Prejudice

[jhawka10]

Prejudice is not just related to race and color. So often we get upset when we see racial prejudice... and rightly so! We get upset with bullying with our kids at their schools...another form of prejudice. But rarely do we have much to say that will effect the prejudice most of us see every day (and this occurs a lot in nursing) and that is bully management or positions bullying. How many of us have witnessed that "correction" by a manager of an individual while in the presence of a crowd of their piers, or worse yet in front of a patient? How many of us has seen one standard set for one group or individual and that standard is ignored for another group? Here is an example; I worked at a facility that had returning client surveys that showed the families did not like starting their ambulatory clinics late. For example: their appointment was for 9:00 and they desired for it to start at 9:00 not often like when the first medical personnel to come in to the room at 9:20 or so. OK so the hospital wanted to improve their scores on this issue. So the hospital set up goals or standards, trying to improve on this issue. Nursing got right on board and nurses were being held accountable,See the patient within 5 minutes of their clinic time. Now at the same time, some physician/providers would not even show up for the 9:00 first appointment until 9:30, 9:40. Little would be said about this, because they were providers. Nursing management was unwilling to "rock the boat" or take a stand on the issue. I'm sorry, but I don't see the difference between treating someone in a privileged way because of his race or because of his position (making money for the hospital - as providers are viewed as). We ask and teach our kids to take a stand on prejudice in their lives yet we ignore it when its in our daily work lives. We have to be willing to challenge these issues when we see them. Martin Luther King Jr did not wait for the "white man" to see his erroneous ways, he had to speak up, to challenge the system and be willing to put some things on the line in order to initiate change. I wish we had the guts to do it ourselves! Just a thought and a word of encouragement to make a change and a difference in our daily lives.

[ak2190]

Yes, it's disgusting how people get treated differently depending on how much money they're worth. Our society in general functions like this and it's unethical and wrong.

[BlueDevil,DNP, DNP, RN]

Sounds more like a systems issue to me. When I am late, it is always, 100% of the time, because of 1 of 2 reasons: I am either post-call or someone screwed up the schedule. I'm not going to rush around in the morning because scheduling fouled up. My schedule is unusual, but it written out for them and all they have to do is look before they put someone in. If they put someone in at 9:00 on the day I don't start until 11:00, well I can't help that. I am not going to disappoint my kid and not do my classroom time because someone doesn't check the calendar. That's just one example of what happens at my clinic. Silly, easily rectified human error. My guess is, at least part of the time, something similar is going on at your clinic as well. Get to the bottom of it. I doubt it is as egregious as you are making it out to be. Administrators get after us just as much as they get after nursing staff. :poop: