I was shocked and dismayed to hear of a lawsuit by a black nurse against Beaumont Hospital in Dearborn, Michigan. This nurse apparently overheard a patient tell another nurse to not let “that Black bitch” take care of him.
This is shocking. As nurses, we are taught to be non-judgmental and take care of everyone. Unfortunately, not all of our patients are necessarily the same when it comes to being non-judgmental about those who provide their care.
It is one thing for a patient to request that a particular nurse not take care of them because they had concerns about the care provided by that nurse. However, it is another thing to request a nurse to not take care of you presumably due only to the color of their skin.
A nurse has a duty to ALL patients on a unit. In this matter, the nurse was not allowed to take care of that patient or any other patient in that room.
Now, should something happen to that particular patient, despite his skin color not matching hers, she still has a legal duty to take of him.
I don’t know what will happen with this lawsuit but I am curious to learn.
It is sad that her hospital would blindly accept a patient’s request like this, simply based on the color of her skin without telling the patient that ALL of the nurses are properly trained and ALL are capable of providing the proper and precise care.
To read more about this story, click on this sentence.
Have you ever had a situation like this occur? If you were a manager, what would you do in this situation?
I’d love to read your comments below.
Toni C. says
Something like this happened while I worked as a Director of Nursing for a Home Health agency where a potential patient requested only Caucasian nurses, therapists and aides come to his home. I am a black nurse and my administrator was white. The clinicians who were available to see him ranged from white to black to Filipino to Hispanic. I was proud to be an employee of that company that day when we received this referral because my administrator kindly let the referral source know we would not be able to meet their “needs” and that they would have to seek home health services elsewhere. We are no longer living in those times and employers need to take a stand. Although in home health it would be easier to denounce this behavior especially when it’s made known prior to commencing services, I understand the pickle this hospital must be in since the patient is already admitted.
Trish says
I have seen this during my career. I am white and had a black coworker done this way at a hospital in Oklahoma and I had to take over this white supremacists care and he said to me Thank God I have a white nurse and I said well you shouldnt because the nurse you didnt want is a more experienced clinician and a wonderful human being. I had no more comments from him that whole shift along those lines. I was so angry for my coworker being done that way . I think in that case I described and in this one management should have said you have to be respectful of all our employees or you can go to receive care at another hospital .
LORIE A BROWN, R.N., M.N., J.D. says
Thanks for sharing. I think it would be hard to take care of a patient with those beliefs and you are right, it is the patient who misses out.
LORIE A BROWN, R.N., M.N., J.D. says
Thanks for your comment. I am so glad your home health agency did not put up with this. I think patients need to sign something when they come in the hospital but then most people are not like this. What would happen if he was in a car accident and was unconscious? He would be grateful for everyone who saved his life.
Joan PATE says
Yes, I encountered a similar situation while stationed in Virginia a a large naval medical facility. A caucasian woman in her 60’s told a CNA who was black, she didn’t want any black staff taking care of her. When I was informed of the situation I went to speak to the woman to find out more information. She was a bigoted, verbally abusive person who we’ve had problems with previously. She proceeded to scream at me with many obscenities. I raised my hand and told her to stop! She was taken aback, guess few people had called her on her back behavior. I told her that all my staff were extremely competent and well educated to care for ortho patients, because I set high standards for performance, regardless of culture or skin color. I reminded her she was on thin ice because of her abusive behavior and her carp would stop immediately. I told her I would implement the following steps to remove her from this hospital:
1. She would be brought up on charges of abuse, discrimination, creating a hostile
environment and then a military judge would determine her sentence. At the very least she would lose ALL military privileges.
2. She would be discharged from the naval hospital to a civilian hospital, and would incur all expenses for care, and I promised her that they word not put up with her mouth and behavior.
3. Her surgeon was advised of her previous abusive behavior and was in agreement with any corrective action I deemed appropriate.
4. Should she decide to correct her mouth and behavior, I would decide whether we would give her another chance but she would be required t o apologize to the CNA in a kind, respectful way. Any slip ups going forward, she would immediately disengaged from medical care and the hospital.
5. I do not tolerate any form of discriminatory behavior from anyone at any rank or rate and she acted shamefully and tarnished the service of her dead husband.
Her mouth was wide open and sputtered when I finished. Gave her 30 minutes to decide what she wanted to do, then I called her surgeon and briefed him and told him what I planned to do a d what I needed him to do. He was in agreement! I also filled out an incident report and request a command letter be written to her with further sanctions if this behavior occurred.
Outcome: she apologized to the CNA and to me, and behaviour was appropriate. The surgeon fast tracked her discharge and after she recovered from surgery, he disengaged her from ortho services at this hospital. I discussed this issue and the staff’s responsibilities at our next staff meeting. It was a good learning experience for all, since we had patients of many different cultures that required additional considerations to ensure we honored their beliefs but the relationships were consistent with the Navycore value of courage,honor and commitment.
LORIE A BROWN, R.N., M.N., J.D. says
Thanks for your comment. I am glad the Navy stuck with its core values.
Elizabeth A VanOverberghe says
I think we as nurses have to stay focused on what is best for our patients. Next to providing safe, quality care, it is a priority to ensure a patient is comfortable in our presence. The more comfortable they are, the more vulnerable they will be sharing information..the more information we have, the better we can meet their needs. It is about putting the needs of our patients first. I think we have to be careful not to make things personal when they are not. People are on their own life journey, and with their health. We can’t always have an understanding of why a patient makes a particular request, or may feel a certain way about something or someone who will put their hands on them , but they do have a right to make those choices and we can seek to understand. But we simply cannot make it about us. Selfless and non judgemental…that we have to be. If nurses alike can take a step back in those situations and be reminded… “This is NOT about me.”?
Additionally, we do not know the mental status of this patient, or the relationship or previous encounters with this particular nurse that may or may not have contributed to his request. If he had just referred to her without the racial adjective” black”, would it have been equally as offensive to her? To most? It is at best rude and disrespectful..and I think we can all say as nurses , we have been treated as such. No ever loses their life over hurt feelings. We simply carry on. Up and on
Peace
Liz
Debra James says
The patient (white) didn’t care who took care of her, as long as they took good care of her. The spouse (white), on the other hand stated each & every hospital stay that no Black nurses care for the patient. I learned of this after my module was changed at the last minute & no one could explain why.
A “friendly” nurse gave me the run down. The spouse one night kept asking to speak to the day shift nurse, despite being told she had left for the day. No matter how many times I offered to assist, the spouse repeatedly declined. However, he pestered every other nurse no matter whether or not that patient was in the nurse’s care module. Did I mention I was, at that time, the only Black nurse on my unit? I was the first ever on the unit in 2003, but there never seemed to be more than 2 of us at any given time. (If there were 3, we knew someone was getting the boot very soon.)
When I asked the unit manager about the arrangement, I was told the spouse was being placated in order to keep the situation from escalating. What situation?!! The spouse is a racist! No, management had/has no intention of addressing this situation.
Pauline says
I had an older patient in the nursing home that told me she didn’t want any “n____s” taking care of her! As a supervisor, and multi-racial woman, I left her room and came back about 20 minutes later, and asked her to pack her things! She wanted to know why!!!! I explained to her that we could not meet her needs and therefore need to transfer to another nursing home because all we have here are men and women of color that provide excellent compassionate care! I also told her the front desk called her family, the social worker, DON, and Administrator about her request and immediate transfer her for that reason! She looked at me with her mouth open and said, “Well, I better keep my mouth shut, then, because I like it here!” She never mention that word or complained again. She was there for 7 years!
LORIE A BROWN, R.N., M.N., J.D. says
Thanks for sharing! Yes people will calm down if they are just heard. I am glad you stood your ground.