"No nurses of color....."

Nurses Relations

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Specializes in Postpartum, L&D, Mother-Baby.

What in the world are we supposed to do when a patient makes it known that they "don't want any nurses of color taking care of them"?

There was a patient on my unit last week who mentioned this (I have no idea who she told this to, administration, the doctors, I have no idea who she notified). She was in her 20s and was not on the unit for mental illness issues at all, she had an OBGYN related surgery and was not under any sedative medications, she was able-bodied with full mental capacity! Thank goodness for the patient none of the nurses (all of whom but 2 out of 50-something nurses are people of color) knew about this patient's odd request until she was discharged from the hospital.

What I really wanted to do and say were unprofessional. What are we supposed to do when someone comes to hospital with this request?

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Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.

I'm a black female who lives in a region where racial refusals are common.

Anyhow, these requests are usually accomodated at my place of employment because management wishes to keep the facility's Press Gainey patient satisfaction scores above a certain threshold.

However, the facility where I work cannot always accomodate the request, especially on night shift, due to the fact that all of the night shift nurses might be 'people of color' on certain evenings.

One more thought. . .I would prefer that these patients have their requests accomodated, as weird as this may seem. A patient who does not want me to provide any care for him/her can conjure up lies and false accusations that could make my life absolutely miserable. I'd much rather live and let live.

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"Unfortunetely, we have no melanin deficient nurses on staff. I am going to have social work come and see you so that you can be discharged home with a 24 hour private duty caregiver of your choosing".

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Specializes in RN, BSN, CHDN.
I'm a black female who lives in a region where racial refusals are common.

Anyhow, these requests are usually accomodated at my place of employment because management wishes to keep the facility's Press Gainey patient satisfaction scores above a certain threshold.

However, the facility where I work cannot always accomodate the request, especially on night shift, due to the fact that all of the night shift nurses might be 'people of color' on certain evenings.

One more thought. . .I would prefer that these patients have their requests accomodated, as weird as this may seem. A patient who does not want me to provide any care for him/her can conjure up lies and false accusations that could make my life absolutely miserable. I'd much rather live and let live.

Thanks for sharing that last comment, I think you have the perfect attitude because you are so right why should you have your shift ruined by a small minded person. I feel very strongly that when health care professionals are placed in this position they should be allowed to step away and enjoy the rest of their shift or shifts depending on how long the patient is in hospital.

A few years ago a pt stated that he didn't want an Indian nurse caring for him, I spoke with him and said he was very inappropriate-We had a multi-disciplinary meeting and we informed the patient that this kind of behavior was not tolerated and he was welcome to leave and seek health care elsewhere. This should be the normal way to deal with this!

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Specializes in Emergency, Haematology/Oncology.

Two words. GET OUT.

We have a zero tolerance policy when it comes to this kind of behaviour. Any patient that vocalises this sort of rubbish is refused care. Oooh my blood is at boiling point already just thinking about it. I remember a narcotic seeker making foul racial slurs and yelling things such as "where's that F___G C___T G____K doctor". Our Korean senior ED doc was in charge of the department at the time and was actually still prepared to treat this man and was attempting to tell him that his behaviour was unacceptable. He looked stricken, and my heart was breaking. This ignorant, bigoted, maggot oxygen thief had truly hurt the feelings of a particularly lovely doctor. I intercepted and called security. I remember standing there, embarrassed and ashamed for my country, looking my doctor in the eye and saying "just walk away, just walk away, you don't need to do this, I don't want you to hear another word of this, I'll sort this out". I watched the tortured look on my doc's face, he really felt like he needed to deal with it and didn't want for me to have to. In my entire nursing career I had never heard anything more offensive than what escaped this persons' filthy trap. He fought so hard on staying that it required 6 security guards to remove him from the premises, and the guards- off the record- covered his mouth a little shall we say, it was that bad. Alert on system, pt. never to be treated at our facility.

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It just shocks me, how awful people can be to each other. Shame on them!

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Specializes in Emergency & Trauma/Adult ICU.

What are we supposed to do?

Here's what we do: "That request cannot be accomodated." End of discussion.

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Honestly, while I let the pt know in no uncertain terms that the language and attitude are completely inappropriate and will not be tolerated, I still accommodate the requests when making staffing, but for the nurse's sake, not the pt's. Pts like that can be really awful to the nurses they don't want. I don't want to set up a nurse to be treated like dirt, to be nit picked, or to be falsely accused of poor or negligent care.

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Specializes in Critical Care; Cardiac; Professional Development.
What are we supposed to do?

Here's what we do: "That request cannot be accomodated." End of discussion.

This is what we do at our facility.

We had a patient who had issue that his roommate was a black man. Made a big stink about it and was demanding to be moved to a private room. So what we did was move the other patient to a private room and let the complaining patient now deal with being roomed with a GI bleed. :laugh:

I love our zero tolerance policy for this. It doesn't happen often but when it does, it is gratifying to be able to say "Too bad".

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Specializes in Neuroscience.

You sound surprised that someone who is racist doesn't have a mental illness? Most racists I know are average joes. But I guess if you're not always on the receiving end of racism you would be surprised.

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Specializes in Med Surg - Renal.
What in the world are we supposed to do when a patient makes it known that they "don't want any nurses of color taking care of them"?

Some people are jerks.

Sometimes we can put up with their jerky demands and sometimes we can tell them if they don't like it they can find a different hotel.

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I am a nurse of color as well and "in-charge" so of course I have to always speak to the patient when someone makes a request like this. However, if it's not possible, then it's not possible. But I would rather pass the patient on to someone else if I can because I would rather not deal with that. I respect patients for being upfront about their differences, what I don't like is the patient that lied on me claiming abuse when what they REALLY meant was they did not want a black nurse.

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