So we recently admitted a male patient who identifies himself as female. We don't get many patients like her. A nurse in particular let's his political views get in the way of work and has been calling this patient "it".
Now, let's fast forward to the dilemma. During medication pass, he addressed the patient as "it" out loud and other staff and patients started laughing; next thing you know, we had a behavioral emergency on our hands.
I filled out an incident report because several other nurses and I have spoken to this nurse prior to the event happening. One nurse even brought it up the chain of command. Not only is it unprofessional but it's endangering the safety of others - clearly, it's one of her triggers. Has anyone ever dealt with this type of conduct?
@ Libby1987: I honestly don't get where you're coming from. I may be misreading your tone, but it seems to me that you feel that you're being attacked.
Evidence has been presented that fears of litigation are overblown and that an apology might actually help prevent a lawsuit.
Evidence was also presented that failure to acknowledge the abuse is likely to intensify the damage and impede the rebuilding of trust.
Some posters also expressed the opinion that an aplology is in order out of basic human decency.
In other words, a number of posters explained why they disagreed with the suggestion that an apology would be wrong because of risk management concerns.
How do you think staff should go about re-building trust in this case? How would you address the institutional culture that let multiple staff members find the abuse funny?
The OP seems to have seagulled (IOW, dropped a load and flown away). I would love to hear how the incident was actually handled, both therapeutically and institutionally.
I'm coming from the basis that I never said that fear of litigation would affect *my* response. I said that could be the fall out. I never said *I* was afraid of the fallout. Posters responded that they would apologize despite a possible litigious threat, quoting my post, as if I wouldn't act due to fear, perhaps even lack of ethics and decency. They did not (if I comprehended correctly, say anything about statistics, it was personal)
I sure never said that an apology wasn't the decent thing to do. But I'm being responded to as such.
It's like I'm the little scapegoat here due to my response to a question when the truth is that I function as a patient advocate, often fiercely. If you knew me, I wouldn't have to explain this multiple times.
The only thing that post should have quoted for is to disagree that there could be some type of legal fall out.
I don't know about hospital EMR, but at the primary care clinic I work at we have to have legal name and gender marker as the "official" name/gender. When someone changes they name legally we can update the chart, but many people use the gender marker they were assigned at birth in a health care setting even if it is changed on their license. Insurance companies generally do not have very good or any policy in the event a person's genitals do not match the their gender identity. They aren't going to pay up for a prostate exam for a woman, no matter how hard you try to explain the situation to them...
Regardless of legal name/gender marker, all trans patients have a pop up in the EHR along the lines of "Preferred name: So and So, Transman/Transwoman, Use such and such pronoun," so staff can address patients correctly and they are not "outed" (if they "pass.")And the there will be something like Unspecified Endocrine Disorder, Gender Dysphoria, etc. in the diagnoses.
Specializes in Float Pool-Med-Surg, Telemetry, IMCU.
As an unapologetic member of the GLBT community, can I just say that nothing grinds my gears more than a hetero person claiming that their opinion of my "lifestyle" somehow carries as much weight as my own experience and the experiences of others like me?
Homosexuality is not a disorder. To the poster that implied that it is, you know absolutely nothing. There is a vast diversity of human experience and just because you can't wrap your head around it doesn't make it wrong.
I shouldn't read these threads because they just make me angry.
As an unapologetic member of the GLBT community, can I just say that nothing grinds my gears more than a hetero person claiming that their opinion of my "lifestyle" somehow carries as much weight as my own experience and the experiences of others like me?
Homosexuality is not a disorder. To the poster that implied that it is, you know absolutely nothing. There is a vast diversity of human experience and just because you can't wrap your head around it doesn't make it wrong.
I shouldn't read these threads because they just make me angry.
I could not agree more. As an unapologetic member of advocacy of the GLBT community, I get so outraged/discouraged/disheartend at the ignorance, I just have to press the off button.
Because one can't wrap their heads around it, doesn't make it less real, less deserving of culturally competent care, or the patient less of a person.
To be clear, the subject of the OP is transgendered. Let's not conflate it with homosexuality. Though, as the femme widow of an intersexed butch, I'm with youse guys.
I could not agree more. As an unapologetic member of advocacy of the GLBT community, I get so outraged/discouraged/disheartend at the ignorance, I just have to press the off button.
Because one can't wrap their heads around it, doesn't make it less real, less deserving of culturally competent care, or the patient less of a person.
THIS.
The fact remains, we have to do what is best for the pt, meaning to out aside our own "norms" and at least seek to understand our pt's norms in order for our patients to receive the best care.
If the roles were reversed, wouldn't we want that for ourselves???
The fact remains, we have to do what is best for the pt, meaning to out aside our own "norms" and at least seek to understand our pt's norms in order for our patients to receive the best care.
And holding a personal belief that homosexuality and transgender are disordered in no way means that a person cannot remain professional and provide compassionate care. After all, as nurses we deal with people who have disordered things going on all the time. That's kind of the job. Being a nurse means you care for the person AS PERSON and the rest is details. Keeping human dignity and compassion as your guiding compass in patient interactions will always serve you well. I don't need to agree with anyone's philosophy, beliefs or choices to provide them with care. I already have experience with this as an aide, and have no doubt I can continue as a nurse. The partners who've sat at the bedsides while I provided care to their dying loved ones would be unable to tell you what my personal views are, and that's as it should be.
To be clear, the subject of the OP is transgendered. Let's not conflate it with homosexuality. Though, as the femme widow of an intersexed butch, I'm with youse guys.
The early discussion didn't, but at some point the whole LGBTQ kitchen sink got thrown in here. Maybe if the two shouldn't be conflated, then the communities involved should stop putting them together in the public mind at all times with things like that acronym?
Listen, if your personal belief is that your patient is fundamentally flawed or disordered I would never want you anywhere NEAR my LGBT friends and family in a healthcare setting and I would bet a shiny nickel people pick up on it underneath your professionalism. People are sensitive to even the tiniest tells. The era of trans and LGB affirmative healthcare is coming and there is no space for anything short of full acceptance of those parts of our humanity.
Libby1987
3,726 Posts
I'm coming from the basis that I never said that fear of litigation would affect *my* response. I said that could be the fall out. I never said *I* was afraid of the fallout. Posters responded that they would apologize despite a possible litigious threat, quoting my post, as if I wouldn't act due to fear, perhaps even lack of ethics and decency. They did not (if I comprehended correctly, say anything about statistics, it was personal)
I sure never said that an apology wasn't the decent thing to do. But I'm being responded to as such.
It's like I'm the little scapegoat here due to my response to a question when the truth is that I function as a patient advocate, often fiercely. If you knew me, I wouldn't have to explain this multiple times.
The only thing that post should have quoted for is to disagree that there could be some type of legal fall out.