Illegal Alien- frustrated!

Nurses General Nursing

Published

Please don't flame me. This is the only place I can comw to to vent and get some ideas on how to get myself back on track. I work with people who are immunosuppressed. I have a particular client who is receiving lots of money in health care and medication as well as assistance with rent and utilities. She is hispanic, provided a Socical Security number and a signed supporter statement from her husband. Now it turns out husband is undocumented and their income comes from him fixing cars off the books. They have not filed a tax return EVER. This family also receives almost $400.00 a month in food stamps plus a few hundred in WIC. My problem? It hacks me off that they are getting all these benefits and don't pay taxes. It makes me feel like a bad person but it is really hacking me off. Every time I turn around there is this client with their hand out. They have this letter written in Spanish that says "I so an so make such and such each month". This has been taken by not only our agency but others as well. We would not even think about taking such a document from a Caucasian or African American person. I certainly do not want someone to go without help but it aggravates me when I have to assist this person at the expense of the next one, who might be a citizen! I am sure other nurses deal with this. I am looking for a good way of thinking about this. Thanks!

Specializes in Med/Surg, ER and ICU!!!.
Does that make me idealistic and to have blinders on? I have my eyes wide open and I live in area with a large hispanic population (many of whom are undocumented).. ?

I love how you wrote "UNDOCUMENTED" instead of 'ILLEGAL".:trout:

Specializes in Education, Acute, Med/Surg, Tele, etc.

It is just fine to be angry or upset at this...it is a hot button topic! I too get very angry at this, however I do treat all my patients to the best of my ability (biting my tongue many times) and asking what more I can do to stop this from happening.

Here...my hospital has opened up urgent/emergent and primary care facilities for the many field workers that come up from Mexico to start a new and better life...some are legal..others aren't. This has helped a great deal in making the ER and hospital far from primary care! Our community voted on this because it was a huge probelm, and continue with fund raisers to keep it going. Huge sucess!!!!!!!

But what I would like to know whom you tell if you suspect they are an illegal alien? Will anything be done? Can you even tell someone under HIPAA?

And what can really chap my hide about this...what if the person was Muslim or Arab? Do you think they would investigate more so and quickly vs some other race/creed? Proably! And a pat on the back for being "patriotic".....hipacritical huh and wrong in my book!

There should be in place at all medical facilities a protocol on what to do when you suspect your pt is an illegal alien...no matter what race/creed/color!

Specializes in Critical Care, Cardiothoracics, VADs.

Well, flame away because I'm an experienced nurse (10 years) and I think it's disgusting to have the attitude that someone who is sick should be sent home because they are illegal. Not to mention commenting on illegal immigrant birth rates.

What's next, you can't have a CABG if you were a smoker? I mean, hell, why not ration the operations for those who DESERVE them! No liver transplant if you were an alcoholic - leave it for someone DESERVING!

Honestly. Being frustrated with systemic or social problems is one thing, and sure it's frustrating to slog your guts out and see others getting a free ride. But to say someone in need does not deserve aid is just terrible.

Specializes in Med/Surg, Geriatrics.
Can we please not turn this into a student vs nurse thing. THere are other LICENSED NURSES on this same thread who are basically expressing the same opinion as the student that people are quoting. It isn't about the title, just because you aren't a nurse doesn't mean you don't work in capacity to see the same abuses, misuses of the system. Some people just don't view it the same way as others. Personally I think there needs to be reform as well, but I do think that a lot of the ire could be directed at other forms of welfare as well.

Isn't that the truth? The whole blame it on the student thing is just a way for people who don't know how to respond to attempt to discredit your opinion.

For the record, I am a licensed, experienced(15+ years) nurse who has worked in a county hospital in a border town (El Paso, as close as you can get to Mexico without being there) and I currently work in a county hospital in a large urban city. I have also worked in rural hospitals, surburban hospitals and small community hospitals if there is anyone there who thinks I have limited experience dealing with less than affluent populations, immigrants or with sick people in general.

Specializes in ORTHOPAEDICS-CERTIFIED SINCE 89.

Please try to stay on track here. The OP wrote she suspects someone of having false social security and wage records. The responses have gone very far in both directions. Having or using a false social security number is FRAUD. I don't care if it's your dear Aunt Lucy or your gardener. Nowhere is it said that emergent care should be withheld. However while the US is a "great melting pot" those elements who go into the mix are people who followed the rules, learned the language and got a job and paid taxes.

I am second generation American. My Grandparents did all of the above and proudly stood up and took the oath of allegiance to America.

So dear hearts.......stay on track and keep this thread flame free, and if anyone thinks they are being flamed......hit the report.gif and let the staff here handle it.

Specializes in Cardiac.

That's not what I said. I've never advocated stopping treatment on an illegal patient to send the home. I wouldn't allow it. I've had several pts in the ICU who I know are illegal (hello-border patrol at bedsides). That doesn't mean I don't treat them or advocate for them. That's not what anybody is saying.

We don't LIKE the situation that we are in. And I don't HAVE to like it. I don't like having only one trauma center for almost 1 million people. I don't like seeing $40,000 trucks parked outside of the welfare office/DES office, people in the office on their razor cell phones and wearing thousands of dollars worth of jewelry waiting for their welfare. I don't like hearing about WORKING, TAX-PAYING AMERICANS being denied healthcare!

This election, the majority of our propositions are related to illegal aliens. I will vote today. That's one way to change it. It's absurd and easy to assume that just because I don't like the way things are done in this country, that it means it will influence who I am as a nurse.

Today, voting day, we here in AZ must show 2 forms of ID to vote.

But it's not true in most states at this time. and therefore, indeed a problem. But not just from illegal residents, but from those who vote under grannie's name who is 90 years old and in a nursing home with severe dementia. You do know that a many dead people have voted in the past.

Illegal Alien- frustrated??---Racist and ignorant nurse---get some education and think global!!

I wish some of you who are so racist were born in a developing country or even just had an opportunity to see what life is like in some of these countries. The unfortunate thing is that some Americans are so ego-centric compared to other developed nations. It's biblical for those who have much to share with those tho have less. God sees us as his people on earth, not as divide nations and you will be judged if you do not do what you have the ability to do.

Maddona said after adopting the African boy; "I wish everyone would have an opportunity to see the state of children in some of these countries. It is a state of emergency".

Put your self in the shoes of the undocumented people and if you are sincere to yourself you would do exactly the same thing as they are doing, so you need to treat them the way you would want to be treated. They are no less human!!

They do what they have to do to survive, and provide for their families since the US system is broke.

Those of you who shout thew loundest about undocumented people are the same ones who have no clue what the life of an immigrant is like both here and in the countries they come from. Do a little home work and teach your children to be compassionate to less fortunate.

Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.

i have a lot less difficulty with someone who is here legally recieving help my tax dollars have financed. and someone who came here for her grandson's graduation and collapsed while here doesn't seem to be someone who is here just to milk the system.

years ago, i took care of an illegal alien who had a heart transplant at the taxpayer's expense. meanwhile, there were lots of folks who were here legally on that transplant list who were passed over. that i had problems with!

double post, sorry.

I know the cost of healthcare is going up because the hospitals are not getting reinbursed for care. I know raises are not what they should be because hospitals are not getting reimbursed for care. I know nurse patient ratios are less than optimal because hospitals are not getting reimbursed for care. I know ancillary services are being cut because hospitals are not getting reimbursed for care. Yes everyone is welcome here, BUT BECOME A LEGAL CITIZEN AND LEARN THE LANGUAGE.

I, too, am weary of students judging seasoned nurses. Are we better? In some ways, absolutely. Our knowledge base and experience far outweighs theirs.

In the United States we do not have an official language and even U.S. citizens sometimes speak languages other than English.

So many of the posts in this thread sicken me. Of course people are entitled to their opinions but so many of the opinions I see here are ill-informed and based on prejudice and hysteria.

"ILLEGALS" are the new bogeymen, a scapegoat invented by fear-mongering politicians to deflect attention away from the fact that they are doing NOTHING to fix the broken healthcare system in our country. Our politicians are in the pockets of the healthcare and pharmaceutical companies. How convenient it is for them to see us so consumed with the "Illegal Immigrant Invasion" instead of focusing on their corruption and greed. If they spent one minute in Washington DC working on a national healthcare strategy for every 10 minutes they spend blaming illegal immigrants for every problem in America, we'd be a long ways toward a solution to the healthcare crisis.

If you truly think that offering free care to poor people, whether legal or not, is bankrupting the system then I have a bridge in Manhatten I'd like to sell you. Ask yourself why, if hospitals are being "bankrupted" by illegals, healthcare executives are walking away with millions upon millions in annual bonuses. Ask yourself why so few are profiting so richly from our healthcare system while Americans get fatter and sicker every year. Ask yourself why America lags behind every other Western nation in terms of our healthcare system. Healthcare for profit is immoral.

:heartbeat Kris

Illegal Alien- frustrated??---Racist and ignorant nurse---get some education and think global!!

I wish some of you who are so racist were born in a developing country or even just had an opportunity to see what life is like in some of these countries. The unfortunate thing is that some Americans are so ego-centric compared to other developed nations. It's biblical for those who have much to share with those tho have less. God sees us as his people on earth, not as divide nations and you will be judged if you do not do what you have the ability to do.

Maddona said after adopting the African boy; "I wish everyone would have an opportunity to see the state of children in some of these countries. It is a state of emergency".

Put your self in the shoes of the undocumented people and if you are sincere to yourself you would do exactly the same thing as they are doing, so you need to treat them the way you would want to be treated. They are no less human!!

They do what they have to do to survive, and provide for their families since the US system is broke.

Those of you who shout thew loundest about undocumented people are the same ones who have no clue what the life of an immigrant is like both here and in the countries they come from. Do a little home work and teach your children to be compassionate to less fortunate.

Racist? Ignorant? I don't think so. You forget that many of our ancestors came here from other countries and some are 1st generation immigrants. But they got here lawfully, dealt with the frustrations of the immigration processes, and worked, learned the language and paid taxes.

It's a slap in the face for those who, even today, have to go through those frustrations to obtain legal residence and citizenship to watch thousands if not millions of people cross the border and demand the same rights as those of the people who worked so hard to obtain them legitimately.

And please keep personal attacks and name calling out of the discussion lest the thread be closed down.

+ Add a Comment