https://www.statnews.com/2023/05/31/nursing-racism-survey/
"A family nurse practitioner in New York City, Jose M. Maria has come to expect
overt racism from patients. “I’ve been called the N-word, I’ve been called, you
name it,” he said. A triple minority in nursing — Black, Latino, and male — he
often gets mistaken for a janitor. More subtle racist behavior has come from
supervisors and fellow nurses in past jobs, too — uncomfortable looks in the
break room, extra questioning from supervisors over narcotics errors he’s
responsibly reported and been cleared for. “I’ve felt I’ve had a target on my
back.”
But he’s never reported a single racist incident to his employers. Partly
that’s because he’s accustomed to such behavior; he grew up during New York
City’s “stop and frisk” era and was himself targeted by police who could search
anyone they deemed suspicious. But he’s also been afraid of repercussions and
thinks nothing would be done anyway. “Forget about it. They will just fire
you,” he said.
In this, Maria is like a majority of nurses, according to a survey of 900
nurses — RNs, NPs, and LVNs — released Wednesday by the Robert Wood Johnson
Foundation: While 80% of the respondents said they have seen or experienced
racism from patients, and 60% from colleagues, the survey found that fewer than
1 in 4 nurses reported the incidents. In interviews with pollsters, nurses said
they felt human resources employees, administrators, and even their union
leaders would do little to help, and more than half of those who did report
what happened said their relationships with supervisors and fellow nurses
suffered as a result.
“People don’t do anything because no one is going to do a damned thing,” Maria
told STAT. “It’s an extension of society — plain and simple.” He was one of a
number of nurses of different racial and ethnic backgrounds interviewed by STAT
about their experiences with racism, how to make nursing more inclusive, and
whether they think change is possible."
Via Frederick Wilson II.
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
