I am currently in my last semester of clinical and I’m appalled at the amount of racism! On my first day of clinical I followed a nurse that made comments such as: Black people are obnoxious and loud! How could a nurse say such things! I also followed a nurse that made sure I knew, during report, that a patients husband was “colored”. Then to make matters worse, a fellow student and I followed a nurse who was taking care of a post-op patient (I do not want to mention what type of surgery) that spoke only Spanish. As we were cleaning the patient she talked about the patient! She made comments such as: Oh…she only speaks Spanish…GREAT... THEY need to learn English. She made other comments that I do not want to repeat. I guess she noticed the look on our faces and said “it’s OK…she doesn’t understand English.” She also provided poor care to the patient. She ignored her call light, never checked on her, and acted as if she did not understand the patient when she was asking for pain medication. Then, at discharge, she gave the patient English discharge papers, explained discharge instructions in English, and ignored me when I asked for Spanish discharge instructions.
I could go on and on! So my question is.....should I report this? I am biracial and take offense to such remarks and I feel really uncomfortable at clinical. Not only am I are uncomfortable but other students are noticing such remarks also. I am afraid if I report the incidents that I will be affected. I hate to say this but the majority of the hospital is this way (the hospital is in very small town). I just don’t know what to do. I HATE going to clinical.