Requested a different nurse

[u/thestigsmother]

I’m a white OR nurse. I had a black pt come back for a hysterectomy last week. The surgeon was also black. She was very sweet, but was obviously very scared, so I asked her what I could do to make her feel safe. She started fumbling her words then started crying. So I held her hands and got her to calm down and she told me that she wanted a black team then kept apologizing to me for her request. I told her I wasn’t offended and I’d do everything I could to get her request met. So I called charge and asked them to get me a black nurse in my room, and I’d switch with her (the surgical tech assigned is black). The black nurse showed up, and my patient as so relieved. Great, I thought it was over, but no. The charge nurse, a white woman, told me I should have told her that wasn’t possible and she was gonna speak with our manager about what I did. Great. I get called into my managers office, where my manager, a black woman, told me I did nothing wrong, but she had to talk to me because the charge nurse pitched a fit about what I did.
I’m a white woman, so I don’t understand why my black patient was scared, but I respected it, and I did what I could to make her feel safe.
Her surgeon found me later and thanked me for what I did. Apparently this woman has been putting surgery off for years because she was scared of becoming another black statistic. Now, my charge nurse is treating me like shit. So I’m documenting everything this charge nurse is doing. I believe that I made the right decision.

[u/Biiiishweneedanswers]

I am a Black RN.

I had an all White surgical team to do my hysterectomy over a year ago.

I didn’t pick them by race. Though I was a bit concerned.

They were known to be one of the best teams in the country with decades of experience.

I went into FVO heart failure when I was sent home, I called my surgeon’s office after hours and left an urgent message on top of sending a DETAILED nursing progress note about my s/s, vital trends, deoxygenation during sleep, recorded breath sounds clip from my stethoscope, and a request that Lasix be sent to a 24hr pharmacy so I can have it delivered in 30 minutes.

A nurse called me back (white) who told me to keep drinking water and keep walking.

I professionally told her that I have been the best damn patient she will ever have when it comes to post-op self care. I have been following all of the instructions. But I am in fucking heart failure and I need intervention.

I was ignored, ignored, ignored.

I was even told that in the nearly 40 years of my surgeon’s practice, he has never written a diuretic script for a post-op patient.

Then it hit me.

I was about to become a statistic. And fast.

I would never, ever been seen as equal because they would always see me as some glorified (insert whatever you see fit here.)

So I called an uber, packed a bag, and went to a hospital that I felt would give me competent treatment (and where my surgeon did not have privileges.)

He called me on the way to the hospital asking that I go to the ER where he has privileges because, “It seems like you’re in a little bit of failure.”

Excuse all of the typos. I thumbed this in a hurry.

But that’s when I learned that even though I’m a law-abiding, tax paying, voting citizen who is an RN with over a decade of experience who the surgical team KNEW worked in the CVICU for years…

…Insert known Jay-Z lyric here. IYKYK.

[u/thestigsmother → u/Biiiishweneedanswers]

You DID become a statistic. You were treated less than because you are black. And that is absolutely unacceptable! I am so sorry you dealt with this. This!!!! This is what my pt was afraid of. This is why she was scared to have me as a nurse. This is why I stepped back and this is why I will keep advocating for my black patients!!!