At a new job and once again I am seeing, seemingly for the umpteenth time, some very negative, destructive and disruptive behavior being displayed by a predominantly representative cultural group.
Before you all jump down my throat screaming racism, let's be real here. I'm well aware *anyone* is capable of negative behavior. I'm well aware all groups, ethnic, cultural, socioeconomic, what-have-you, have their weaknesses and foibles. I am a member of a marginalized ethnic group myself. I'm not a bigot. I'm not intolerant or anti-immigrant. I'm a big fat brown leftist. I love the melting pot and the rainbow coalition as much as any dumb liberal, I am not special.
But why....WHY do I consistently see the same group of people seemingly causing so much trouble and heartache in the nursing profession? Over and over I see it demonstrated again, across environments and specialties. For years!!! The drama. The soap operas. The back stabbing. The trash talking. The secrets. The cliques. The passive aggressiveness. The insults. The mind games. The personality conflicts. The abuse of power. The speaking of languages other than English in front of co-workers, patients and families who don't understand. The rudeness!!!!
And this is from people who are intelligent, educated and articulate citizens of society!
I am fed up with how pervasive this behavior has become. It has become so commonplace that the detrimental affects of it are now just accepted, tolerated.....and in some workplaces......embraced........
Don't people see what stereotypes they are? Is there no reflection? Why is this so difficult to talk about without it erupting into emotional and accusatory conflict?
I was told one time that, "This is the way nursing is in CA, if you don't like it, you don't need to work as a nurse." Simply put, message conveyed, point taken.
I agree with elkpark that "mafia" is pretty accurate . . . .
However, I'm in California and I do not see this at all. I had no idea which group the OP was speaking of either. I must be in a region where there aren't many Filipino nurses.
I agree that this is management's fault. They can easily fix it.
I agree with elkpark that "mafia" is pretty accurate . . . .
However, I'm in California and I do not see this at all. I had no idea which group the OP was speaking of either. I must be in a region where there aren't many Filipino nurses.
I agree that this is management's fault. They can easily fix it.
In case you didn't read my most recent post, I said that management is also part of this group and blatantly plays favorites. And contributes to this whole mess more than anyone. There are no easy answers.
Many interesting posts...but....really...who cares what language somebody is speaking...lets grow up people...the world is
not flat! I work in an area where on any given shift I could hear 30 different languages...its great...why are white people so afraid? Never understand that...and I'm a typical boring white person! Jeez louise...your not the center of the universe! Reminds me of the time I was doing construction with a bunch of good ol boys from ....Ill just say "the south" and we also had a bunch of guys from mexico. The mexico guys barely spoke any english and I knew enough spanish to converse, but boy them "southern" fellows sure would get upset when they heard that "non-white" talk as they used to put it...I loved explaining to them that our coworkers were simply talking about what they packed for lunch or something! Hah! So the same here...how bout we grow up-shut up and do our jobs???
Specializes in NICU, PICU, Transport, L&D, Hospice.
No. Absolutley not. I completely understand and feel ashamed of my ethnicity's self-perpetuating negative stereotypes. Every hour of every day. Most people of my ethnicity behave badly and I fully acknowledge and don't deny the problems it creates. While I am not perfect I am usually an exception. Mostly just by understanding personal responsibility.
At a new job and once again I am seeing, seemingly for the umpteenth time, some very negative, destructive and disruptive behavior being displayed by a predominantly representative cultural group.
Before you all jump down my throat screaming racism, let's be real here. I'm well aware *anyone* is capable of negative behavior. I'm well aware all groups, ethnic, cultural, socioeconomic, what-have-you, have their weaknesses and foibles. I am a member of a marginalized ethnic group myself. I'm not a bigot. I'm not intolerant or anti-immigrant. I'm a big fat brown leftist. I love the melting pot and the rainbow coalition as much as any dumb liberal, I am not special.
But why....WHY do I consistently see the same group of people seemingly causing so much trouble and heartache in the nursing profession? Over and over I see it demonstrated again, across environments and specialties. For years!!! The drama. The soap operas. The back stabbing. The trash talking. The secrets. The cliques. The passive aggressiveness. The insults. The mind games. The personality conflicts. The abuse of power. The speaking of languages other than English in front of co-workers, patients and families who don't understand. The rudeness!!!!
And this is from people who are intelligent, educated and articulate citizens of society!
I am fed up with how pervasive this behavior has become. It has become so commonplace that the detrimental affects of it are now just accepted, tolerated.....and in some workplaces......embraced........
Don't people see what stereotypes they are? Is there no reflection? Why is this so difficult to talk about without it erupting into emotional and accusatory conflict?
A prime example of how it "just depends". I am from Florida and I immediately thought you were referring to what is called the "spanish mafia" locally. It was pretty frustrating for a while. Having to go through a CNA who was considered their leader to get shifts filled, speaking spanish even during report if they were addressing each other, only working as a team with each other to shower/transfer patients etc. When the wealthy patients in our facility complained it changed in about 5 weeks. Everyone signed the new policies and they did write ups by the truckload to get offenders to their three strike limit ASAP. When a few got fired the rest got the message and straightened up. A fish rots from the head so you usually need managements help to resolve this type of thing.
Specializes in NICU, PICU, Transport, L&D, Hospice.
I work in a very culturally diverse environment.
Everyday I overhear personal conversations in other languages.
Spanish, Romanian, Ukrainian and Russian, Tagalog, Korean, etc
People who are multilingual will often revert to their native language when in the company of those who also speak it. People who are multilingual will often revert to the language that they are most comfortable or fluent in for personal or nonprofessional discussions.
All of that, in my view, is completely seperate from unprofessional behavior by nurses, or toxic cultures in the workplace that are promoted or tolerated by bad management.
If you cannot do anything to change the management and culture of the workplace you are left with a few choices; accept it and make the best of it, move on, or become angry and bitter and contribute to the overall pathetic professional culture of the department. IMHO
I think there are specific places where this is an issue -- I've noticed that they tend to work in the same facilities and then there are absolutely no Filipino employees in other places. Why this is, I don't know. However, I've only seen this behavior in one LTC facility and this was from a personal perspective. I'm in SoCal, too, and I honestly was surprised that there are only maybe 1 or 2 Filipino students in my cohort and about the same amount in the other cohorts as well. I'm not clear on the history of why there was such a major influx of Filipino nurses in SoCal but where I have had clinical this was not a problem -- my instructor was Filipina as well and she was wonderful. It actually got to the point where I was wondering where all the Filipinos were. Regionally, it's kind of a stereotype that they're all nurses. And, prior to getting into nursing a lot of my Filipino homies felt pressured to go into nursing -- though, this appears to be much less the case.
So, prior to that one instance from a personal standpoint, while some of them can be very feisty (ahem...my wonderful L&D instructor), they are all very competent and lovely nurses and I haven't really seen this stereotype...Though, in thinking about it, I wonder if it's because the majority of them in my area are Seventh Day Adventists.........? That diet really mellows people out.
My wife is half filipino and knew exactly what group the OP was referring to in the original post. I do not live in California, but I do agree it gets out of hand on occasions.
Many learned not to bad mouth other nurses in Tagalog in front of me. I have been around this culture for over 20 years and know there is validity to the OP's concerns.
Specializes in Peds/outpatient FP,derm,allergy/private duty.
I agree with elkpark that "mafia" is pretty accurate . . . .
However, I'm in California and I do not see this at all. I had no idea which group the OP was speaking of either. I must be in a region where there aren't many Filipino nurses.
I agree that this is management's fault. They can easily fix it.
This. In California, too. I say that just to offer another personal experience and not to negate what anyone else has said. Could be I've been incredibly fortunate so far.
As a tangental observation, I noted a job placement ad in one of the employment websites (California) that clearly stated that no Filipino caregivers should apply for the job. Although I have had my share of negative interactions with this group, (as with other groups, haven't we all?), I felt compelled to report the ad because I thought that it must have violated an antidiscrimination law. Have always found subtle ways to distinguish prejudice in hiring and avoid those job announcements when it appears I would not be welcome.
I worked in SoCal for 8 years in three different places (two concurrently and briefly). I went home hearing Tagalog like earworms or at least the 'accent', mainly due to a huge number of Filipino co-workers.
I guess you see what you are looking for. I must not have been looking for the same things as OP. Not that I never saw infighting and cliques and favoritism, I just didn't see it as specific to an ethnicity. I saw cliquey people, people playing favorites, and all that. And I am not 'color blind', it just wasn't my experience.
If it were, I'd find another job. Those kind of staffs are impossible, especially when management is of similar mind. I'd hesitate to insist ALL such ethnicities behave the same wherever you work -- again, you see what you are looking for. We have to manage our own biases.
.thumb.jpg.fe2a3c72e07052e505bb41bf06ef93fc.jpg){kind=small}
.thumb.gif.9c97ffa9443a5f22ff38e1eac832292c.gif){kind=avatar}
or at least the 'accent', mainly due to a huge number of Filipino co-workers.
Spidey's mom, ADN, BSN, RN
11,305 Posts
I agree with elkpark that "mafia" is pretty accurate . . . .
However, I'm in California and I do not see this at all. I had no idea which group the OP was speaking of either. I must be in a region where there aren't many Filipino nurses.
I agree that this is management's fault. They can easily fix it.