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 feel that I am totally trapped in a toxic work environment. Nothing will ever change until I move. I did notice from all the notes that ethnic tensions exist in different forms depending on the city or region.
I just avoid socializing with anybody both during and after work. I try to keep communication short and professional with both patients and med staff. Unfortunately, where I work, it seems there is self-segregation between the various ethnic groups at work.
I do feel that the various ethnic groups seem to compete with each other. Yes, racial refusals exist at the hospital requested from the patients. Some patients only want doctors and nurses of their own ethnicity. Unlike most parts of the USA, there are few whites either as patients or doctors. I see middle eastern patients only seek middle eastern med staff. I see Asians seek only Asians of their own specific background such as Koreans seeking only Korean staff if possible. Many refugees and people who came from countries that have been in crisis. Doctors, nurses, and patients, are mainly coming from recent immigrant backgrounds. There may be PTSD behind the self-segregation. I suspect that since patients come from crisis zones, they literally fear that med staff who are not of the same ethnic background may not give them quality care on purpose!
Sadly, I also suspect that some med staff and doctors prefer "helping their own" ethnic backgrounds. I did notice that doctors act very cruel and sarcastic to patients on non-medical issues. I saw a middle-eastern doctor ridicule a patient (who was later found to have been misfiled as having an STD when it was only a skin tag). So the patient could no longer handle the verbal abuse and yelled back. The patient was half Asian and white. The weirdest part was watching some of the Asian staff join in on the ridiculing of the patient. The Asian staff called the patient a pervert and made homophobic remarks such as "are you gay?" and "Asian people don't get STD's, What are you? Are you a pervert?". I stood from a distance, that was not my patient. I just watched for a while and later walked away because I felt that it was outside my authority.
I am beginning to consider that my work as only a game and that I get points only by avoiding drama.
OK thanks for reading. All comments welcome. I am not stirring the pot. YES, THIS IS FOR REAL.
OP - if you have problems related to other professionals from a variety of ethnic background perhaps it would be good to explore your own bias and how you feel about it. I am saying that because the amount of foreign born nurses, physicians and other healthcare professionals will continue to grow and you will encounter tension most likely everywhere to a certain degree.
Having said that - people need to be civilized!
I live in a town with a huge amount of direct neighbors from Asian countries, many have children who were born here, some already have grandchildren. I am not from the US either. There are no ethnic tensions in my direct community because people are very tolerant in general.
I worked in teaching hospitals with a large immigrant patient population, healthcare providers mainly "white", some from a diverse background and I worked in a large teaching hospital with providers and patients coming from a "black" background. I had no problems working in one or the other - never encountered uncivilized behavior from other employees.
Families on the other hand - or patients - can be very difficult at times and sometime refuse a certain ethnic group. I will not allow any family member or patient to openly display racism - this is not acceptable.
Currently I work in a hospital where almost all hospital physicians come from a "foreign" country - there are also some nurses and CNA from I diverse background. The patient population is very mixed, a lot of immigrants /refugees. Personally, I enjoy to work in this diverse environment! Sure, once in a while my idea of patient care collides with the idea of a doctor. But I explore it instead of just pointing a finger. I found that more often the tension is more because of a personal belief. For example - a doctor in the critical care area is against oral morphine for symptom control for a patient who is short of breath with endstage COPD. I sit down and explore it. Why is it that you would not want to prescribe this medication? Most often it turns out that there is a lack of knowledge because those doctors focus on "rescue" instead of palliation and a respectful dialogue will actually lead to better patient care.
In the end we are all human beings, treating each other with respect and be civilized in general is what helps.
Specializes in acutecarefloatpool. BSN/RN/CMSRN. i dabble in pedi.
In the past I have gotten complaints from patients about foreign CNAs that were disrespectful or rude. It seems like the rudeness was either due to 1) some miscommunication/understanding between the CNA and patient related to communication barrier, 2) inability to rephrase something in a "polite" or "respectful" way related to limited English, or 3) an aide acting a certain way that may be acceptable in their own culture but not in Western culture. I usually just confront them about the complaint, and if the complaint happens to be true, I suggest on how they can act more appropriately next time.
Well, we don't really have any different races for nurses. There is one or two that are African-American but they aren't from Africa. We have other physicians that are from other countries but really no issues. I think the funniest thing I ever saw was a doctor try to convince a patient that Pakistan was hotter than whatever state she came from.
Overall, most of them are fairly young and not really too religious. My ex wasn't very religious although he identified as Muslim.
Working in New York, it is critical that we have nurses, doctors, PAs, Nursing attendants, etc. from all different cultures to connect with the vast array of patients we get. It's not always about finding an exact match (i.e. Cantonese speaking patient, Cantonese speaking nurse), but about having the resources on hand. I have not had the experiences or observations that you have encountered. I find the vast array of health professionals that come to work from different languages, cultures, countries and histories contribute significantly to our ability to take great care of our patients. If someone is not behaving professionally, that is a personal decision, not a cultural trait.
princessgirl
9 Posts
Thank you for all the notes so far!
I feel that I am totally trapped in a toxic work environment. Nothing will ever change until I move. I did notice from all the notes that ethnic tensions exist in different forms depending on the city or region.
I just avoid socializing with anybody both during and after work. I try to keep communication short and professional with both patients and med staff. Unfortunately, where I work, it seems there is self-segregation between the various ethnic groups at work.
I do feel that the various ethnic groups seem to compete with each other. Yes, racial refusals exist at the hospital requested from the patients. Some patients only want doctors and nurses of their own ethnicity. Unlike most parts of the USA, there are few whites either as patients or doctors. I see middle eastern patients only seek middle eastern med staff. I see Asians seek only Asians of their own specific background such as Koreans seeking only Korean staff if possible. Many refugees and people who came from countries that have been in crisis. Doctors, nurses, and patients, are mainly coming from recent immigrant backgrounds. There may be PTSD behind the self-segregation. I suspect that since patients come from crisis zones, they literally fear that med staff who are not of the same ethnic background may not give them quality care on purpose!
Sadly, I also suspect that some med staff and doctors prefer "helping their own" ethnic backgrounds. I did notice that doctors act very cruel and sarcastic to patients on non-medical issues. I saw a middle-eastern doctor ridicule a patient (who was later found to have been misfiled as having an STD when it was only a skin tag). So the patient could no longer handle the verbal abuse and yelled back. The patient was half Asian and white. The weirdest part was watching some of the Asian staff join in on the ridiculing of the patient. The Asian staff called the patient a pervert and made homophobic remarks such as "are you gay?" and "Asian people don't get STD's, What are you? Are you a pervert?". I stood from a distance, that was not my patient. I just watched for a while and later walked away because I felt that it was outside my authority.
I am beginning to consider that my work as only a game and that I get points only by avoiding drama.
OK thanks for reading. All comments welcome. I am not stirring the pot. YES, THIS IS FOR REAL.