Why do minorities have more respect for nurses?

Nurses Relations

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I have been a nurse for over 20 years. I currently work in Miami. The hospital is in an area where we get a lot of Cuban and Haitian patients. I have been at this hospital for 6 years. The patients and families we get are so very respectful of nurses. I know this is a sensitive subject but I'm just stating my experience. I am white myself and receive far less respect from white pts and families like I do minorities. Before working in this area of Miami, I worked in white areas of south Florida like Orlando,Del Rey, Boca Raton and West Palm beach. It was a nightmare working there as the pts and families(mostly white)had Zero respect for the nurses. I took more verbal abuse working in white areas of Florida than when i was in the Army! Why are minorities more respectful of nurses than white people? Overall from my experience white people simply don't respect nurses like minorities!

As an African-American female, I think the answer in many of your experiences has less to do with racial/ethnic background and more to do with social class.

Many of the people in upscale parts of Florida (Boca Raton, Fort Lauderdale, et al.) are wealthy and view nurses as servants and chambermaids. However, in my personal experience, the undereducated and the working poor often hold nurses in high esteem.

I am now an RN with a BSN, but started out as an LVN. My family of origin is not very educated or college-fluent, so to them, earning an LVN license is like becoming a doctor. However, families who are well educated and higher on the social class hierarchy might frown down upon any nursing license because they may view it as beneath them.

These are just my conjectures. Use them as you please.

I think you've hit the nail on the head. I once told a rich-daddy-pays-for-everything pre-law student that I was studying nursing, and her immediate response was, "Oh that's nice. But you don't have to take a hard test like I do at the end." She had no clue what the NCLEX was. When I enlightened her, she replied, "Well, I'm sure it's still not as hard as what I'll have to do."

Some people are ignorant and entitled.

As an African-American female, I think the answer in many of your experiences has less to do with racial/ethnic background and more to do with social class.

Many of the people in upscale parts of Florida (Boca Raton, Fort Lauderdale, et al.) are wealthy and view nurses as servants and chambermaids. However, in my personal experience, the undereducated and the working poor often hold nurses in high esteem.

I am now an RN with a BSN, but started out as an LVN. My family of origin is not very educated or college-fluent, so to them, earning an LVN license is like becoming a doctor. However, families who are well educated and higher on the social class hierarchy might frown down upon any nursing license because they may view it as beneath them.

These are just my conjectures. Use them as you please.

i agree with this, but throughout this country wealth is typically stratified by race, so it's not too far fetched to say that the behavior that T/S is referring to is pretty typical of your affluent white person. And you're more likely to receive this type of treatment from a white person because there are far more affluent whites than affluent minorities.

Now I will add this: I can say that I have received this treatment from more whites than minorities but my experiences differed greatly depending on what facility I worked in. When I worked in an inner city trauma center, I got treated like a chambermaid by people of all races. I found that people's frustration and loss of control over their unfortunate condition caused them to seek control over the one group of people they can control: nurses. They would run me ragged and complain about every little thing. And most of these people were far from affluent. They were minorities just like me, and they would routinely make comments about how much they hated the facility and how much the care sucked despite the fact that they/their loved one didn't have a smidgen of insurance and should be grateful that they are receiving tax funded healthcare. Inmates would do this as well: they were so used to the restrictions of prison, so when they had someone to take care of them, they abused it.

now when I changed jobs and started working in a heart/lung transplant unit full of affluent whites with iron-clad insurance policies and end stage heart failure, I experienced the type of treatment T/S is referring to.

I haven't really noticed this. In one job I work at (elective plastic surgery), most of our clients are wealthy, most (not all) are white, and they have all been extremely nice. Maybe it's because they aren't sick, and are excited about their procedures, I don't know. My other job is endo, with all races/SES groups, and mostly they are nice, but certainly not all. I haven't noticed any pattern of whites treating me with less respect than minorities.

Over all I am lucky to be treated pretty well by all my patients, but even most of the endo patients are healthy; I think feeling sick or being in pain can contribute to the less than nice behavior described in the OP.

Specializes in MICU, SICU, CICU.
Specializes in Hospital medicine; NP precepting; staff education.
I agree with you for the most part. I have worked in areas of Florida where people certainly come from money and nurses are considered servants. I have worked with white people that come from rich,poor , middle class and it's still the same demanding disrespectful treatment. Where I work now in MIami is almost all minorities. On occasion we get a white pt/family transfer from another hospital like Orlando or Palm Beach and they walk in the door complaining. The last white family I received from Orlando reported me for failure to set up their wifi and failure to make hotel arrangements for the family!

DUDE!

Specializes in Hospital medicine; NP precepting; staff education.
I think you've hit the nail on the head. I once told a rich-daddy-pays-for-everything pre-law student that I was studying nursing, and her immediate response was, "Oh that's nice. But you don't have to take a hard test like I do at the end." She had no clue what the NCLEX was. When I enlightened her, she replied, "Well, I'm sure it's still not as hard as what I'll have to do."

Some people are ignorant and entitled.

Oh bless her heart.

Oh bless her heart.

Well, it may be harder than the NCLEX. Anyone here taken NCLEX and the LSAT? I wonder what their take on it would be.

As proud as I am of being a nurse, I'm not dreaming that passing the NCLEX would be as hard as passing the BAR exam.

Specializes in Hospital medicine; NP precepting; staff education.
Well, it may be harder than the NCLEX. Anyone here taken NCLEX and the LSAT? I wonder what their take on it would be.

As proud as I am of being a nurse, I'm not dreaming that passing the NCLEX would be as hard as passing the BAR exam.

I have a coworker who was a lawyer before becoming a nurse. I'll ask her.

I can't say that I've had the same experience. And while I do agree that economic status can be a factor, behavior varies wildly- even within each economic group. I get educated, well-off patients who are very pleasant. I also get patients who roll off the street with nothing, but feel they deserve the golden sun on a platter.

Your question is the weirdest sort of "compliment" ...I wonder how well it would have gone over if you'd asked why white people were so respectful and minorities were not.

How shall I say this...actually, first, I'm not sure what you are getting at by asking "how well it would he gone over..." Also, wherein did you find a compliment in this question? Lol! It's almost as if you feel a type of way about the original question without saying so. I'm slightly perplexed at why you even bring up the converse of the original question when it was based on ones personal experience. No shade, but just slightly confused at your last sentence.

Well, it may be harder than the NCLEX. Anyone here taken NCLEX and the LSAT? I wonder what their take on it would be.

As proud as I am of being a nurse, I'm not dreaming that passing the NCLEX would be as hard as passing the BAR exam.

But would you go around rudely comparing the two exams and undermining what the other person is doing? Who knows which one is harder; that's entirely irrelevant. It was a rude and degrading conversation. I'm intelligent, my courses are difficult, I still have to take an exam at the end, and my future job certainly will not be a mindless one.

But would you go around rudely comparing the two exams and undermining what the other person is doing? Who knows which one is harder; that's entirely irrelevant. It was a rude and degrading conversation. I'm intelligent, my courses are difficult, I still have to take an exam at the end, and my future job certainly will not be a mindless one.

Well, you're right, I certainly would not do that. Your post just got me thinking.

I'm proud to be a nurse, and I feel it was a rigorous course of study. But I have to admit there are others which might be significantly more difficult. Don't know if pre-law is one of them as I have no experience with it. But no, bad manners on her part for sure. Did you point that out to her?

As an African-American female, I think the answer in many of your experiences has less to do with racial/ethnic background and more to do with social class.

Many of the people in upscale parts of Florida (Boca Raton, Fort Lauderdale, et al.) are wealthy and view nurses as servants and chambermaids. However, in my personal experience, the undereducated and the working poor often hold nurses in high esteem.

I am now an RN with a BSN, but started out as an LVN. My family of origin is not very educated or college-fluent, so to them, earning an LVN license is like becoming a doctor. However, families who are well educated and higher on the social class hierarchy might frown down upon any nursing license because they may view it as beneath them.

These are just my conjectures. Use them as you please.

My experience has been that wealthier and more educated people, ironically, treat nurses better. Their expectations are more realistic and they are less prone to treating the place like a hotel and public family drama.

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