Nurse/Patient and possible race issue

[Ciao Mickey]

I was wondering if possibly the nurse had a problem with treating a black patient. The nurse might not think she is a racist, but maybe in the back of her mind she has a problem dealing with black people. If you and your co-worker had no problem, it could be the other nurse not the patient.

I have known people who do not think that they are racist, but do treat people that are not their race differently. They would be friendly to a point to their face, but behind their back they were totally different.[/QUOTE]

Then you must know many of the black people I work with. Some will not give a white person the time of day.

It cracks me up when I hear or read that ONLY WHITE PEOPLE can be racist.

Correct me if I am wrong, but the way I read your post is you are automatically assuming that it's the white person who has a problem with the black person and it couldn't possibly be the other way around.

 

[WL Fan]

I can't believe we are actually still having this discussion. No wonder we can't get anything accomplished in this country. Good grief.

Allowing a patient to decide who his/her nurse is going to be based on the skin color or gender of the nurse is ridiculous. It's just as if not more ridiculous than stipulating who is going to wait on you at McDonalds or who will ring up your purchases at Walmart or drive your kids' bus to school.

Nurses work hard every day we hit the floor. We scoop up vomit, change diapers on grown adults, put up with screeching family members, and throw our blood spattered shoes in the washer as soon as we get home so we won't bring anything home to our kids. It amazes me that patients think we can be sorted out like dirty socks as to "who" gets to care for "whom". They should be thankful there's men and women in this country who are willing to do what we do.

If someone doesn't like their hospital because they got shoddy care, that's a valid complaint, and should be taken up with the administration. But if a patient is unhappy because their nurse isn't the right color or whatever, by all means, please take your you-know-what down the road. Please.

p.s. It's been a long day.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

But the point is, by "accommodating" their racial preference as to who treats them in a hospital setting, you ARE supporting their belief.

Plus it is going to get awful suspect when a patient refuses to be treated by Nurse A, B, C, D, E, F and only G & H are acceptable and the coincidental trait of their skin color cannot be ignored.

This is getting ridiculous.

What are you going to do in triage?--let the person risk dying b/c they are alert enough to request a particular skin color and the triage team is foolish enough to pause and go fetch the right colored medical staff.

Just b/c the patient is sick, is no reason to honor their racist requests.

It is one thing to request a new person b/c of horrible treatement, bedside manner, or shockingly lacking skills or unkind method of doing a procedure.

Skin color--is not a medical skill.

Skin color is not a legal hiring "skill" and the hospital can't nor shouldn't balance the work load to have the proper mix of colors in the off chance someone would like to pick another color off the floor.

This is so--disgusting.

I wonder what people would say if a patient only wanted a "straight" nurse/doctor--or maybe a "gay" one.

Being sick or injured is no excuse to put up with the intolerance of a patient. Coddling to their needs in that manner is NOT good medical care (or really psychiatric care). If an issue is suspected, it needs to be elevated. The hospital should not worry about lawsuits. There would be no way that race would qualify as a legitimate patient request by the Supreme Court.

 

[starann]

But, in this new world of "hospital as hotel", staff is not supported and basically anything that will make the patient happy and have them "choose" your hospital again is tolerated.

You hit the nail on the head with that! I imagine if the OP went to management with a request to schedule only nurses of color to this woman, as it makes her happier while she is there, management will try to accomodate, after all they have their Press Ganey scores and Magnet stats to think about.

Hospitals are getting less and less away from REAL patient care and going for gimicks....last I saw my hospital was giving away t-shirts to rehab (physical therapy) patients who finished the program, and blankets with our logo embroidered on it for other patients. Yet we didn't get a raise this fiscal year, and the patient/staff ratio still has not improved...so basically if we give them a tshirt and a blanket to heck with the care we give?!?!?!?!?!

I'm not going to touch the topic of race here, as I can care less who I take care of, everyone is going to get the same initial care from me.....treat me like crap, I will not bend over backwards to go the extra mile.....just cause I wipe your butt doesn't mean I am there to kiss it!

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

It is the same as accomodating someone who say doesn't believe in blood transfusions because of their religion. Are you supporting their religion and belief and agreeing with them or are you accomodating their religion with offering a different choice of care?

Ummm--it totally is not.

If a Ku Klux Klansman gets transported to a mostly black employed hospital---how is it fair to OTHER patients for him to refuse all care except from white medical staff who might happen to be busy on other cases.

Should he bleed out, code or whatever until only the color of his choice is available?

Is it a hospital or a Baskin Robbins?

It sure as heck ain't BK--you're way right away.

Will his klansman family sue and win b/c they didn't get a white doctor fast enough. HIGHLY DOUBTFUL.

 

[NEVERENOUGHWDW]

I'm done trying to explain to people why racism is wrong...

I will say DM just called from the ER to wish me a Happy Birthday.

She had to hang up because a helicopter was bringing in people from a severe car accident.
My DM has never mentioned the race of her patients. She goes to work saves lives & on very sad days shares with families that they have lost their child or spouse.
Thank goodness she doesn't see race. Thank goodness the families let her do her job with grace & precision. Thank goodness she takes the hand of the Mom regardless of color to say good bye to their baby.

Thank you all you nurses on the Dis!!!!!!! I don't give a rat's a** if you white, black, fat, thin, gay or straight! I just care that your there

 

[BeachGirlFLA]

Thank you all you nurses on the Dis!!!!!!! I don't give a rat's a** if you white, black, fat, thin, gay or straight! I just care that your there

ITA

 

[honugirl]

I don't care who cares for me as long as they are competent at their job. I've had black nurses, white nurses, Asian nurses, etc. They've all been good and have all taken excellent care of me. Thank you to all the good nurses out there!

I can imagine that they assign nurses a block of patients in the ward so to have them skip one of their patients and move to a different section and vice versa seems like it would really take more time out of the nurses day that they could be using for patient care just to accommodate someone's preference.

 

[princesspumpkin]

Why does the race card always have to come into play??? No wonder we are in the society we are in!

OP here - the race card came into play because of the racial statements made by the patient. If she hadn't made those comments, to me, it would have been just another personality mis-match.

 

[princesspumpkin]

As a health care provider I would hope you & the rest of the profession understands this is not only wrong but against the law.

If this question was about not sending a black health care provider to care for this patient the flames would be flying and most likely this post closed.

I understand what you're saying. But to be honest, if there was a white patient that was making derogatory comments about black people, and I was doing the assignment and had my choice of nurses to assign to this particular patient, I don't think that I would choose to assign a black nurse to this patient. I guess I just see it as adding fuel to the fire. Now I wouldn't put out a memo telling everyone "don't assign any black nurses to Mrs. So-and-So", but I would probably stand clear of doing it myself.

 

[Maleficent13]

I can't believe we are actually still having this discussion. No wonder we can't get anything accomplished in this country. Good grief.

Allowing a patient to decide who his/her nurse is going to be based on the skin color or gender of the nurse is ridiculous. It's just as if not more ridiculous than stipulating who is going to wait on you at McDonalds or who will ring up your purchases at Walmart or drive your kids' bus to school.

Nurses work hard every day we hit the floor. We scoop up vomit, change diapers on grown adults, put up with screeching family members, and throw our blood spattered shoes in the washer as soon as we get home so we won't bring anything home to our kids. It amazes me that patients think we can be sorted out like dirty socks as to "who" gets to care for "whom". They should be thankful there's men and women in this country who are willing to do what we do.

If someone doesn't like their hospital because they got shoddy care, that's a valid complaint, and should be taken up with the administration. But if a patient is unhappy because their nurse isn't the right color or whatever, by all means, please take your you-know-what down the road. Please.

p.s. It's been a long day.

 

[daisax]

I understand what you're saying. But to be honest, if there was a white patient that was making derogatory comments about black people, and I was doing the assignment and had my choice of nurses to assign to this particular patient, I don't think that I would choose to assign a black nurse to this patient. I guess I just see it as adding fuel to the fire. Now I wouldn't put out a memo telling everyone "don't assign any black nurses to Mrs. So-and-So", but I would probably stand clear of doing it myself.

My best friend is a nurse on a Med/Surg floor. My impression is that the nurses DO to a certain extent informally cherry pick patients according to personal preferences -- not based on race, but on patients groups/diagnoses they like working with the most or are the most skilled at dealing with.

My friend adores elderly people and she has a certain gift with them and their families (especially the difficult ones). However, she gets really shaken up dealing with young accident victims or 30 year olds diagnosed with permanent brain injury or paralysis. Meanwhile, there are other nurses who would 10x rather be dealing with a young person with a traumatic injury or terrible cancer prognosis than a frightened/confused elderly person that needs the same amount of personal care.

Obviously both of them will care for whoever they're assigned to... but they do have preferences, and preferences and comfort levels are taken into account.

I'm not saying that race should be taken into account, but I do think it's wrong to imply that there isn't already some patient swapping going on among nursing staff.

 

[NEVERENOUGHWDW]

I'm done trying to explain to people why racism is wrong...

I will say DM just called from the ER to wish me a Happy Birthday.

She had to hang up because a helicopter was bringing in people from a severe car accident.
My DM has never mentioned the race of her patients. She goes to work saves lives & on very sad days shares with families that they have lost their child or spouse.
Thank goodness she doesn't see race. Thank goodness the families let her do her job with grace & precision. Thank goodness she takes the hand of the Mom regardless of color to say good bye to their baby.

Thank you all you nurses on the Dis!!!!!!! I don't give a rat's a** if you white, black, fat, thin, gay or straight! I just care that your there

Dropped a few pizzas at the ER DM is in tonight & she already had seen 17 patients since 3pm.........they had several cases of swine flu, a young mother who was rapped & "degloved" as well as 2 mentally ill that were in restraints....
Just amazing. God Bless the nurses

 

[Disney Doll]

Take race out of it. Why can't a patient decide if they do not want a certain nurse or doctor? Why does it matter what the reason is? Nobody gets to decide how another person thinks or feels. If the patient is a racist so be it. That is their perrogative. I don't think they should have to be forced to be cared for by anyone that they do not want regardless of their reason. YMMV.

In a perfect world I would agree with you. But in the real world of hospital care, it is just not always possible to give every patient every wish they have.

 

[Disney Doll]

My best friend is a nurse on a Med/Surg floor. My impression is that the nurses DO to a certain extent informally cherry pick patients according to personal preferences -- not based on race, but on patients groups/diagnoses they like working with the most or are the most skilled at dealing with.

My friend adores elderly people and she has a certain gift with them and their families (especially the difficult ones). However, she gets really shaken up dealing with young accident victims or 30 year olds diagnosed with permanent brain injury or paralysis. Meanwhile, there are other nurses who would 10x rather be dealing with a young person with a traumatic injury or terrible cancer prognosis than a frightened/confused elderly person that needs the same amount of personal care.

Obviously both of them will care for whoever they're assigned to... but they do have preferences, and preferences and comfort levels are taken into account.

I'm not saying that race should be taken into account, but I do think it's wrong to imply that there isn't already some patient swapping going on among nursing staff.

Placing nurses based on who has the skills to care for a particular diagnosis is called good assignment-making. You put the people with the skills where their skills will be most-needed and best-utilized.

You don't put the people anywhere based on skin color.

 

[Stacerita]

Placing nurses based on who has the skills to care for a particular diagnosis is called good assignment-making. You put the people with the skills where their skills will be most-needed and best-utilized.

You don't put the people anywhere based on skin color.

I couldn't agree more.

If you place them based on skin color, you are opening yourself to a whole lot of legal problems.

 

[BeachGirlFLA]

In a perfect world I would agree with you. But in the real world of hospital care, it is just not always possible to give every patient every wish they have.

Of course, in a perfect world, racism wouldn't exist either but I do get what you're saying.

 

[luvsJack]

I read through but may have missed this somewhere, was the patient elderly? Its a sad thing, but an elderly black lady may have felt that she wouldn't receive the same care from a white nurse as she would a black nurse; simply because of things the woman has lived through in her life. If that were the case, I just don't see the problem in assigning her a black nurse (if it wasn't taking a nurse away from another patient that she was better suited for skill wise or making a problem somewhere else).

If its just a quiet case of taking nurse A from this area and nurse B from this area and switching them to make things run smoother-so be it. Makes things easier on everybody. You are not going to change someone being or not being racist by who cares for them for a few days. Why make things worse on the nurses by making them deal with someone that is being hard to get along with, if they don't have to?

 

[Mouse House Mama]

I read through but may have missed this somewhere, was the patient elderly? Its a sad thing, but an elderly black lady may have felt that she wouldn't receive the same care from a white nurse as she would a black nurse; simply because of things the woman has lived through in her life. If that were the case, I just don't see the problem in assigning her a black nurse (if it wasn't taking a nurse away from another patient that she was better suited for skill wise or making a problem somewhere else).

If its just a quiet case of taking nurse A from this area and nurse B from this area and switching them to make things run smoother-so be it. Makes things easier on everybody. You are not going to change someone being or not being racist by who cares for them for a few days. Why make things worse on the nurses by making them deal with someone that is being hard to get along with, if they don't have to?

You made my point much better than I was able to.
People's life experience shape who they are. You are not going to change that. It doesn't matter if we agree with them or not.

 

[princesspumpkin]

I read through but may have missed this somewhere, was the patient elderly? Its a sad thing, but an elderly black lady may have felt that she wouldn't receive the same care from a white nurse as she would a black nurse; simply because of things the woman has lived through in her life. If that were the case, I just don't see the problem in assigning her a black nurse (if it wasn't taking a nurse away from another patient that she was better suited for skill wise or making a problem somewhere else).

If its just a quiet case of taking nurse A from this area and nurse B from this area and switching them to make things run smoother-so be it. Makes things easier on everybody. You are not going to change someone being or not being racist by who cares for them for a few days. Why make things worse on the nurses by making them deal with someone that is being hard to get along with, if they don't have to?

Actually, it was a maternity patient in her thirties. And like someone else said, when making out the assignment for the next shift, people do place nurses with certain patients or avoid certain patients for a variety of reasons, already.

This patient didn't request to "not" have white nurses whatsoever, she just had extremely volatile experiences with them during her stay, and made racial comments about them - at the same time, she never had a problem with the black ones. So to me, when making out the next shift's assignment, if there were 5 nurses to choose from, I wouldn't fault someone for assigning a black nurse to this patient. To me, that patient/nurse pairing would be a good "fit".