Are you afraid to approach minority staff members? WHY?

Nurses General Nursing

Published

It's been said that racism and discrimination runs both ways. White nurses complain that minorities gather together and exclude them from conversations. Minorities say that they are passed over for "cream of the crop" jobs that are given to white nurses. Staff members report that minority CNA's and support staff give preferential treatment to their own.

IS THIS ALL TRUE?

Yep, it is. But I want to hear from everyone out there. What's your beef? What's the problem? How can it be addressed?

Don't be shy. Don't be skerred. Are we not professionals? Isn't this the place to discuss these sensitive issues? If you don't contribute how are we going to learn from each other?

So, come on. Leave your inhibitions at the door. Don your flaming suits, get out the dictionaries and thesaurus' and let's get SOME DISCUSSION GOING ON THIS.

Maybe, just maybe we'll learn some great things through discussion. :)

Specializes in ER, ICU, L&D, OR.

Howdy yall

from deep in the heart of texas

Hi LV, intersting topic you brought up. It has some interesting and some bland responses. Do you think you are ready for mine. I dont know, hhmmmmmmmm

First lets start with your question of congregating. Either Im blind or I dont notice, or I dont pay attention. My wifey says I have a limited attention span. Can you believe that. I have worked for a long time and in a variety of institutions. I havent particularly noticed any congregating. Maybe Ive been just too busy to pay attention. Maybe the only people who notice congregating are those who are a little prejudiced or obviously arent working hard enough.

As far as minorities being in the higher positions. Most of the house supervisors I know are either asiatic or black or irish. What is it about those irish, I dont know.. So I cant say I have seen all that much in the way of disparity. The only people Ive seen move up into the higher jobs are the ones who want to. I have a friend, one of my golfing buddies whos gone up into administration and is doing quite well for himself as an individual, he just happens to be Hispanic.

Now I have got to admit I do see golfers tend to congregate together in nursing. But nongolfing nurses despise hearing us talk about golfing, so that seems normal. Or matbe Im just attuned to that issue.. But to Konnie, you have got to understand what goes on in a golfers head. If dont want to then, just leave us golfers alone, were harmless, unless we are waving a 4 iron,

Oh and LV I will never put on a Flaming suit. One I dont flame. Im not the type to flame, and never will be the type to flame. Besides I dont even own a single solitary suit. I am also not the suit type, not by a long shot. My wife wants me to buy a suit But Im more interested in a new set of golf clubs. Does that surprise you. I do have sweat suits, and exercise suits and golf suits, and am occasiomal blue jean, even some plaid shirts and a cowboy hat. I guess thats a cowboy suit. Im just a simple old country boy who wants to be like Jack Nicklaus, or Arnie, But probably more like Craig Stadler in nature.

Does this help a little

doo wah ditty

Specializes in ER, ICU, L&D, OR.

Howdy yall

from deep in the heart of texas

Oh by the way LV, I looked in the dictionary and it doesnt have doo wah ditty in it. And I looked in the thesauras and it didnt hae teeitup in it. So I prompyly threw them both away.

doo wah ditty

Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.

Absolutely NOT! People are people to me and I approach them all with respect and treat them w/the dignity they deserve as human beings. NEVER have I been put off by race -----maybe it is my background, growing up in Chicago area and military....I don't know. But I enjoy working w/a diverse group of dr's/nurses/support staff and have not found race to be a problem --- if anything, it is an opportunity to learn. I like hearing about cultural/religious practices and like hearing about their "home countries" or varying backgrounds and belief systems. I have worked with many different people, Folks from the Deep South to Africa to the Phillipine Islands and Australia---all over-------how exciting it can be when we open our minds to it!

--now personality conflicts, welp, there is another story. a LONG one (snore).......good thread.

Specializes in Hemodialysis, Home Health.

Hey Tom !

Speaking of golf.. and color/race... my hubby plays golf religiously. His sole passion in life .. I can't compete. :o He just noticed something this week and asked me about it...he has a golfing buddy who is black..and happens to be one of the very few black golfers here in my little area of the country. They play a lot together.. you know how you find a buddy you can play well with, your "timing" and play seems to fit just right.. you know.. that golfing stuff that means something when you have a partner. Well, he's noticed here lately that since he and his friend have been playing a lot together this year, his other golfing "friends" just aren't coming around much anymore, or asking him to play. Pretty much getting the cold shoulder. Sad, huh? Even in the golfing profession.... I won't repeat here what my husband's response to it all was....:imbar !!! Yeah.. you guessed ! :chuckle

Where I work we all get along well. Black, Irish, German, Italian, Hispanic, Lesbian, Straight, Married, Single, Male, Female, Young and Old, there is a little of everything. As long as everyone does there job, no problem. I haven't noticed any groups other then the young ones can hold their liquor better then some of us old farts and can tolerate more OT.

stessedlpn,

so you speak phillipino? If so which dialect?

Originally posted by stressedlpn

I get to win all the way around, my family is affectionaly called the rainbow bunch, daughter is filipino, son is black, mom was Indian, dad is irish, sometimes we get stares where we go, most of the time we dont, we live in mostly an all white community( sorry yall it is to early in the morning for me to try to spell all the politicaly correct terms)

As for at work I do not see in differance between the races, we all mingle down in the trenches so to speak, sometimes the pts get a little cruel but we just slug it off, I had one pt who asked ,e what are you any way your not all white, but you dont look hispanic either ,(she was white) I just laughed at her and told her I was of exotic stock, most of our docs in this area are from India, or hispanic, they are the most popular docs,

now as for racisim in hte community, I may have to relocate when the kids get older, I have had numerous people not of white skin tell me I was raising the kids to be too white, the white folks ask me how I plan on raising them, my answer is simply they will be strong christian adults with the values I pass on to them, I do try to educate the kids on their histories, I have several filipino friends that are teaching lori, and several black friends that are around chris.

at work we are all treated like crap no matter the color of our skin, we are treated equally sh@#%y

Great thread Vegas,

Where in AR. are you? We got the rainbow thing happening here to.. not as well recieved as when we lived in HI.

We only have 1 philipino family here ( He is a doc) I love talking to him and listening to the Tagolog when he calls his wife..ahhh..reminds me of home.

I work at a large city hospital...we have a mixture of races.

The most enjoyable person, I work with is of another race....she is awesome to work with.

I honestly treat everyone equally.

When I started working at this hospital....6 months into working there another nurse told me and another male nurse that we were called racist. To this day I don't know why...if it was said...that she'd say that.

Originally posted by ohbet

stessedlpn,

so you speak phillipino? If so which dialect?

No sorry, my ex-husband was filipino, he spoke taglow(sp)

Specializes in Nephrology, Cardiology, ER, ICU.

My husband is retired military and when we lived in Korea, my then-6 y/o son asked me why they called African-Americans black when his friends were brown??? We laughed over that one.

That being said, I have worked in multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, multi-racial places. No problems!!!!! If people do their job, no problems.

Specializes in ICU, nutrition.
Originally posted by nursenoelle

Where in AR. are you? We got the rainbow thing happening here to.. not as well recieved as when we lived in HI.

Having lived in Arkansas, I can totally relate to that statement. I can still remember some of the ugly things my grandpa would say about black people (of course, that's not what he called them...) Even when giving a compliment to one of the nurses that took care of him in the hospital, he included a racial slur within it (not to her, to me later).

My sister-in-law wanted to adopt a child a few years ago (a black child) and was told by a couple of family members not to bother, as they would not accept that child as a relative!

Being adopted myself, I took particular offense to that remark! Every child deserves a family that loves him or her, and no one can help what race they are.

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