After watching the video about the nurse giving a bias report regarding a patient I identified a few statements that were made that made me uncomfortable. On statement the nurse giving report made was “I can’t pronounce his name. Who knows where he is from.” Then the nurse proceeded to roll her eyes. This made me uncomfortable because she is assuming that based on the patient’s name they have no idea where he could be from. Then the nurse continued on to say, “from a skateboard accident” and used her fingers as quotation marks. The nurse was insinuating that the patient was lying about how they got injured. This made me uncomfortable as well because the nurse has no reason to believe the patient is lying about how he got injured. The final statement the nurse made that was bias was “He is one of those. Like the ones that sit in the park that the police are after”. This statement is not a statement that is appropriate for the nurse to make regarding the patient especially because it is not based off of any proof and it is not something of concern for the nurse.
Each of these statements are important for me to address because they are biased statements that are being made based on the patient’s race. The nurse should be made aware that the statements she is making are not acceptable and she should reevaluate her feelings about the situation. Bringing this up to the nurse may help her reflect and possibly prevent her from repeating the incident in the future. The nurse giving report using those statements creates an environment for bias and makes me uncomfortable and would make me question the type of care she was providing for this patient and how she may have made the patient feel. If I was the nurse giving report with these statements I feel as though it would be likely that the care the patient was provided was biased care and not the care that the patient deserved. The patient deserves patient-centered care and care without judgement even if they were lying about the accident being due to skateboarding that is not for us to judge. It is our job to provide the best care we can regardless of the patient’s social life and our opinions about them.
If I was the nurse receiving this report, I would feel uncomfortable and surprised that another nurse would make those statements about a patient. I would then question the type of care the patient received and how the patient felt in the presence of that nurse. If I was put in this situation, I think I would say something to the nurse and explain to her that it is not appropriate to make those statements regarding a patient. I would also suggest that the nurse reflects on this incident and try to leave her personal opinions outside and separate when working.
In a TV show I watched there was a patient in the hospital, and they found out the patient had HIV. One of the healthcare professionals made a comment about the patient most likely using drugs and called the patient a “junkie” and made a disgusted face. I remember watching this and I was shocked that a healthcare provider would say something like that about a patient and judge them without knowing anything about them. There are other ways the patient could have contracted HIV and the healthcare provider was just assuming they got it from using drugs. The healthcare providers biased comment and facial expression made me question how other healthcare professionals may react to the patient and how that specific provider would treat the patient. Watching something like this made me uncomfortable but also made me realize there are individuals that are biased and make biased statements all the time. I think being made aware of these situations will help me provide unbiased care for my patients and be more aware when others make these statements.
Link to Video: https://pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca/pediatricvgs/chapter/pediatric-virtual-game/
