Gay Boomers and nursing attitudes

Nurses General Nursing

Published

I read an interestiing article, in the NYT, today. Apparently the first wave of gay boomers have begun to hit our LTC, Assisted Living, home health agencies. And more and more of them are being belittled, receiving less then quality care, being transfered to units that are not appropriate to them because of other residents. I am wondering, has anyone encountered this yet? What has happen? What is your attitidue? What is being done to correct the problems?

Woody:balloons:

I don't treat a patient any different because oh their lifestyle. Homosexuality is only ONE lifestyle we deal with. We have the DRUG problems, the non compliant Diabetics, and on and on.

ALL of them should be treated equally as NEEDY people that we are to CARE for as nurses. It is not our place to judge. Granted it is pretty frustrating with the "frequent flyer crowd", but they are MORE needy than the rest.

The ONLY line I draw is when a patient treats me like a SERVANT, or is RUDE and obnoxious.

That fits ALL commers!:madface:

So far one of my NICEST patients was a Bisexual nurse. We had fun joking back and forth. :lol2:

:nurse:Kathy

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I was not judging anyone. I simply stated that we probably would not see many gays in LTC, because the lifestyle they live is more risky than most people.

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I do not know if I have taken care of a gay person in LTC or not, they didn't have the nerve to admit it if they were. They do deserve the same treatment that anyone else receives. I do not think we will see very many of them in LTC, it seems to me that they die before they make it to that age. I guess this comes along the extravagant lifestyle that most gays live.

oh. dear. God.

(fervently reciting the Serenity Prayer)

leslie

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I don't treat a patient any different because oh their lifestyle. Homosexuality is only ONE lifestyle we deal with. We have the DRUG problems, the non compliant Diabetics, and on and on.

you forgot the ignorant.

leslie

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About the woman on the cruise whose partner was denied access to her....

If anyone is in a strange area, and has someone that cares about them, in our hospital that person is welcome to visit. Living will or not. Sometimes we have barred partners during codes/ procedures, but that would be same sex and heterosexual as well. I thought sexual orientation was federally protected as far as discrimination and hospitals had no choice about it?

Hi there. Unfortunately, no. No protection at all for gays and their partners.:o

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I do not know if I have taken care of a gay person in LTC or not, they didn't have the nerve to admit it if they were. They do deserve the same treatment that anyone else receives. I do not think we will see very many of them in LTC, it seems to me that they die before they make it to that age. I guess this comes along the extravagant lifestyle that most gays live.

Are you joking? Yikes. You really don't know much at all.:uhoh21::angryfire

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Specializes in Critical Care, Progressive Care.
They have often served tirelessly, with little compensation, and have usually remained unknown.... Why do we find it amusing to mock these women?

Yes. Women religious have done work that nobody else would - including providing compassionate care to HIV+ pts back in the days when others were frightened to do so. I do not think this fact is lost on the SPI - as noted earlier they raise $$$ for HIV services. I don't see them as mocking religious. Rather, they parody a Hollywood stereotype of the Julie Andrews/ "Singing Nun" variety. I think most folks are smart enough to realize that Julie Andrews and Sandy Duncan were silly caricatures of real women who gave up a great deal to live holy and consecrated lives of service. And they're smart enough to know what the SPI are up doing.

The real face of woman religious can be found in the schools and hospitals the built and ran. It is found in Mother Theresa's order - indeed her sisters came to Manhattan to set up a hospice for HIV+ persons. Perhaps I am naive but I dont think the SPI is mocking them.

I am not however a monastic. Surely their must be some religious or former religious reading this site. Do you kind sisters have any thoughts.

Woody - I was blown away by your last post. You're one wise grandma out there in Fla! You make two striking points. First, self-awareness is an important component to compassion. Second and most important - we are all sinners in our own way. As the psalm in the Hebrew Bible puts it "My sin is ever before me."

The bulk of my moral and religious education came from grandmother. Please teach your grandkids, they will profit greatly from your wisdom.

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Specializes in Critical Care, Progressive Care.
I guess this comes along the extravagant lifestyle that most gays live.

Seriously, are you joking? Maybe its because I live in a bubble out here but I haven't heard anything this foolish in a while.

Oh, lemme tell you about my extravagant high-risk lifestyle that will no doubt prevent me from living long enough to make it to LTC. It is 12:30 am in San Francisco (I suspect the homosexual excesses of my home town must send chills through your spine). I got home to my apartment from my anatomy lab at midnight after riding the the train and the bus for two hours. I just finished a bowl of ramen noodles and now I am responding to your post on Allnurses.com. I was drinking a green tea but your post has caused me to engage in the high-risk behavior of a scotch and soda. After that I think I might engage in a little high risk sleep.

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Specializes in Critical Care, Progressive Care.

Oh, my well stocked bar in my gay household seems to be out of scotch. I am enjoying a bourbon and water. Cheers.

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Is this a legitimate story or more of the NYT's sensational journalism. I find it hard to believe anyone is treated differently because they are gay. Everyone is taught in nursing school a non judgemental approach and I find this story dubious at best. Thsi is the same newspaper that brought us Jason Blair's mythical journalism. No longer a newspaper of record in my book.

Trust me, it is not sensation journalism. I am a gay man and my partner is HIV positive. Unfortunately, he contracted syphilis and was in stage 2, therefore needing IV therapy for two weeks earlier this year. While he was in the hospital, he had no real issues from the staff, however due to costs, his HMO insisted that after four days he be transported to a rehabilitation center. As he was being admitted to this facility he overheard several nurses exclaim, "oh there goes that patient, hopefully I don't have to take care of him." These nurses were unfortunately assigned to take care of him. They would let his IVs run dry; he would actually have to turn the pump off. I taught him how to do that. Whenever he turned his call light on, he would be ignored either completely, or it would take an excessive amount of time before he would receive a response, and it was normally from the charge nurse. I didn't believe it when he told me, as I am fresh from nursing school and have been taught that we do not deny care. One day as I was visiting, I witnessed it with my own eyes. His IV site had infiltrated. He turned on his call light, and we waited almost 20 mins before somebody answered, and then it was a CNA who came. She said that she would get one of the nurses to come in to see him. A few minutes went by, and my partner was in excruciating pain at this point, when one of those nurses came in to see him, she claimed that she couldn't do that herself and would have to get somebody else. A few more minutes went by, and the charge nurse came in. She did apologize for not being able to get there sooner, but she was seeing another patient at the time the call light went off, and she didn't realize that he was calling and it was something that needed to be taken care of. Sorry this response is so long, but I wanted you to see the whole picture. We can tolerate a great deal from people, but when you are in a health care setting, you shouldn't have to worry about not receiving care based on who or what you are, or because you have an illness that is stigmatized with a certain community.

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Here is a link I found regarding the same sex family going on the cruise. An eye opener for sure . Depending on where u live is how one is treated. Care givers are not always nice people.

http://www.familypride.org/blog/2007/07/triumph-over-tragedy-the-langbehn-pond-familys-story.html

That is horrible that this lady was not allowed to be at her partner's side throughout this tragedy. What is wrong with people? Those providers deserve to be shot:angryfire (okay, maybe not that extreme but at least disciplined to some extent). If i personally were the manager and I recieved the complaint about the social worker, I would of fired him on the spot. What and a$%hole. This just makes me so angry. People need to get off their high horses and mind their own damn business and do their jobs.:angryfire:angryfire:angryfire

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Oh, my well stocked bar in my gay household seems to be out of scotch. I am enjoying a bourbon and water. Cheers.

I am thinking that said poster that has "driven you to extravagence" might actually be coming up from under the bridge, and we are merely innocent billy goats gruff.

It is just a theory. :)

I hope your drink was tasty and that you slept peacefully.

-Kan

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