issue.

Best of luck.

 

[abbaroodle]

I know this doesnt help you much now as a med student, but you should think about doing a residency at a program that is called "shomer shabbat" - it allows observant, orthodox Jewish residents to not work on Friday night and Saturday day and "keep" Shabbat. Therefore, the Jewish residents work a ton of Sundays and the non-shomer-Shabbat residents work a ton of Friday nights and Saturday. (For the record: every resident works an equal number of days and call nights - just different days.) Of course, there is a price to pay: you will be on a lot of Fridays, but if it is important to you, you will be off on Sunday.