Patients and the race card

[CanadaEh]

I am a fairly new nurse and many of my co-workers have run into situations where a patient pulls the race card on them. This has not yet happened to me, but I'm sure with time it will.

Just wondering how others have handled this type of situation and how patients have reacted.

Thanks!

[HoneyDew70]

I'm assuming that the OP is working in Canada by their user name.

Race is uber tricky up here because we are an ethnic mosaic, NOT a cultural melting pot like the US. People will identify themselves by their ancestors homeland hyphen Canadian.

We are the destination hospital for major surgeries for our northern territories. So we have cultural advisors for various First Nations bands and Inuits. We have multiple staff that speak languages far ranging from the standard English, French you would expect in Canada. Cree is pretty big in my region. But the one time we can't find a Swahili interpreter on demand we are racist because we can't care for someone in their own language.

Often the cry of racism comes as the final resort for the patient to get what they feel entitled to. A family emptied out the patient nutrition centre of snacks, juice, tea. When advised that the food was for patient consumption only, they were screamed at and told it was traditional in their culture to offer visitors food, but hey the hospital was full of racist nurses because I guess it had never crossed this families thought process to bring food to the hospital, I mean we're not in Mogadishu General.

In the US, we are not a melting pot as you seem to think. We also refer to ourselves with the ancestral homeland hyphen American thing.

I have no problem with the rest of your post except a question about the highlighted section above. In the two examples you cited, "Swahili" and "Mogadishu" are your examples used. Were there only African names at your disposal?

[HoneyDew70]

How about minority groups, regardless of what they are, focusing on who they are and their behavior rather than their race?

The most successful, minority role models we have in America, never let their race/background, interfere with their success in life.

It makes no difference to me who they are....so why does it make such a difference to them?

It apparently makes a difference to you as shown in your first response to the OP.

Bad behaving/suspicious/antagonistic people are of every culture and color. And that's just the nurses for starters.

Every so-called minority person in this country knows that they are perceived a certain way immediately on just their features alone. For some it means they are expected to get high grades in math and science and for others it means they are expected to go to jail and have six kids. Doesn't really matter what the individual person is.

[Lupan]

I was looking at some of the responses and I would like to make a statement. As a Native American/Anglo male nurse I find it amusing some of the things I hear. 1 DON refered to me as "the tan white guy". 1 pt introduced me to her gay nephew because "all male nurses are gay". In the southwest I run into events where I can't care for female pts because of I am male, husband/boyfriend is not happy with "guys" looking at "their woman". I speak spanish and grew up in El Paso with LOTS of time in Juarez Mexico. I deal with events where "Spanish only nurses" are preffered for pts. I go to restraunts where waitresses speak to me in spanish and my Latina girlfriend in english. The point?? WORK FROM THE HEART NOT YOUR EGO!! and laugh at everything else!!!

[GHGoonette, BSN, RN]

I really don't know if I want to reply to this post....

I am white. I emigrated to South Africa with my parents at age 10. I grew up during some of the worst years of Apartheid, and although my parents raised me according to their own anti-racist views, I was judged, and continue to be judged, according to the colour of my skin.

Because I am white, I am automatically viewed by the ignorant as a racist, despite the fact that as a nurse, I could never function if I judged my patients according to the colour of their skin, or by their myriad cultures. If I went counter to the oath I took upon graduation, I would regard myself as a traitor to my profession. I take oath-swearing very seriously.

Although the vast bulk of my patients are "people of colour" and generally belong to the lower income groups, I have never had one of them pull the "race card" on me; I have occasionally had to put up with filthy dirty looks and general unfriendliness from young black men when I pop in to say hello to our patients in the pre-op room, but if I happen to be the person recovering them, I usually find a radically different attitude....

Racism is based on ignorance; the 'race card", however, is not based on ignorance, it is based on a fair knowledge of deep-seated guilt feelings, and how to play on them.

Yes, there are differences between the races, far less in the skin colour than in the differing cultures. We would have to blind, deaf and totally dumb not to realize that each of us differs from the other in both superficial as well as fundamental ways. But if you want that "race card" to be so much water running off your back, never let those differences make a difference.

[canoehead, BSN, RN]

Two points

1) I'm not a minority but I've been in at least a dozen situations where I wondered why I was being treated so badly, and differently from the rest of the group. If I was a minority I would have automatically assumed that racism was the reason. Actually, there are jerks everywhere, and they don't need a reason to treat you badly, it just comes natural to them.

2) I am a Canadian who worked in the USA for ten years. In a company newsletter the DON stated that she likes hiring Canadians because they have a good work ethic. HEY! I want credit for my good work ethic! I don't want my good habits generalized to all Canadians because I worked hard to get where I am, and what if the next Canadian they hire is a lazy bum- is she going to generalize that back to the rest of us who are doing a good job?

So racism exists in both positive and negative ways. But it doesn't explain every bad thing that happens, even if you don't see any other cause please don't automatically assume racism. That assumption will drive people apart because everyone gets defensive and communication stalls.

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

years ago, when my husband and i were discussing marriage, we joined a catholic church near my home. we had quite a bit of interaction with the priest -- i was converting to catholicism and we were planning to be married in the church. the priest was not overendowed with the milk of human kindness, and dh and i both found him to be rather unpleasant and judgemental. i left each meeting with him convinced that he disliked me because i was divorced. dh was convinced that the priest was prejudiced against latinos. a friend of mine who grew up in manila also belonged to the church and she and her husband were convinced that the priest was a racist. my next door neighbor confided that he thought the priest hated black people. turns out the priest didn't like anyone and was unpleasant to everyone. but i wouldn't have known that had i not had the opportunity to talk to my friend and my neighbor about him. i suspect that sometimes "racism" is about that -- not that the person is a racist, just that they're nasty and judgemental to everyone.

[Fiona59]

In the US, we are not a melting pot as you seem to think. We also refer to ourselves with the ancestral homeland hyphen American thing.

I have no problem with the rest of your post except a question about the highlighted section above. In the two examples you cited, "Swahili" and "Mogadishu" are your examples used. Were there only African names at your disposal?

The city I work in is a major resettlement area for for Somali and East African refugees. We also have a fair number of SE Asian refugees. The most vocal of these groups are African. The city also houses one of Canada's largest military bases and the medics there have worked in every combat zone our country has served in over the last two decades. It's not uncommon to have the military medical staff in various hospitals around town to keep their skills current.

We have a sweat lodge for our First Nations patients. Our dietary department is Kosher, Halaal, Western, and Chinese. We've been known to find smoked Caribou for our patients from the High North.

We seem to be able to meet and exceed the expectations of every ethnic group apart from one. We have one regular who has reduced an ER nurse to tears, is banned from a surgeon's office because of her treatment of the staff there, and in general the staff cringes when she appears to be seen (she's not a hospital patient) by her doctor. One patient even told her he was ashamed to have the same skin colour as her after watching her harangue the staff. A large part of our porters are young men who arrived as refugees and several have told us that they don't want to be called as translators when she arrives.

This behaviour isn't just confined to this one patient. Nurses in postnatal report similar experiences with this population, striking out at nurses when demands aren't met immediately, unit fridges being emptied to feed visitors, and refusing to go home when discharged because they expect "to lie in".

We can't figure out if it's cultural (nurses are seen by servants in some African cultures we've been told), or if it's some sort of conditioning that is undergone in refugee camps. But it's a common cry to hear that the staff are racist and it comes from primarily East African women.

I'm fully expecting the PC brigade to start the fires to flame me for reporting what I see in the facility I work in.

[Kooky Korky, BSN, RN]

The only patient I've ever had pull a "race card" on me (talk about an antiquated term....) was a Caucasian gentleman in his late 70s who only wanted "Irish" nurses working on him! He actually asked everyone what their "nationality" was....I told him I was American and proud of it! When looking at my last name (which is Irish--I am Irish on both sides) he looked at me and said "I bet you married into that name...you're probably a dumb"....I won't repeat what he said. I smiled and said well you're stuck with me and I will take very good care of you.

When the charge nurse came in to see how things were going, he asked for an Irish Nurse and not the blankety-blankety nurse who was taking care of him; she looked at him and said....she IS Irish--100%! And all of our nurses are excellent!

After that he was sweet as pie to me as in "why didn't you tell me you were Irish?" I smiled sweetly again and said because it shouldn't matter if I'm Irish or Martian or whatever...it should matter that I'm a good nurse.

Just remember OP--bigots come in all sizes, shapes, colors, sex, religions AND occupations.....treat people as equal human beings no matter what their station in life is and the "race card" won't be an issue.

That is so untrue. It often does not matter how professionally we behave. It's the other party who is the racist.

Still laughing about the getting screamed at for not speaking Chinese to Mama. I'm afraid I haven't yet learned Chinese, either, LOL. :jester:

[smclendon]

who tried to deny that it existed? since your comment was to me, i assume you meant me, and i didn't deny it's existence. i said that that poster's assumption was that every slight she felt she received was due to race only. i'm sorry for how your classmates treated you 20 years ago, but i was not one of those classmates, so don't take it out on me.

in this country's history, yes....many grievous actions were committed against african american people. however....i didn't commit them, i wasn't born yet. my family didn't commit them (and even if they had, i was obviously not in a position to have anything to do with it, as again, i wasn't born yet). i don't agree with the things that happened in our country's history, but the descendants of those people, on either side, can only hold grudges or apologize for so long; someday, everyone responsible will be dead. i choose not to apologize personally for something that i have never done. that doesn't mean that racism doesn't exist, but people forget that racism isn't the basis for every slight, or that racism can go both ways.

actually, the poster was trying to convey that even though she was once treated in that manner, that she does not go around expecting to be treated badly by everyone she meets...she was not pointing you are anyone else out...just stating her facts. you are only held accountable for your actions today...

[GHGoonette, BSN, RN]

Actually, the poster was trying to convey that even though she was once treated in that manner, that she does not go around expecting to be treated badly by everyone she meets...she was not pointing you are anyone else out...just stating her facts. You are only held accountable for your actions today...

And so it should be. Tomorrow's history will judge us by what we do today.

[lilypad2424]

I love reading all of your opinions on the "race card." Thank you.

[lilypad2424]

I would love to know what the "minority" is in terms of nurses.

Two weeks ago, a doctor looked at me and said, "Oh my god, it's a white nurse. I thought y'all were extinct." Ha Ha Ha!