Specifically to your post kcrncen: My opinion from what I read from the posts is that it's not about the power you have it's about the power of PR and customer service as a tool for your employer...and that in some places they prefer a certain look. For you it was a diffferent experience with your patient population...hear me out and again just my opinion...lol! I mean where I work there's a RT that will go down the hall and say "That black family is aweful," and he will say it to me as if he's not looking at a lil brown girl. But with families that are just as bad that look like him he will say "That family is aweful" When he said it my immediate thought was "why the distinction?" But me personally I try to forgive him bc there is no way he realizes what he's saying...even if he thinks he does. And it's hard bc I had to forgive him again today in my car when I thought about the same thing...lol, obviously that experience is still a work in progress
But generally, I think:
Everyone will have some kind of discriminatory experience. I get looked at consistently by my ICU patients families like I don't know a thing. I've had people ask me: Are you a RN; Are you a student; Where are you from; Where did you go to school; How long have you been a nurse....
And almost everytime when I see them in the hallway when I'm coming in for another shift after taking care of their family member they are asking me if I'm their nurse that night. I have had a family question my qualifications to my manager and by morning when I said goodbye as I passed her husband in the hallway he said "Thank you. God bless you." Days later when I saw them on the SDU they asked me if I was their nurse (diff unit and I work nights, this was 0745 on my way out). Their faces sank when I said no and that I was actually just finishing my shift.
My point is some one will always be the minority. Their will always be a norm for a certain town, city, state. An expectation of what "their nurse" looks like, and yes it's unspoken because it tabu to discuss. If you know your clients and the comunity you target with your PR and you are in it to make money, you have a certain "face" for your brand, your company. Maybe because of the type of applicants you get or the exceptional quality of the employee who is not the typical expected "face" then you have a diversified mix but it doesn't change what people expect to see. Again unspoken but if you can honestly sit and think and say that it's the way of the world, then invite me to your bubble, I want in!
And by the way, I am 25....I look 12, barely 100lbs, Jamaican with what society affectionately calls "dreadlocks" and I will be renewing my license for the first time this month, I worked a year medsurg almosts, got into critical care, did 2 months orientation and productive time in ICU stepdown and 4 months ICU orientation and have now been productive in ICU for a month an a half. And the fact is compared to my co-workers that have been doing ICU 35 years I know I dont know a thing...they joke about getting manually wedges, when yea I can get a wedge pressure but if my monitor/bedside machine wont do it I can't do what they can do. But that doesn't mean that I'm alone and can't ask for help and ensure my patient gets the best care I can give them. I'm jealous I want what's in these "seasoned" nurse's brains. I wanna be the best at what I do. But no matter what I look like or my passion or what my work ethic is, anyone can doubt me. And I do go home and fuss about it sometimes but when I go back and I see the relief on my families faces that they believe their family member will be taken care of, and even if things go wrong, that I will do my best, it's worth it and I can live with that right now. Some people can't do that, and I can't fault a soul. I don't have to deal with their real feelings or thoughts, just my own...
