In March, HIP (New York City’s largest HMO serving some 800,000 members throughout the five boroughs) brought in Tanenbaum experts to train its nurses and volunteers. Part of Tanenbaum’s Religious Diversity in the Workplace program, the trainings prepare providers to respond when a patient’s religious beliefs influence their healthcare decisions.

Through interactive exchanges and concrete examples, participants learned core skills like how to ask about religion and when not to.  One nurse described a patient who insisted that she was not in any pain so she wouldn’t be given pain medication. It seems she wanted to “sacrifice her pain” for another patient who was sicker than she. The nurse was at a loss, because once a patient’s pain goes beyond a certain threshold it becomes impossible to manage.

The trainings helped nurses and volunteers explore both these under-addressed issues and their own attitudes about religion and healthcare. 

learn more about the workplace program.

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