Dealing with patient's who discriminate

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:mad: I am new to home health nursing. I am working for Amedysis in the Nashville area. I have so far enjoyed my job. I enjoy seeing the patient in their environment. However, I am noticing some disadvantages. Yes it their house, and I definitely respect that. I am at the end of my orientation and taking on a larger number of patients each week. I am finding myself in the office calling patients who for one reason or another decline a visit. I called a patient today who was disheveled because the nurse who usually comes was not coming. I was coming instead due to it being a supervisory visit. He proceeded to hang up in my face and requested that someone else call him back. It was pretty obvious from the time I said my name and heard my voice that he knew that I was black. He had never been this rude to any of the other nurses in the office. I'm not one to play the "race card." But wow, I was really taken aback. So I tried not to take it personal. I can't change my skin color. And wouldn't want to. Just wondering if there are any other nurses out there who have dealt with this.
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In orientation at a new agency one time, the person doing the orientation class told us that the client has no say over the ethnicity of who comes to their house as far as that agency was concerned. Never encountered that situation there. All other agencies have stated that the clients can decide who is welcome and who is not, and they will abide with the wishes of the clients. I have had clients make disparaging remarks along racial lines but I just let them talk. They have a right to their opinion. I certainly am not going to start arguments about it. When I feel that my ethnicity (or lack of ethnicity, however you want to view it) is partly behind me getting rejected for a case, I just chalk it up to client privilege. If they want to be snooty, after all, it is their home. What else can you do? Nothing, as I see it.

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Specializes in Geriatrics, Home Health.

I'm a black nurse in an overwhelmingly white state. When I worked at a SNF, the face sheet in one client's chart said "Caucasian caregivers only", though he had no problem with the Filipina nurse on the floor. I never took it personally. He was an old bigot, and unlikely to change. It was his problem, and I wasn't going to make it mine.

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I agree. It is definitely their problem not mine. I can't change who I am. And also yes, there are those patients who don't want a nurse based on "lack of ethnicity."

It's their turf, their home, and due to me being a caring nurse who loves my job: thier loss!! It did catch me be surprise though.

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Specializes in Peds/outpatient FP,derm,allergy/private duty.

It is their loss. There have been so many nurses I've oriented for cases that I knew would be a great match for a patien/clientt based on other things they had in common but no. Their bigotry has shut the door.

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I work on a case where the family is consistently against having a black nurse. They will watch them like a hawk hoping that they will do something to complain about and if they can't find something, they will make something up. It always makes me sad when I orientate a nurse who happens to be black that I feel has the knowledge, skill and experience to handle the job but because of color won't stick around. And I keep wondering why my manager keeps sending them out to me. At this point its a waste of everyone's time.

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Specializes in Home Health.

I'm white but this burns me up! I want to call patients on this garbage! When I was in acute care, I did call them on it. It was so crazy the number of older folks who would say they didn't want blood from a black person when they heard they were getting a transfusion. (as you can imagine, they did not spare the racial slurs.) We had one black nurse on our unit and when she went to take care of a pt. one day he flat out told her he didn't want a black nurse. She flat out told him, "Everyone else refuses to take care of you b/c you are so rude. Therefore, you are stuck with me!" LOL I gave her props for that one. He also started being a LOT nicer.

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Specializes in LTC, Memory loss, PDN.

I don't have a problem with a pt. refusing staff, because of race, color, gender or whatever. I do have a problem with catering to and encouraging such ignorance.

If the pt. doesn't want a certain nurse, fine, but then they should man up to it and not get a nurse period. I certainly won't cover a call in if there's another nurse who wants more hours, but the pt. refuses because of ethnicity.

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