No matter how many self-righteous managers and nurses might deny it, there is still plenty of discrimination against job hunters with ethnic names. All you have to do is Google to find plenty of articles, stats, and studies showing that people with minority names must complete 2-3 times more job applications in order to receive the same number of job interview offers as their Anglo-Saxon sounding counterparts.
For those of you lucky enough to go by an Anglicized nickname, here's something interesting from a manager/HR blog: you are NOT obligated to apply for jobs with your legal name. If you've been going by another nickname for ages, then for goodness's sake, apply with that name! Resumes, cover letters, and even digital applications are not legal documents. When HR is interested enough to need a background check and social security number, that's when you give them your legal name.
But of course, not everyone has been lucky enough to go by Jennifer or Lauren or Rachel. So is there no other advice for them except to keep their chin up and keep applying? In a job market where even "white-named" job hunters are having no luck with 100+ job applications, that is surely disheartening.
Eh, at my last job I was basically the only white or non-foreign one there. I wouldn't have minded if they could all at least speak English since we had almost all white, US citizen patients.
I wanted to tell my NM that I can't actually take every patient who requested "that girl who speaks English" because then I'd have ALL the patients.
It was just frustrating. And I couldn't understand what they were trying to tell me in report. Sometimes they even called meds into the pharmacy to later have the pharmacy call me and say, this person can't have such and such 'cause they're allergic to that class of meds, and it was just something that sounded similar, not the right med.
Very scary.
I can appreciate if English is not your first language but we didn't have interpreters (it was a dumpy place, they didn't have anything necessary) and the patients couldn't understand the nurses and vice versa, so it was so awful.
Trying to figure out how this - non English Speaking Nurses- has any bearing on anyone's name.
BytheLake- Bravo- I am right there with you. I spoke up for an Asian male RN who was being bullyied by a group of mixed minority and gender identification (lesbian) nurses aids on a telemetry floor. The aids refused to assist him with his patient care- answer the call light of one of his patients while he went to the lab to pick up a unit of blood for a newly admitted GI bleed. 3 witnesses in the room( another white RN, an Indian RN, and a African American RN) and all afraid to speak up.
I was terminated- the ring leader lied about the event. I has made me think twice about sticking my neck out and standing up in these situations. What it all boils down to is: the nursing administration doesn't know how to handle these situations and would rather get rid of the person who bring them to their attention. They would rather the problem continue and keep ignoring it.
This insident I reported to the EEOC and the state dept of labor. 65 pages of a complaint. The EEOC investigators went up to the unit aqnd interviewed each staff person individually and a corrective action plan that had to be monitored and carried out by the nursing management for 3 years with EEOC oversight reporting.
Insidently, I did go to my manager when I saw the first insident- she did nothing. I went to the VP of Nursing with the second event- he did nothing. Where is the VP of nursing today- promoted to an ever higher position in another healthcare system- I saw his picture and write up, congrats to him, in the Nursing Spectrum. It is not to THEIR political advantage or career aspirations to intervene in these situations.!! he holds as he did then- 2 Master's degrees and a Phd, a fellowship and emergency nursing certif, and a health administration certification( RN,BSN,MSN,MHA,phD, CEN, CNHA FAAC)!!! It got me fired and unemployed for 8 months cleaned out my savings account - and bankruptcy.
I remember when I graduated high school and was searching for scholarships, most of the ones I found required the recipient be a certain race, and it was never
white.
. . .and if you DARED to complain about it, YOU would be called the racist. *rolls eyes*
we live in a society that discriminates in all aspects, whether it be race, gender or curtual beliefs..we need to stop being so jaded against others for stuff thst has been tolerated for years!!! i can agree with all the previous post... being a minority and having an ethic name doesnt mean bad or that people hate" you...or that you have it worse than anybody else... being white, or non minority doesnt mean they have it better!!! im sorry but ... be the best you that you can be... no matter what race, gender, etc.. we are all in this together !
@man-nurse2be he's not using the 'n' word, the other gamers are using it. Read my post again. I'm being called a ni***r at least 3 times by a racist person.
I see misstgo, well slap them to hell and back! I've encountered racist customers, and racist police all in the line of doing my job, one was a few years back when I was a meter reader/and repairing electric meters, just minding my business walking house to house, next thing you know the cops show up. I just showed them my ID from the electric company and they went on their way. It is annoying tho. And for other posters, I totally agree racism can happen to anyone including white people. But just as an outsider immigrant who just came to USA 8 years ago I can tell everyone, that America has tonnes of tolerance problems, and very bad racism problems. I know it happens everywhere but I never thought it was this bad in the largest "free" country in the world. Back home I had black friends, white friends, indian friends, chinese, hindi, muslim whatever race or religion it really did not matter, but here it like one of the first thing thats on everyones mind. Not to talk about stigmas, people see me assume yep black = hiphop, yeah i like some, but I like Greenday, Nickleback, Avril Lavigine and Katy Perry too. Noone is trying to get to really KNOW a person on the inside anymore...its really sad....Me I refuse to let is run or ruin my life.
Thanks a lot, Im nursing Student in Puerto Rico and I will go to USA, When I finish my degre and Im worry because my name is common Pedro but my last name is Izquierdo (left In spanish) and I KNOW is kinda hard for English speakers. Btw I physically lookliketypical white american Blond and brown eyes but I'M latino with strong accent LOL
Specializes in Gerontology, Med surg, Home Health.
I've been called a racist because I didn't vote for Obama. I didn't vote for Gore, Clinton, Carter, johnson, Kennedy either, but, apparently those times I was a Republican, but this time I was a racist.
Whoa now everyone. I only wanted to point out that discrimination towards ethnic/minority names occurred in the hiring process (and backed it up with sources). Please don't go pointing out that life sucks more for you because you're white or black or were bullied or didn't get enough scholarships - it sucks for all of us, all around, for different reasons, and griping at each other just kills the community spirit.
Rather than pointing fingers at each other for not suffering as much as yourself, the least we can do for now is to try our best to make sure that the place where we DO work is less violent or discriminatory. For EVERY race or ethnicity.
In the meantime, like I said: If you have an Anglicized nickname (or even if you go by Jen instead of Jennifer), use that name when applying for jobs instead.
Bonus: If you're still stuck on racism, here are a few different articles to get you thinking.
sauconyrunner
553 Posts
Trying to figure out how this - non English Speaking Nurses- has any bearing on anyone's name.