What in the world are we supposed to do when a patient makes it known that they "don't want any nurses of color taking care of them"?
There was a patient on my unit last week who mentioned this (I have no idea who she told this to, administration, the doctors, I have no idea who she notified). She was in her 20s and was not on the unit for mental illness issues at all, she had an OBGYN related surgery and was not under any sedative medications, she was able-bodied with full mental capacity! Thank goodness for the patient none of the nurses (all of whom but 2 out of 50-something nurses are people of color) knew about this patient's odd request until she was discharged from the hospital.
What I really wanted to do and say were unprofessional. What are we supposed to do when someone comes to hospital with this request?
Ummm... That is exactly the point I was making. Anyone that thinks we were on the verge of racial harmony in the 1960's, or anywhere close, is either ill-informed or delusional.
Dear Sir, You are indeed right and sorry to say that with this diversity crap it is getting worst almost daily. What ever happen to divided we fall?
going back to the original thread... once upon a time i was a case manager and took a guy with a baaaad neurosurg problem to the best dang neurosurg in the metro area, and that was saying something. while we were sitting in the waiting room he said, "what was that doctor's name again?" i reminded him. he said, "that sounds jewish. is he jewish? i won't see him if he's jewish." it was warmer weather than it had been, so this was the first time i noticed the swastika and ss tattoos and all... but i played it straight. "dr. xyz is the best neurosurgeon in the city, and it took some doing to get you in here on short notice. you're very welcome. i have no idea what his religion is because all we talk about is fixing people's serious neurosurgical problems."
guy got up and left. he declined cm after that and i have no idea what happened to him but you know what? i hope it was painful.
Specializes in Trauma, ER, ICU, CCU, PACU, GI, Cardiology, OR.
the patient who is cognizant enough to demand caregivers of a certain skin color is, in my humble opinion, feeling well enough to go home.
the deli at my local wal-mart is not going to accommodate me if i request that my food preparers come only from a certain racial background. the local biker bars and watering holes are not going to locate a bartender based on my racial preferences (assuming i had any).
other businesses are not going to bow down to such a request. why should a healthcare facility be any different?
it's saddens me to say that the reason for it, is because certain facilities have allowed it to be so. in addition, we are so concern with pleasing the patient in order to get that magnet status that we step out of our boundaries to comply with patients demands. moreover, racial discrimination is a pervasive problem with multiple damaging effects, it is naive to believe that the healthcare system is somehow immune to race based practices, but there has been a growing cancer regarding this subject.
i worked psych and there were times when i would have done anything i could think of to keep certain patients (a certain ***** angel leaps to mind)
from getting upset and losing all control. almost anything legal and ethical, that is. i, personally, think the race
or ethnicity of a caretaker is totally irrelevant, but when you're dealing with a 7 foot white supremacist or another similar bigot, you deal with what you're handed sometimes. also, when your patient is an eighty year old lady who is depressed enough to be admitted to a pysch hospital, you have to realize that realistically you and your new-
fangled concept of racial equality aren't going to change many of her beliefs.
in an ideal world, there would be no racial or "darker than pale skin" angst and strife. but, in this country, we
I'm a black female who lives in a region where racial refusals are common.
Anyhow, these requests are usually accomodated at my place of employment because management wishes to keep the facility's Press Gainey patient satisfaction scores above a certain threshold.
However, the facility where I work cannot always accomodate the request, especially on night shift, due to the fact that all of the night shift nurses might be 'people of color' on certain evenings.
One more thought. . .I would prefer that these patients have their requests accomodated, as weird as this may seem. A patient who does not want me to provide any care for him/her can conjure up lies and false accusations that could make my life absolutely miserable. I'd much rather live and let live.
absolutely ridiculous... if I were a nurse there and I came across that situation I'd sue them... wth is this him Crowe all over again?? want me to only enter through the back doors too?? I'm sorry but no paycheck could make me lose my self respect
Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.
I'm sorry but no paycheck could make me lose my self respect
Earning paychecks through prostitution would result in a loss of my self-respect. Anything else does not come close.
However, I'd still rather not be forced to provide care to someone who does not want me to touch them. The most virulently racist, bigoted, and hateful patients and families will conjure up false accusations of abuse, neglect, and substandard care to get their way in the matter, so I'd rather avoid the stress and not go into the rooms of these people.
Personally I don't understand the connection between enduring a previous trauma from a black male to not want any black healthcare providers. Furthermore, as a woman I don't care what color/ethnicity my ob/gyn is......but that's just me.
I had a friend who got sexually assaulted at a park once. The guy who did it (she knew him, by the way), wore a certain cologne. Whenever she would smell it, she would start to get nervous. Even if she knew he wasn't even there, it just got her really anxious and she would almost have a panic attack.
So, if something like that happened to a patient, can we really blame her? The patient probably knows that her fears aren't rational, but that's what trauma does.
Nurses take so much crap from patients to the extent that they (pts) feel entitled to any kind of behaviour. Please remind them that we were human before we became nurses.
I had a friend who got sexually assaulted at a park once. The guy who did it (she knew him, by the way), wore a certain cologne. Whenever she would smell it, she would start to get nervous. Even if she knew he wasn't even there, it just got her really anxious and she would almost have a panic attack.
So, if something like that happened to a patient, can we really blame her? The patient probably knows that her fears aren't rational, but that's what trauma does.
Except that it's just as likely a white guy as a black one is wearing the same cologne.
Yet another reason to NOT wear scents in a clinical setting!
ARCTX85
19 Posts
It seems that any patient request that could potentially hamper the administration of effective patient care should be deemed invalid.