Do you see ethnic tensions at work? I noticed that many nurses and doctors seem to be coming in from other countries. Many of the doctors and nurses from other countries have customs that are different from the culture of the USA.
I feel like some of the doctors and nurses seem to spend too much time either talking about the countries they left or they spend too much time talking in their languages. I also noticed sometimes the foreign nurses may mistreat patients.
If we complain about the foreign nurses, we get labeled racist. Yet the foreign nurse seem to have their own forms of racism and act disrespectful towards patients or coworkers simply because they do not have the same culture.
The most bizarre thing I ever witnessed was watching a nurse from Asia disrespect an American person of Asian descent simply because the patient was not able to speak his "native language" or the fact he spoke only English.
Another concern is about the doctors who canot speak English very well because they might mistakes and injure patients.
I hope to have a civil discussion. I would like to se everybody give opinions.
I see all different types of discrimination just being a nursing student and wondered how it really was in the real world. Where I do my clinical in North TX we do have a lot of foreigners, specifically Indians and I do find myself at times trying to decipher what they say and they do tend to speak in their native language a lot which I think should be forbidden. We don't have too many African American workers or patients so the discrimination usually comes between the Indians and Caucasians. I guess you have to deal with this no matter where you go.
if you disagree, fine. I just need this forum to vent and find direction on how to cope with my work. I have had Asian doctors insinuate that a person is a "trick baby" and ask if the father was a marine and mother was a bar girl.
I don't disagree but I think that experience depends GREATLY on geographical location.
I'm not sure what you can actually do. Especially if you are Caucasian except to keep your own self in check and watch for your own perceptions.
I myself probably wouldn't ever correct a person of color. I would ask for behavior to be altered if I witnessed abuse. And I would call out racist behavior of my fellow ethnicity.
Specializes in LTC,Hospice/palliative care,acute care.
I work with a several cultural groups in LTC,I notice they will have lengthy ,loud conversations in resident care areas in front of resident and staff.It drives me nuts,I think it's rude.Many of them are close to unintelligible with English and it drives the other staff and residents crazy
We have every sexual orientation, race, religion and at least 20 different countries of origin represented in our 20 bed ICU.
It's a non issue.
Having so many bilingual ICU staff members comes in very handy.
Our Pinay staff like to chat in Tagalog during downtime and it's never a problem. If I were working outside the US I'm sure that I would gravitate to people who shared my experiences and spoke my native language
Sometimes I see racial/ethnic tension at work. What does bind us, no matter what group we're from is the work we do. It seems like because of that connection, racial and cultural differences take a back seat.
The only ethnic tension that I've ever noticed were patient's discriminating against nurses of color. Not as much now that I'm a nurse. However... When I was in nursing school and a PCT, I had several examples. One of them was in their face about it. "Go get me ____, n****". It was APPALLING. Another time, I had a patient complain to me in private that all of his nurses and doctors were black, asian or Indian and it's nice to see a "white girl". I should have said something. I asked him in front of the (black) nurse whether he wanted chocolate or vanilla pudding. He said the white one then winked at me. I wanted to throw it at him. Or, yet other patient's who ask "why are all of the doctors and nurses from other countries?". I'll politely explain to them that when this hospital was built, they could not find enough doctors and nurses nearby to serve the local population so they had to advertise abroad. If they mention their kids, I'll ask what they do for a living every now and then. Retail, truck driver, etc... Well. There's your answer. We need those jobs too, but if you want more American born doctors and nurses. Raise them. If you didn't, you only have yourself to blame.
I think that MOST of the hospitalists in the hospital that I work at now are Indian or Middle Eastern. They are all very polite, personable to the nurses AND the patients and SMART. I work with an Indian nurse who explained to me that many poor Indians parents view education and medicine as a way for their children to escape poverty. I commend them. Too bad we don't have that mentality more in the United States.
I do find myself at times trying to decipher what they say and they do tend to speak in their native language a lot which I think should be forbidden. We don't have too many African American workers or patients so the discrimination usually comes between the Indians and Caucasians. I guess you have to deal with this no matter where you go.
forbidden? Really? Don't you mean "discouraged"? Forbidden means that it cannot be done anytime ever and that there will be consequences.
How would you feel if you were speaking a second language all day long, then you find a group of Americans and it's such a relief to speak English, and someone tells you that it's against the rules to speak English? And if someone catches you speaking English you'll be written up or fired? What if you run into your American coworker and speak English to them out of habit? Should you be written up for that?
I work in a unit of about 50 nurses and only 2 Americans. I am clearly in the minority. It would be obnoxious of me to demand that EVERYONE on the unit can only speak the language spoken by only 2 staff members. I will admit listening to another language all day is annoying, but that's on me to suck it up and deal with it. I love my coworkers and love the unit I work in. As far as I can tell there is no racial tension. If someone has a problem with the culture of our unit they can invite themselves to go work someplace else.
So many opinions you have as a student nurse go right out the window once you start working. You'll be so busy just getting through the day you won't have the time or energy to nit pick about who speaks what language.
Yes, I've seen ethnic tension. The worst, from my experience, arises in the situation of Filipino nurses vs American nurses, I've noticed. Filipino nurses gravitate toward ICUs because they imagine it gives them a sense of status that they feel has been denied to them in their country of origin. Also, they do that in order to impress their families who praise high skill level jobs. To Filipino nurses, working in critical care confers status. It is not uncommon to see the Filipino nurses in the ICUs taking breaks and lunches together and researching nursing journals together or studying for certifications to improve their status.
Part of this obsession with status stems from employment conditions in the Philippines. Due to their long history of extreme unemployment, which is one of the worst in the world, in Filipino culture an individual's profession is perhaps the most preeminent aspect of his or her identity. Due to the crippling unemployment there, the Philippines is officially the biggest exporter of foreign labor in the world. Legions of Filipinos flock not only to the USA but to all other countries in Asia for jobs and as a result, the Philippines is often derided as the "Mexico" of Asia. There is a LOT of racism toward Filipinos in China, Japan, Thailand, etc. They are seen as trash.
I've never had a problem with Filipino nurses personally, but unfortunately I have observed a strong sense of cliquishness among them and it results in nearly palpable "us vs. them" tension between them and everyone else on the unit.
Here is my list of "risk factors" for ethnical/racial conflicts possibility in healthcare settings.
IMH (umble)O, these are:
- rural facilities
- situated in areas with history of ethnic/racial tensions
- teaching hospitals in rural settings (more foreign trained doctors come there, and staff quickly becomes frustrated with their accents but unable to act directly and so violence becomes lateral)
- areas with older, less educated population
- areas with recent and sharp changes in local economy, either way
- areas with a few immigrants in general
- religious organization-affiliated facilities
- excessive accent on "excellence in care" and "customer service"
- areas with more than one nursing program "supplier" in close vicinity
- excessive accent on "image" of facility
Two factors which, alone or together, signify almost 100% admission of the fact that "we're got this problem here":
- significant difference between ethnic adnmixture of hospital staff and that of surrounding population. Best observed in cafeteria during lunch hour.
- existence of a document (s) named "diversity statement", "inclusion pledge" or something like it, as well as any type of special classes/workshops/any other such activities imposed upon staff, especially management level. It is usually "recommended" by EEOC as a sort of punishment in case of known complains or problems, or developed in direct anticipation of them. In any case, in plain English it sounds like "if you are not like us, get outta here".
I work in a diverse environment, where many languages are spoken; one of the primary languages besides English is Spanish, which doesn't bother me much because I understand and communicate well lingually.
I have mainly worked in a diverse environment; however, I remember I worked at a hospital many moons ago that had pts jump because I was doing a manual blood pressure and had to touch their arm-they did apologize for that-as well as sent all their black staff home on their maternity unit because a father stated "no black staff". What a PR and violation nightmare that was well deserved.
OP, upon your further posts, it does sound like there are some racial tensions at your employer that seem to make you feel uncomfortable; what would be a solution that you can be a part of?
I don't know. I feel some tension at work. I stand out like a sore thumb as I'm the only Indian nurse on my unit, and always have been. I see some African nurses on other units, but by and large, most of the staff is white. I've felt tension a little bit once when I noticed on the schedule I was the only experienced nurse on that night. There was no one designated to be charge, so by default it would fall on me. I asked my supervisor for a little bit of orientation to the charge role and she said no. To top it off, she designated a new nurse (white) to be charge over me. Whatever. In the end, the schedule was rearranged so that another experienced nurse was on staff that night.
As far as for physicians, a lot of them are not white; I'd say a sizable chunk of them are Indian. Patients sometimes have trouble understanding them and have sometimes refused non-white physicians. But by and large, there is little tension between them and white staff.
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JoJo_Mommy, BSN
103 Posts
I see all different types of discrimination just being a nursing student and wondered how it really was in the real world. Where I do my clinical in North TX we do have a lot of foreigners, specifically Indians and I do find myself at times trying to decipher what they say and they do tend to speak in their native language a lot which I think should be forbidden. We don't have too many African American workers or patients so the discrimination usually comes between the Indians and Caucasians. I guess you have to deal with this no matter where you go.