• Spent an entire shift with patient and doesn’t know how to pronounce their names,
•  also judges them based on ethnicity, by stating how “Who knows where they are from.” They are mentioning this in a negative light.
• Continues judging race and states that skateboarding accident was a cover up for a police act

Each of the statements listed above talk about different aspects of the patient based on the nurse’s point of view. However, they all share one common theme of racist commentary. It is very inappropriate that the nurse spent an entire shift with their patient and did not put any effort into learning how to pronounce the patients name, as well as what they would like to go by. If the nurse continues pronouncing the name wrong, or does not address the patient at all, the patient will not feel comfortable around the nurse. Referring to a patient by their preferred name is an easy question that can increase the comfort levels between a nurse and their patient. The nurse also judges the patient by their looks and their name and makes a comment on where the patient may be from. The tone in the nurse’s voice was a big indicator on that they meant this in a negative light. They are showing us that they see the patient as different, which could indicate that they may be treating the patient differently than others. Lastly, the nurse further judges the patient based on race by assuming that their real reason for being at the hospital was not actually based on an sporting accident, but rather potentially an assault. This further shows us as the receiving nurse that this nurse has heavy judgement towards the patient, and may not provide optimal care to them.

            I would be very shocked if I were the nurse that was receiving report in this situation. One of the main ethical standards of nursing is that we are not supposed to place our personal beliefs or judgments on our patients regardless of their differences. This scenario has shown me that this nurse has not reflected on themselves enough to be able to provide culturally appropriate care towards others, and I would probably report this event to the nurse manager on the unit. Our patients are supposed to feel safe throughout their stay in the hospital, and this type of care is not caring. I would advise the nurse to perform more self-reflection before coming back into the workplace, and keep their personal beliefs out of their care towards patients.

            There is one example of bias that stands out to me the most. This does not have to do with racism, but it was judgmental in other ways. A patient had once gone to their primary care provider for sexual transmitted infection testing after they had been sexually active for the first time. They did not know what to ask for in terms of testing, so they had asked the nurse if they could take all of the possible tests that the facility offers. The nurse then relayed the question back to the nurse practitioner right in from of the patient’s door. The nurse practitioner responded to the nurse by stating that the question asked from the patient was “sketchy” and wondered why the patient would ask for that. The patient could hear the entire conversation from behind the door and was very embarrassed about asking for all forms of testing. The nurse practitioner made the patient feel as though they were promiscuous. It was their first time doing any testing, so they did not previously know that this was uncommon. That singular conversation had broken the trust between the patient and their nurse practitioner based on the fact that the nurse practitioner had openly judged the patient. This is the opposite of how health care professionals are supposed to act like.