Supervisors at Abington Memorial Hospital in Philadelphia have explained that they sought only to avoid a confrontation when they told African American employees to stay out of a patient's room after a man ordered that no blacks assist in the delivery of his child.
Philadelphia Inquirer, Oct. 3, 2003
NAACP wants hospital supervisors punished
Local leaders call for Abington hospital to discipline those who told minority staffers to stay out of a patient's room.
Local NAACP leaders yesterday called on Abington Memorial Hospital to discipline supervisors who told minority employees to stay out of a patient's room after a man demanded that only white staffers assist in the delivery of his baby.
( By Oliver Prichard, Inquirer Staff Writer, 10/04/2003 03:01 AM EDT)
Specializes in Gerontological Nursing, Acute Rehab.
caroladybelle said:
Quite frankly, the headline would be a good thing. "Belligerent father removed from hospital" might teach people in a very public way not to be abusive to staff."
True, it might have helped some, but you know that the nurses would still be the ones getting slammed for it. And from my experience, if some one is a truly abusive person, a headline isn't going to stop them. Heck, jail time doesn't usually stop them.
"I do not blame the nursing staff. I blame the gutless administrators. One of these days, a nurse there will get killed by someone that should have been kicked out for bad behavior. And the killer will say, "I was stressed out and just couldn't help myself" and play the blame the victim game."
My thoughts exactly! The reason why I originally posted was because the nurses are the only ones taking the brunt of the blame, when it probably was the fault of the whole hospital admin.
"It not just a responsibility that the facility owes the staff."
100% correct. I left the facility I mentioned before shortly after that incident.
I'm a House Administrator at a large hospital, and have the pleasure of dealing with families who have issues. Sometimes the issues are legit, and sometimes they aren't.
Bottom line is this: When a family member/visitor becomes abusive toward staff, I do limit setting. There are behaviors that will not be tolerated in my facility. The family member will follow hospital policies and treat staff with basic courtesy, or the family member will leave the facility.
I've been threatened with lawsuits, phone calls to administration, reporting to the state, etc etc.
Once the disruptive family member is advised in a straigtforward manner that nurses aren't targets for their pent up emotions, they usually calm down and comply.
I think that it also helps staff morale at our facility. All of the House Administrators will back staff when visitors get out of line. The nurses know that they can call us to handle issues, and we'll be firm but fair in doing so.
very sad, I'm upset regarding the father in this instance. just wondering what he would do if his baby was hit by a car, or came in full arrest, would he then allow an african-american nurse/doc to care for his child?
If that is the truth of the situation, the answer is quite simple - The belligerant father should have been removed as he was interfering with proper administration of medical care. He did not have to be present at the birth if he could not control himself.
At least that is what a good hospital would have done.
Recently, I was confronted with a relative of a critically ill patient, screaming irrationally on the phone at me and threatening trouble when she got to the hospital. Security was supposed to stop her when she got to the hospital. They did not. When she got to the floor, the supervisors talked to her briefly, found that she was behaving improperly and interfering with the patient's care and promptly told her to leave. She refused and was carried out by security. The next day, when she tried to come up, it was made clear not to interfer with care and not to harass staff. She complied and things were fine.
Said hospital was recently rated in the top 15 nationwide, and the top one in my current assignment city.
What you are describing is BAD BEHAVIOR. While it is also racist in this case, it also extremely disfunctional. And we should not put up with it. If we allow it and indulge it, like spoiled bratty children that get their way, it will continue and escalate. And a facility that permits such bratty childish behavior to be rewarded, has only itself to blame/get sued when employees guit/get hurt or killed by out of control visitors.
People use the excuse that, "I just couldn't help myself" when treating nursing staff badly under stressful conditions. Yes, they can help themselves and if forced to behave appropriately, generally they will.
Unfortunately, that sometimes means carrying people out bodily, when they have "control issues".
Same old stuff. If nothing changes nothing changes.
Here's an editorial that I wrote for the newspaper last year. It was on unit refrigerators all over the state.
Give nurses a break
Demanding job getting harder at understaffed hospitals
By Robert --------
CONTRIBUTING COLUMNIST
The good news is that life expectancy continues to increase. Medical technology is improving at an incredible rate, and despite alarmist claims, virtually everyone in the United States has access to health care. For the uninsured, a wide variety of government and private programs provide access to our health care system.
And now for the bad news: There aren't enough nurses to take care of all of the sick people.
By 2008, the government projects that there will be a shortage of 480,000 nurses nationwide. The American Hospital Association reported in 2002 an average 13 percent job vacancy rating for registered nurses in U.S. hospitals. One in 7 hospitals reported a severe nurse vacancy rate of more than 20 percent.
The average age of registered nurses is 43. Nurses are getting older -- and getting tired. Caring for the sick is rewarding, but the work has many unpleasant aspects.
During a 12-hour shift, we care for patients who are confused, incontinent, angry and, sometimes, mean. We care for people who weigh more than 350 pounds who can't or won't do anything for themselves. We care for substance abusers going through unplanned detox. We deal with body fluids and patient conditions that would send the average person to the porcelain altar. At the end of the day, we leave work physically and emotionally drained.
Many nurses are working extensive overtime to cover hospital units. I know nurses who will be taking their Christmas holiday sometime in February. Taking vacation time can be difficult on short-staffed units. Managers and even some nursing supervisors are working overtime at the bedside.
Here are some things that people need to know about nurses and hospitals:
* The nurse did not make you sick. We know that being sick isn't fun, and that being in the hospital is rough. However, being sick isn't a license to treat nurses with anger or disrespect. Work with us, and we'll do our best to help you get better.
* Nurses are not doctors. Although nurses have extensive medical knowledge, we are not allowed by law to diagnose or give a prognosis. That means that we can tell you what our experience tells us. We can teach you about disease conditions and medications. The doctor must tell you what's wrong with you and your probable outcome. If a doctor isn't cooperating or won't give a straight answer, it's not the nurses' fault.
* Nurses have more than one patient to care for. If you need a pain-killer when another patient has stopped breathing, you might have to wait a few minutes for your Tylenol.
* Nurses have what many people would consider a morbid sense of humor. It's how we deal with the stress of our work. If you overhear nurses having an off-color conversation or laughing in what the average person would consider terrible circumstances, remember what we see every day. It's how we cope. If you hear a couple of nurses discussing body fluids over lunch, politely remind them that you're not a nurse and that they're making you sick.
* Doctors' years of education and professional standing don't afford them the right to be mean to nurses. One of the roles of a physician is that of educator. If a nurse doesn't know what the doctor is talking about or what he or she wants, the doctor should use the next two minutes to teach, not to curse. And nurses don't want to call doctors in the middle of the night any more than doctors want to be called. The doctor should order what the patient needs and go back to sleep.
If you know a nurse, and most people know at least a couple of them, ask him or her these questions: Have you ever been punched or kicked by a patient? Has a patient ever thrown something at you or on you? Has a doctor ever cursed at you? How does your back feel? And the most telling question of all: Would you advise your son or daughter to become a nurse?
Most nurses love caring for sick people. It's a profession that a person truly has to be called to. But nurses are burning out from increased workloads, reams of paperwork and the ever-increasing stress that comes with caring for our aging population.
When you or your loved one is sick and in the hospital, understand who we are and where we're coming from. We really do care.
I am currently a nursing student in Philadelphia and my university, in light of the 2003 event at Abington, has decided against using this hospital as a clinical site. Regardless of what people say, there was nothing JUST about accommodating such an ignorant request. Until those who don't experience racism come to terms with the fact that it does indeed exist, things will never change in our world.
Ya know, I had an elderly southern women in my unit last night come in from the LTC unit and on her Kardex it was WRITTEN 'no male techs'. Now I pictured her carrying on and complaining cuz a male did personal care, so I can understand writing this on the Kardex to prevent a problem (for the tech)
But...she also favors whites over blacks and made some very innappropriate comments while I was assisting her black nurse with her care. While I know she is elderly and with some dementia, I still cannot totally buy into the fact she should be supported to 'choose' her caregivers on her terms. My coworker and I decided to just pacify her best we could and when we got away from earshot we decided 'she's an old dementia patient,we ain't gonna change her, just forgive her'. But I still felt bad for my coworker because of the racial slurs we heard.
I decided that supporting my coworker was my most fruitful behavior here.
I have heard racial stuff before...WW2 vets don't want Asian/'gook' nurses, even heard the servant/slave mentality too "Honey send that little black girl in to help me, she always waits on me so well". Its aggravating to hear my coworkers treated in such a way....
Its a shame racism still exists. But unfortunately it still does. And in many other forms. Im a male nurse. I've worked the ER for a long long time. And working ER I see racism all the time. There are cultures that want only females to take care of their female family members. If reassurances don't work, then am I going to force an issue, and take care of them against their wishes. No I don't think so. I just make a deal with one of my female workers to swap patients. easier than forcing an confrontation. Easier than being charged with assault.
Now we can try to force societies beliefs and current laws onto an individual. Maybe Im getting old now. But im too tired of hitting my head against the wall.
I've had male patients who were severely homophobic and didn't want me putting in their foley. I just say OK, you have that right, and I make a deal with someone else. BTW IM not gay by any means.
Now in a hospital that size there is plenty of work for everyone to do together. If someone doesnt want me Im just simple enough to say, thank god, let some one else deal with that idiot.
Lot easier than forcing an confrontation, having a fight, or to subdue someone in the hospital enviroment. Maybe Im just getting too old to fight. Or maybe I just don't want to fight.
But it seems to me in this case that everyone should be mad at the individual who expressed these feelings. Rather than against whoever tried to keep potentially dangerous situation from developing in their work enviroment. Done we have enough threats already in this world without adding more.
Teeituptom:
WOW!. I agree wholeheartedly. This is still a free country, people have rights. I don't have to believe in them, but if I want my rights respected, I should respect them.
There have been times that I have traded assignements with my African-American co-workers because they had received what we all knew to be a "racist" patient.
However, there have also been times that the situation was reversed, and I had received a "racist" patient, and my co-workers were more than glad to switch with me.
We did this to "enable" ourselves to have a good shift. We cannot force our way of thinking upon someone who was taught differently. So, we just went our own way.
We were able to look at the racism in a very healthy way- "We have got 12 hours to work together, and we WILL have a good shift".
Here's an editorial that I wrote for the newspaper last year. It was on unit refrigerators all over the state.
Give nurses a break
Demanding job getting harder at understaffed hospitals
By Robert --------
CONTRIBUTING COLUMNIST
The good news is that life expectancy continues to increase. Medical technology is improving at an incredible rate, and despite alarmist claims, virtually everyone in the United States has access to health care. For the uninsured, a wide variety of government and private programs provide access to our health care system.
And now for the bad news: There aren't enough nurses to take care of all of the sick people.
By 2008, the government projects that there will be a shortage of 480,000 nurses nationwide. The American Hospital Association reported in 2002 an average 13 percent job vacancy rating for registered nurses in U.S. hospitals. One in 7 hospitals reported a severe nurse vacancy rate of more than 20 percent.
The average age of registered nurses is 43. Nurses are getting older -- and getting tired. Caring for the sick is rewarding, but the work has many unpleasant aspects.
During a 12-hour shift, we care for patients who are confused, incontinent, angry and, sometimes, mean. We care for people who weigh more than 350 pounds who can't or won't do anything for themselves. We care for substance abusers going through unplanned detox. We deal with body fluids and patient conditions that would send the average person to the porcelain altar. At the end of the day, we leave work physically and emotionally drained.
Many nurses are working extensive overtime to cover hospital units. I know nurses who will be taking their Christmas holiday sometime in February. Taking vacation time can be difficult on short-staffed units. Managers and even some nursing supervisors are working overtime at the bedside.
Here are some things that people need to know about nurses and hospitals:
* The nurse did not make you sick. We know that being sick isn't fun, and that being in the hospital is rough. However, being sick isn't a license to treat nurses with anger or disrespect. Work with us, and we'll do our best to help you get better.
* Nurses are not doctors. Although nurses have extensive medical knowledge, we are not allowed by law to diagnose or give a prognosis. That means that we can tell you what our experience tells us. We can teach you about disease conditions and medications. The doctor must tell you what's wrong with you and your probable outcome. If a doctor isn't cooperating or won't give a straight answer, it's not the nurses' fault.
* Nurses have more than one patient to care for. If you need a pain-killer when another patient has stopped breathing, you might have to wait a few minutes for your Tylenol.
* Nurses have what many people would consider a morbid sense of humor. It's how we deal with the stress of our work. If you overhear nurses having an off-color conversation or laughing in what the average person would consider terrible circumstances, remember what we see every day. It's how we cope. If you hear a couple of nurses discussing body fluids over lunch, politely remind them that you're not a nurse and that they're making you sick.
* Doctors' years of education and professional standing don't afford them the right to be mean to nurses. One of the roles of a physician is that of educator. If a nurse doesn't know what the doctor is talking about or what he or she wants, the doctor should use the next two minutes to teach, not to curse. And nurses don't want to call doctors in the middle of the night any more than doctors want to be called. The doctor should order what the patient needs and go back to sleep.
If you know a nurse, and most people know at least a couple of them, ask him or her these questions: Have you ever been punched or kicked by a patient? Has a patient ever thrown something at you or on you? Has a doctor ever cursed at you? How does your back feel? And the most telling question of all: Would you advise your son or daughter to become a nurse?
Most nurses love caring for sick people. It's a profession that a person truly has to be called to. But nurses are burning out from increased workloads, reams of paperwork and the ever-increasing stress that comes with caring for our aging population.
When you or your loved one is sick and in the hospital, understand who we are and where we're coming from. We really do care.
Well thought out and well written.
I would also like to give copies to non nurse friends and familt. OK?
jkaee
423 Posts
True, it might have helped some, but you know that the nurses would still be the ones getting slammed for it. And from my experience, if some one is a truly abusive person, a headline isn't going to stop them. Heck, jail time doesn't usually stop them.
"I do not blame the nursing staff. I blame the gutless administrators. One of these days, a nurse there will get killed by someone that should have been kicked out for bad behavior. And the killer will say, "I was stressed out and just couldn't help myself" and play the blame the victim game."
My thoughts exactly! The reason why I originally posted was because the nurses are the only ones taking the brunt of the blame, when it probably was the fault of the whole hospital admin.
"It not just a responsibility that the facility owes the staff."
100% correct. I left the facility I mentioned before shortly after that incident.