As church affilation continues to grow, pediatric nurses are faced with members whose religious doctrines may limit or refuse medical treatment. There have been over 15 religious sects that either prefer pray to medical care or support medical treatment limitations for children. Although Christian Sciences and Jehovah's Witnesses are the most widely known, there are several smaller churches whose doctrines are very influential when parents are making health care decisions for their children. The purpose of the proposed ethnographic research study is to investigate the entire cultural experience through the lives of both the "oppositional village" and the "supportive village". The research is part of a two year post doctoral program that will include in-depth interviews with church members, clergy, families, health care professionals, child protective agency personnell and social workers. The aim of the study is to investigate how each village associates with eachother with the final outcome being an educational intervention for nurses to learn about the current laws, their roles in the complex ethical dilemma and best to support the family who is experiencing great emotional distress.The proposed poster will include information on recent examples of treatment refusal, definitions of various church doctrines, laws that define action during the treatment refusal, and summaries of symptoms of emotional distress during the scenarios.
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