Close your eyes for a moment and imagine that you are Denise, a 46-year-old newly graduated nurse who works the night shift on a medical/surgical unit at a 170-bed community hospital. Denise, who had a successful first career as a high school biology teacher for 20 years before having decided to become a nurse, completed a 12-week new grad program at the hospital and has been off orientation for approximately three weeks.
One of Denise's six patients is the very pleasant, morbidly obese 40-year-old male in room 503 who had undergone a bilateral total knee replacement two days ago. Although this patient is pleased that he is going home tomorrow morning, he senses that something just isn't right. He tells Denise, "My right knee feels like it's on fire. It feels hot and it's hurting really bad. The pain medicine isn't working, either."
"Let me take a look," she responds with a reassuring smile. With gloved hands, she gingerly peels the dressing off and is horrified to see that purulent drainage is oozing from the stapled surgical incision. The area around the wound is slightly reddened, swollen, and very warm. She cleanses the wound, covers it with another dry dressing, and applies an ice pack to the area. Denise asks, "Did your surgeon see your incisions this morning?"
"Yes," the patient replies. "He said it looked fine. The knee's been burning since this morning, but he said it would go away in a few days."
She chimed, "I'm going to call your surgeon again to express our concerns. There's even a small chance that he might still be in the hospital since one of his procedures today took a lot longer than he planned." The patient nodded in acknowledgement.
Denise has dealt with this orthopedic surgeon on previous occasions. He is in his thirties, seemingly laid-back, and usually respects the concerns of the floor nurses. She calls his cellular phone number; the automated voice mail message popped on. She leaves a detailed message regarding the patient's right knee.
Suddenly the internal medicine doctor scuttles to the nurses station and slams a chart onto the floor. It is 7:45 in the evening. Several nurses, visitors, and the house supervisor are jolted by the sound of the chart as it struck the floor. With a heavy Spanish accent, she yells out, "Who in the hell is the nurse of my patient in room 303?"
"I'm his nurse," Denise responds with assertion in her voice. "What is the problem?"
The doctor rolls her eyes in disgust. She screams, "You must be the most stupid nurse on the planet! His knee is infected and you haven't done a damn thing about it! He's been complaining about that knee all day!"
Denise takes a deep breath and silently counts to ten while the house supervisor whisks the internal medicine doctor into the patient's room. She had never been publicly humiliated by any colleagues or adults during her years as a teacher. This was new to her. She could feel the rage building up inside.
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Humiliation involves the experience of some form of ridicule, scorn, contempt, or other degrading treatment at the hands of others (Klein, n.d.). The humiliated person feels disrespected, lowly, and debased during and after the incident. There are three involved parties: 1) the perpetrator exercising power, 2) the victim who is shown powerless and therefore humiliated, and 3) the witness or observers to the event (Emotional Competency, n.d.) Healthcare workers may experience public humiliation from colleagues, patients, visitors, and others.
Individuals who have been publicly humiliated have several ways in which they can deal with the event. They can call the perpetrator out on his/her behavior and risk further humiliation. Or, they may reassess the public humiliation in a manner that points to one's perseverance in the midst of unpleasant circumstances. The final option is to exit the environment where the public humiliation is taking place.
The most effective way of handling public humiliation is to keep it from happening in the first place. Healthcare providers and workers need to be educated on the damage that humiliation can inflict on the human psyche. In addition, a little self-esteem goes a long way, because it is almost impossible to humiliate the person whose sense of self does not hinge on what others think.
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