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)
I agree that customers pay the salaries of the employees of the hospital, but that is true of any business, can we then say to a local shop owner that its ok for him not to hire minorities to work in his shop because many people would prefer a white employee to wait on them. What happens if a request is made to have a white nurse care for the patient and there are none? what would happen then? Customer rights are a good thing to a degree, but when you take it too far, the whole system will start to break down. Again if you bought a ticket on an airline flight does that then entitle you to decide who is going to fly the plane just because you are "paying the salaries"? If we honor these sorts of nonsensical requests then the equal employment opportunity act is out the window and minorities in this country could be up a creek. (or openly gay people and disabled persons) Another note, it is not battery or assault to give a patient the right to leave or be taken care of the qualified staff who are assigned, and if ALL hospitals do this no revenue is going to be lost because there will not be anyplace else for these people to take their business to.
Marie, I'm not understanding your point. The pt was Spanish speaking, I wouldn't have been going through a family member.
So, instead of having a medical professional interpret, they pulled someone from an area with no medical training at all...GOK what she actually told the pt and family. She even gave the discharge instructions...pt wouldn't even allow me to stand there to verify that the D/C instructions were correct. Whatever.
Hogan, I know what you mean. I worked very hard to become fluent, and I did it to HELP people who didn't speak English, but because I was of the wrong racial profile, my skills didn't matter.
The ED doc that was on knew a little Spanish, and she tried to talk to him initially, and he was horrible to her; very insulting, told her to get out and get someone who could speak Spanish. So I go back. Even though the pt acknowledged that my Spanish was fine, because I was Caucasian I still wasn't good enough.
I would hope that if someone were beaten or raped by a person of a certain race, that they would atrribute the incident to a flaw in that particular persons character as many MANY other people in the same situation do. (this is why it annoys me when people begin a story by saying "some black guy stole my car" or " some black guy beat her up". The fact that they were black has no bearing on the event. (unless you are giving the police a description) Anyway i digress, If the person was not as open minded and had a severe traumatic experience that they reasonably informed the staff about, and if a substitution could be made easily to avoid causing this patient more trauma, then by all means use your best judgement. This exception should NOT include every tom, dick and harry with no tangible experience or reason for requesting a certain race other than what they have persuaded themselves to believe. Again this is just my opinion, but i honestly don't see how as a society we can continue to function and make progress if we allow our businesses to be disrupted by consumers with an agenda.
I'm a RN ( for 26 yrs.) and I'm just appalled that one (some?) of this hospital's employees are making such a big deal out of this. No, I'm not Black. I am mixed white and Native American. The patient's husband may have been a jerk, but I don't think the nursing supervisors were wrong in changing assignments. And why did supervision have to make this decision? The charge nurse and staff nurses couldn't figure this out?
This is a more sensitive issue, but patients or their families ask for staffing changes all the time, e.g., a female patient wants a female nurse, personality conflict, etc., not to mention black patients who want only black nursing staff. At every facility I've ever worked at, staffing assignments are changed when requests are made if it can be done. If he wouldn't accept non-white staff or compromise, why on earth would the staff involved want/insist on staying in a hostile invironment? It's hard to do your job in that type of situation and near impossible to be supportive of the patient. What about her? Don't these black nurses care about her? She may be as big a bigot as her husband, but hospital staff aren't there to approve or disapprove. They're there to take care of the patient and "do no harm". Tension in the room, if not fighting, is deffinately not conducive to aiding a laboring woman. You can't relax when you and/or all around you are fighting.
Obviously I'm missing something here as I don't see that nursing supervision broke hospital policy by making the change at the patient's or family's request. As a personal aside, I think the NAACP needs to find something constructive to do with it's time. All my adult life all I've every seen them do is stir up trouble and discontent. They complain about non-black bigotry, but they are some of the most prejudiced people I've ever met. People like them and the skinhead-types are a lot of what keeps racial unrest alive and well in this country.
For those who really get off on sterotypes, I live in the deep south now, but was raised in Los Angeles and hold licenses in four states.
I had an incident simular. The couples family didn't want me taking care of their daughter because my last name is German. They were in concentration camps due to Germany. I said that I understood the reason for it, but I was the only nurse there. I also explained that I was also Indian, Irish, and Black Dutch. The Parents of the patient kind of looked sheepish and said that they didn't think of that. It was a good out come. (I am not German, my husband's family has German in it.
Specializes in Geriatrics, Pediatrics, Home Health.
StrbryJelo
AMEN!!! You said what I was trying to say and did it much better, too.
I can not immagine what the big deal is. And I agree with you about the NAACP and the RAINBOW coalition. All they do is stir up trouble. Look at us now. We have Blacks Hispanics Asians Mixed Native American Irish, and I could go on. We as a whole are trying to stop the bigotry, but having small stuff like this shoved in our faces every day, is enough to make a SAINT give up!
Keep trying to teach people but ALWAYS respect them and their choises.
I will agree about the NAACP not needing to be involved in this issue as I don't see it as a management "promoting" racism thing. I do not agree with the decision to cater to this couples unreasonable demands, however I believe that they did it not as a slight to the minority employees but to avoid a nasty incident or problem. This does not make it right but i think the intent was not to offend or denigrate the minority employees. The hospital needs to have a set plan of action or policy regarding these types of situations (supposedly it does but it wasn't followed). Have the patients sign a consent form or they can hit the door. Yes they can have a preference on who they want to treat them but the hospital can also have a policy of non-discrimination and if the patient doesn't like it he can choose to take himself home and deal with his medical issues on his own or hire a private duty nurse/doctor. I as a rule prefer women doctors due to a male doctor innappropriately touching me when i was 15 in urgent care so my pcp is a female However when i was giving birth i had a male doctor checking me for part of the time i was in labor (lady partsl checking and all). did i throw a fit? no because i have the common sense to realize a hospital is not burger king and you can't always have it your way. what if i as a patient want only bsn or msn prepared nurses to care for me? what if i don't want a male doctor but there are no female docs on that shift is somebody going to rush to the hospital glove up and help me? Just because it may be possible to switch a nurse schedule around to accomodate a patients illogical preference doesn't mean it should be done! what if you get 10 people at the same time who all want the same nurse? who are you going to say no to? this is why its best to not start that ball rolling.
I don't believe what I am hearing. Are those of you offended by this mans behaviour seriously saying that his wifes care should have been delivered by an African American despite their wishes. We are not there to make moral judgements about who should recieve our care and by whom, we are just there to provide the care. Personal opinions and feelings have nothing to do with what we do (although we can have those opinions and feelings, but keep them to ourselves). If we imposed our view on one group of people then we on the slippery slope of our personal views being imposed on other groups which becomes an untenable situation due to the socially and culturally diverse situations in which we work and which we all come from. For example my experience here in Australia is that I have had veterans refusing to be cared for by Japanese nurses and Jewish patients refusing to be cared for by moslem nurses. These wishes are honoured where possible, if it is not possible the patients has it explained to them that the staff rostered for that day is all we have and if the ethnic mix doesn't meet their needs they are free to sign a release against doctors advice. It is not up to us as nurses, or hospitals as institutions to educate the public about morals and ethics, racism and bigotry. Delivery of care remains fundamental, delivered professionally with the patients consent. If we become dictators of morality to our patients then how would we be able to cope with providing care to the likes of Martin Bryant (Tasmanias mass murderer who required hospitalising after his shooting spree), or paedophiles, rapists, and other scum of the earth types. The same attitude which allows a nurse to care for these people despite their personal feelings needs to be displayed by a nurse who is offended by a patient who refuses their care. Personal feelings are irrelevant, care is fundamental. Just don't take it personally. We have enough to do getting these people well enough to return to society, the many and varied personality flaws of the people we look after are embedded in the imperfect societies in which we live and work and society as a whole needs to address them. To suggest that we can change the attitudes of patients gained over a lifetime during a short stay in hospital is ludicrous.
Welcome to the politicaly correct USA. Common sense, if not dead, is in a deep coma and so far we've been unable to revive it. It's like watching a scary movie when the villian is so obvious to all but the victims and you want to smack them and ask why they can't see what's going on. With the crap that's going on I sometimes feel like I'm in the Twilight Zone.
no one expects to change a persons views overnight what i'm talking about is not causing unecessary chaos with schedule switching due to patients unreasonable demands. Yes i said unreasonable because it IS unreasonable to expect a business to switch its employees around on a regular basis just to suit someones personal preferences. Just because someone is a racist doesn't mean we have to put our lives and schedules in an uproar to suit their wishes. It has nothing to do with pushing our viewpoints on them it has to do with running an efficient business. I know that i would like to go into work and not have to worry about patients switching on me because of some obscure reason. And if im the NM and am making the assignments i don't think i'd have time to redo everybodies schedules all the time because some idiots don't want certain nurses. When you set a standard of nondiscrimination then you won't have to worry about this time consuming nonsense. When you pay for treatment at a hospital you are not paying for your choice of all the staff that is available. This would be madness and could not possibly work. If the hospital employs qualified, competent persons then you are getting what you paid for. In no other business would the scenario of getting to choose who you have help you fly. You don't get to choose whos cooking you food at a restaurant or whos flying your plane or whos driving your bus or what policeman is going to answer your call so why should you get to choose which nurse is going to care for you? If someone doesn't mind switching thats one thing but to make it a habit of catering to unreasonable demands is a recipe for disaster. think of the long term message that you are sending.
I agree with Tom, what is the use of the fight. It was very common when I was floor nursing to have women complain that a man was going to "see" them, touch them, etc. and if a complaint was registered it was honored. I don't agree with the man, but I realize that the world will NEVER be a perfect place without perfect a-holes.
Even though it goes against the grain of MY life, I remember when I was in home care, going to the home of a client that had Malcolm X pictures on the walls, and were ALWAYs watching videos of speeches deriding the "evil whites". I contacted the Doctor, who is black and my best friend, I asked him if he knew their leanings and he didn't. I asked him to contact the family and make sure that my presence in their home was not a problem. They were adamant, that I was the only nurse they wanted. When I would arrive they would click off the vcr and I would ask them to feel free to leave it on, and engage them in conversation. I welcomed the opportunity to dialogue. We were able to get to a friendly place and I hope to think that maybe I was a challenge to their closed thinking. I was there for their young son in his sickle cell crisis' at any hour. One day the father a big burly man of few words, asked if he could speak with me. I was shocked when it was about something VERY personal in his family. We had connected on some level, if only professional.
As for the comments about change and conditions in facilities. As long as the State Boards continue to be assistants to the Attorneys Generals and NOT REAL professional organizations, then nurses will be caught in the traps of damned if you do and damned if you don't. We need a group of US for US that fight and stand up FOR US. You graduated, You got a degree, the board says it's ok for you to be a nurse. YOU ARE A NURSE. All they will do is discipline you and beyond that there is NO ONE looking out for your best interest. In answer, NO I am not a union nurse, in fact I refuse to work directly as a nurse until I relocate because MY stateboard is reprehensible. They promote the destruction of nurses, then wonder why we have the worst ratios in the nation.
Specializes in Geriatrics, Pediatrics, Home Health.
Ok I'll try this one more time. The reason they want the nurse they want is because as a nurse we can and will give baths, do things that are of a private nature, and see things that the airplane pilot, bus driver, or cook NEVER will. That is what makes the difference.
We are being taught that the patient always comes first., and his/her requests should be honored. I really don't see what the big deal is.
I don't think the NM was wrong, and I don't think the hospital owed anyone an apology. If that makes me an evil person then deal with it. If I ever run into the situation mentioned in this article, then I hope and pray that my NM has the good sense not to force the patient to deal with a Native American. [me] I would be uncomfortable, because my patient was uncomfortable. We are there to take care of the patient ALL of him/her. Physically, mentally and emotionally. PERIOD!
smk1, LPN
2,195 Posts
I agree that customers pay the salaries of the employees of the hospital, but that is true of any business, can we then say to a local shop owner that its ok for him not to hire minorities to work in his shop because many people would prefer a white employee to wait on them. What happens if a request is made to have a white nurse care for the patient and there are none? what would happen then? Customer rights are a good thing to a degree, but when you take it too far, the whole system will start to break down. Again if you bought a ticket on an airline flight does that then entitle you to decide who is going to fly the plane just because you are "paying the salaries"? If we honor these sorts of nonsensical requests then the equal employment opportunity act is out the window and minorities in this country could be up a creek. (or openly gay people and disabled persons) Another note, it is not battery or assault to give a patient the right to leave or be taken care of the qualified staff who are assigned, and if ALL hospitals do this no revenue is going to be lost because there will not be anyplace else for these people to take their business to.