Hello, everyone out there in the world of allnurses.com I just need to get something that's been bothering me for a while off of my chest. I just want to talk about this issue especially affecting minority nurses. And that issue is that it can be hard to be a nurse of color.
I am part Somoan/part African-American and consider myself Black for the most part. Well, I just feel that after all these years, minority nurses still don't get as much respect as their white colleagues.
Always being mistaken for for support staff even though my name tag boldly states who I am and my credentials. And I even feel that sometimes, patients feel insulted by me being their nurse. It seems like that when I first go into the patient's room, before I can introduce myself properly, they always assume I am a CNA. After I explain that I am their nurse, they seem to loose that "glow". It's like they don't want ME to be their nurse. And when a previous nurse that happens to be white reports how pleasant a patient was, I don't get that "pleasant" behavior from the same patient.
We as nurses know that patients can often be demanding, rude, and downright ridiculous with any nurse. But, to the minority nurses out there, do you sometimes feel that you are being treated with less respect because your a minority? Do you feel like you get treated differently from the other nurses by the same patient?
Specializes in ICU;CCU;Telemetry;L&D;Hospice;ER/Trauma;.
I think it IS innate....because those same people who are afraid, or ignorant, or were "rasied that way" had to have gotten it from SOMEWHERE....so where did it come from??? Where did the learning of the behaviour, or the misunderstanding, or the fear, or the herd mentality come from??? It had to come from somewhere....just like the thinking of the Nazi's....it came from somewhere.
The reason I don't like using "lighter" excuses for this stuff is because it's then easy to say, "oh, well, that's just the way he/she was raised"....or "well, boys will be boys"...or "that's just the way it's always been"....
I believe we have to be better people than that....we have to require of ourselves and each other a different approach that disallows room for excuses...
I could care less whether or not someone was raised to believe all white blonde girls are stupid and ineffective as nurses....because I KNOW IT"S NOT TRUE....what bothers me is that this mentality, herd or not, exists as a reason to hold negativity toward someone who is blonde and just happens to be a nurse...
While it might help to "understand" why a person behaves as they do, I don't cut anyone any slack when it comes to being racist or prejudiced because "they are fearful" or "because they were raised that way"....in this day and age and in this country, that's just a pile of horse bisquits!
I also believe that we all owe one another less excuses for bad behaviour, and more positive outcry when we see it happen....
wrong is wrong....
This kind of thinking leaves too much room for practicioners of this behaviour to continue in their way.....when confronted they will revert to those very same reasons for why they do what they do....
This is a patent choice....and it is practiced by people who internalize and breathe this kind of thing as if it was essential for their very life!
Right now I'm a black student nurse. I have thought about this being a issue but I decided not to let it bother me. Someone elses racism and hangups are not my problem and its out of my hands. I dont feel the need to try to prove anything to anyone. A person who is racist knows what they are doing is wrong. Plus it takes to much negative energy to hate on someone. Its way to consuming on their part and I'm happy I am not like that.
I love who I am and I love my features. I would NEVER want to change who I am and what I look like. Going through this thread and reading these stories makes me want to work that much harder and it makes me wanna set even more big goals for my life. I'm happy to see that this issue has been addressed and it should be. I think its good to vent and not take any kind of treatment and if that makes someone else uncomfortable.... so what? these issues do exist and they should be addressed.
All I can say is. keep your head up and keep doing you. thats what I'm doing and I'm that much happier every morning :)
I think it IS innate....because those same people who are afraid, or ignorant, or were "rasied that way" had to have gotten it from SOMEWHERE....so where did it come from??? Where did the learning of the behaviour, or the misunderstanding, or the fear, or the herd mentality come from??? It had to come from somewhere....just like the thinking of the Nazi's....it came from somewhere.
The reason I don't like using "lighter" excuses for this stuff is because it's then easy to say, "oh, well, that's just the way he/she was raised"....or "well, boys will be boys"...or "that's just the way it's always been"....
I believe we have to be better people than that....we have to require of ourselves and each other a different approach that disallows room for excuses...
I could care less whether or not someone was raised to believe all white blonde girls are stupid and ineffective as nurses....because I KNOW IT"S NOT TRUE....what bothers me is that this mentality, herd or not, exists as a reason to hold negativity toward someone who is blonde and just happens to be a nurse...
While it might help to "understand" why a person behaves as they do, I don't cut anyone any slack when it comes to being racist or prejudiced because "they are fearful" or "because they were raised that way"....in this day and age and in this country, that's just a pile of horse bisquits!
I also believe that we all owe one another less excuses for bad behaviour, and more positive outcry when we see it happen....
wrong is wrong....
This kind of thinking leaves too much room for practicioners of this behaviour to continue in their way.....when confronted they will revert to those very same reasons for why they do what they do....
This is a patent choice....and it is practiced by people who internalize and breathe this kind of thing as if it was essential for their very life!
If that isn't innate, then, what is?
Innate means "existing in, belonging to, or determined by factors present in an individual from birth."
I just don't believe that some people are born that way. I think the answer to "...(they must) have gotten it from SOMEWHERE....so where did it come from?" is most often that they've learned it from their families or from their communities.
To me, that gives me hope because those things that can be learned can be unlearned or at least no longer taught. To say that it's innate is so discouraging because it implies that it is simply the way that some people are.
Right now I'm a black student nurse. I have thought about this being a issue but I decided not to let it bother me. Someone elses racism and hangups are not my problem and its out of my hands. I dont feel the need to try to prove anything to anyone. A person who is racist knows what they are doing is wrong. Plus it takes to much negative energy to hate on someone. Its way to consuming on their part and I'm happy I am not like that.
I love who I am and I love my features. I would NEVER want to change who I am and what I look like. Going through this thread and reading these stories makes me want to work that much harder and it makes me wanna set even more big goals for my life. I'm happy to see that this issue has been addressed and it should be. I think its good to vent and not take any kind of treatment and if that makes someone else uncomfortable.... so what? these issues do exist and they should be addressed.
All I can say is. keep your head up and keep doing you. thats what I'm doing and I'm that much happier every morning :)
Specializes in Med/surg,Tele,PACU,ER,ICU,LTAC,HH,Neuro.
I lived in New Orleans for 12 years. I kept in touch with a friend RN I met at a hospital for years and we talked one time about us being in home health and some of the problems that go with it, she happened to be black.
Some of the white 80 year old patients up the river actually grew up in plantation houses from old plantation families.
They do not hide their talk about color issues sometimes because their prime years are from a time that is long past.
She was having a serious problem getting one of them to recognize what she was, a license healthcare provider there to give her instruction..
She refused to take instruction from her of any kind . This is bad in home health because it is the most crucial and cherished aspect of HH.
The client seems to treat her like a slave and was appalled she would be telling her what to do.
She would stress these were not orders, but health care guidelines from the State of Louisiana and her very own Doctor, but the old coot had a mental block. I can't imagine the frustration. Black nor white clients hadn't treated me that way.
Then when it comes to CNAs, they seem to only want black ones to wait on them hand and foot and take orders from them....sigh... But the CNA has to get their trust and approval and when they do.
Poor thing can't get a day off cause they don't want any other CNA black or white to do their bathing. They will even try to get them to do more than they are supposed to.
I had to sympathize with my friend cause the patient was only hurting herself by not listening to the instructions.
In my instance, I think it is a stereotype older people may harbor that should only get better as this generation passes on and the next gets older. Most young people know this behavior is inappropriate for them.
Heck some neighborhoods in Louisiana are not integrated yet and won't be till the highly respected antique relics that live in them are gone. They made those neighborhoods that way and want to keep them that way even though the next block has a totally different outlook on things.
I can relate to how you feel but it all comes down to this is the reality in our country.
Too many times WE African-Americans are apologizing, it's not OUR problem it's everyone elses (those who are ignorant and racist) WE AA are Human, WE are Nurses, We are PROFESSIONALS and That's all there is to it!
prejudice seems to be ok if it is acceptable at the time..re: the prejudice against anyone who is older as has been spread out liberally in this post
in the news if anyone over the age of 50 has an accident like putting their foot on the gas instead of the brake the news anchor will stress loud and usually repeat it several times, would it be tolerated if it was a hispanic, aa, jewish, catholic etc THAT ATHEIST PUT HIS FOOT ON THE GAS INSTEAD OF THE BRAKES!!!!!
Specializes in Med/surg,Tele,PACU,ER,ICU,LTAC,HH,Neuro.
I agree. As with my post above. This elderly person, we may be able to understand why she is having trouble taking instruction from a black nurse. I do not however think we should cater to her bias. If she refuses sound medical instuction, she is only hurting herself. We have to show her she is only hurting herself. No way do I think we should run out and reschedule pts so she gets a white nurse, not in a population that is 80% african-American.
This is my prejudicial thought on this too. If they don't like the number of blacks in the New Orleans area they should move. Europe outlawed slavery soon after 1812 and no longer were there slave ships from those countries. America banned it soon after that, but the business was so lucrative for smugglers it didn't really stop till the Civil War.
Same kinda behavior.
You made your bed, at least you aint hungry and in Siberia.(Germans came to New Orleans to farm, their alternative was exile to Siberian Russia)
if there is someone who knows more than you do, you need to put your prejudices aside and listen no matter what
my ex husband was prejudice against everyone and everthing..he wouldn't get on a bus if a woman was driving..i wonder what he would do if he got on a plane and after take off a feminine voice came over the speaker saying LADIES AND GENTLEMEN THIS IS YOUR CAPTAIN
if you want to get along is this world it would be nice if you look at people with respect that maybe they have a right to go to work, drive down the street, send their children to school, gather with their friends and family for a nice late summer bar-b-q - if you don't want to get along you really don't have any choice expect to go with the flow..it is easier and you will have fewer ulcers
indeed racism is still alive in many places, i live in ny and i dont encounter any of this discrimination at work mostly because the staff is 98% african american, also ny is a melting pot of cultures and everyone is pretty much used to everyone, but of course racism still exist, but to me it isn' t so prominent here in the city.
There was an article in one of the journals lasy year about how few persons of color go into nursing as a career. I have always wondered if it is a cultural thing or is there still some great degree of discrimination in nursing programs? The point being- we make assumptions based on past experiences. Guy in a lab coat=doctor, person of color- support staff. People in crisis may not have the where-with-all to be politicaly correct in thier assumptions. They have other things on thier minds. As a general rule there are much fewer persons of color working as R.N.s so the patient just jumps to the most common conclusion- support staff. I don't think any patient has ever read my nametag and short of wearing whites and a cap it's difficult to tell who is a nurse at first glance.
They "elected" to come here because they were starving in Ireland . They "elected " to come here because the Russian Cossacks, the Spanish royalty, Hitler's Germany, and probably other countries were murdering Jews and/or ordering them out, letting them take only what they could carry, with no time to sell their possessions, having to leave everything behind basically and glad to get out with their loved ones, if any had not been murdered already, and their own skins. Lithuanians, among many others, heard that the streets here were lined with gold - plenty of work, high wages, yeah, yeah, yeah. So they came on over. Why? They were lured here to labor in meat packing plants until the horrendous conditions at work killed them off - if they could even find jobs - there were more starving immigrants than there were jobs - just read "The Jungle" by Upton Sinclair and you'll see the life of those who "elected" to come here. Study the Industrial Revolution if you want to know about the struggle of many immigrants who "elected" to come here. See how they enjoyed roach-infested, TB-ridden tenements - cold water 5th floor walk-up's. How they rejoiced in their sweatshops, where they never saw daylight, where the women couldn't stop long enought to tend to their menstrual garment changing needs, where they carried work home and the whole family did piece work into the night so they'd have a couple of meals each day. Oh, they were free. They came in steerage, a step up, surely, from chains. But they slaved their lives away to enrich their bosses. Meanwhile, they struggled to make a better life for their children. Don't tell me this isn't so. It is the story of my own family and I know it by heart. I am struggling, not as hard as my parents and grandparents, but it is still a struggle, to make life better for my own children and grandchildren. This is what people do. I thank God for the opportunities that women have now. It is a 2-edged sword, certainly, yet it enables me to keep a roof over our heads, provide college, etc.
Read about man's greed and his demonic arrogance before God and his fellow man in "The Grapes of Wrath". The Joad family in that book was already in America but their treatment by the evil capitalists who shoved them into the dirt, literally throwing them off of their farm in the name of profit, will help open your eyes to the fact that so many, many people have been maltreated and exploited.
Being brought here the way Kunta Kinte was was horrible. It was a sin before God. It should never have happened. It is over, though, just as the exploitation of the other groups I have mentioned is now history. Slavery stopped here in 1865 - 142 years ago. Jim Crow ended about 40 years ago. Blacks HAVE made tremendous strides. The younger blacks that I work with have no idea of how it was even during the MLK days. That really amazes me. I have to tell THEM about Bull Connor and his dogs and his cold water hoses. I have to tell THEM about lunch counter sit-in's, Freedom Riders, and lots of other aspects of those days that are forever marked in my memory because I saw them on TV. They have never been told they couldn't sit wherever they liked, shop in any store, apply for any job. They are products of busing to suburban schools. A couple of them are very disrespectful of my being the RN and I have to take a gentle, motherly stance with them to get them to do things that I, as the RN, believe need doing. I know they all know how to do my job, being CNA's, but I'd somehow like to continue my little delusion that I am actually the decision-maker, since I am the one whose license is on the line.
BTW, I take that as not a racial thing but as a youth vs. old lady thing, LOL. And no matter their color, I have to be sweet yet firm with them. We all, BTW, get along very, very well. I have a good group of staff and tey have a great nurse. But it's because I have learned, over the last 30+ years, how to supervise and manage and deal with subordinate staff. It's still hard some times.
There are at least 2 types of slavery - chattel and wage. You probably and I definitely are wage slaves. We live, most of us, just a couple of months or so from complete disaster if we lose our wages. Maybe some are able to go a year or 2 without wages but a lot more can go only a very short time. No, we're not lashed, yes, we can vote and use the front door, any toilet, try on shoes in the shoe store, etc. The result is still awful, should you lose your wages. We are slaves to the wealthy, powerful, and often very evil people who run this world.
And, as stated earlier by me and others, there is absolutely plenty of fear of lawsuits from blacks on the part of employers. Why? Because the law in this area is like the Inquisition. You are guilty until proven innocent. And we can probably count on one hand the number of people who were ever innocent before the Inquisitors. There is no acceptable defense against being charged with being discriminatory against minorities. If you're charged, you're guilty. Just as there was no defense against white mobs hell-bent on murdering blacks, the situation is that bad today against whites. Not the murder part but the guilty if charged part. And I'm sorry but that is not fair. That is not equality. Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, some black Muslims seem to be ok with that. It is hard not to wonder how many average blacks that we work with every day, who are our next door neighbors, who teach our kids in school, etc. feel the same way. They might not say it but we have no way of knowing if they feel it.
There is reluctance to discipline blacks, unless the Supervisor also happens to be black and is trying hard to be fair, there is unwillingness to not promote blacks instead of whites, even if the white person is more qualified, which is not always the case, I'm sure, but the facility HAS to have a certain number of blacks or other minorities to meet the law or get its funding, whatever. That does NOT mean there aren't blacks who should be promoted. Blacks take places in colleges that whites cannot have because they are earmarked for minorities. I am NOT saying blacks shouldn't get to go to college - hear me, now - just that in order for a certain number of minorities to go, a certain number of majorities must be excluded. I guess it's fair but it is still a bitter pill to swallow when you or your child can't get into a certain school but minorities can and you find out that the standards by which they were judged might have been different or that it was based, at least in part, on quotas having to be met.
And whoever used the word "whine" to say what whites are doing - if that isn't insensitive I don't know what is. It trivializes our experiences and feelings and we don't like that any more than you do. So it would be appreciated if you would try to show respect to us, just as you want shown to you.
My goodness I don't even know what to say. I guess I will follow my mother's rule and not say anything at all, because it probably wouldn't be nice.
of how it was even during the MLK days. That really amazes me. I have to tell THEM about Bull Connor and his dogs and his cold water hoses. I have to tell THEM about lunch counter sit-in's, Freedom Riders, and lots of other aspects of those days that are forever marked in my memory because I saw them on TV. They have never been told they couldn't sit wherever they liked, shop in any store, apply for any job. They are products of busing to suburban schools. A couple of them are very disrespectful of my being the RN and I have to take a gentle, motherly stance with them to get them to do things that I, as the RN, believe need doing. I know they all know how to do my job, 
being CNA's, but I'd somehow like to continue my little delusion that I am actually the decision-maker, since I am the one whose license is on the line.
CRNI-ICU20
482 Posts
I think it IS innate....because those same people who are afraid, or ignorant, or were "rasied that way" had to have gotten it from SOMEWHERE....so where did it come from??? Where did the learning of the behaviour, or the misunderstanding, or the fear, or the herd mentality come from??? It had to come from somewhere....just like the thinking of the Nazi's....it came from somewhere.
The reason I don't like using "lighter" excuses for this stuff is because it's then easy to say, "oh, well, that's just the way he/she was raised"....or "well, boys will be boys"...or "that's just the way it's always been"....
I believe we have to be better people than that....we have to require of ourselves and each other a different approach that disallows room for excuses...
I could care less whether or not someone was raised to believe all white blonde girls are stupid and ineffective as nurses....because I KNOW IT"S NOT TRUE....what bothers me is that this mentality, herd or not, exists as a reason to hold negativity toward someone who is blonde and just happens to be a nurse...
While it might help to "understand" why a person behaves as they do, I don't cut anyone any slack when it comes to being racist or prejudiced because "they are fearful" or "because they were raised that way"....in this day and age and in this country, that's just a pile of horse bisquits!
I also believe that we all owe one another less excuses for bad behaviour, and more positive outcry when we see it happen....
wrong is wrong....
This kind of thinking leaves too much room for practicioners of this behaviour to continue in their way.....when confronted they will revert to those very same reasons for why they do what they do....
This is a patent choice....and it is practiced by people who internalize and breathe this kind of thing as if it was essential for their very life!
If that isn't innate, then, what is?