Last week, one of my patients told me to leave because I was male. It came as a bit of a shock, as I entered the room and did the whole "establishing rapport" however the patient immediately said to me she wasn't wearing a gown (even though she was completely dressed). I had already got the feeling that she did not want to see me, and eventually she gestured to me supervisor (who is female fortunately) that she did not want me to treat her at all.
I wasn't offended at all, in fact it was the second time it happened as I was refused to be seen last time on a another clinic from a patient who got very agitated and did not want to see me - which I found out the reason why later that day, was because I was Asian.
I did not know, there were people that still had issues with gender and ethnicity especially in the health system. Although these occurences had came to me as an unexpectancy, I guess it would be advisable to anyone else who may come across this to not let it affect you on any level, and to just let it go and move on to the next patient.
Monday, 4 June 2007
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
I think you have a really good attitude, I would struggle to handle it with your degree of acceptance and class. I heard of a pt like this coming into a ward I was on (had issues with people of different ethnicity). We decided to send in people to care for him: doctors, nurses, physios and OT's who came from different ethnic backgrouds. I left before getting to see how this turned out but I think it was a brilliant idea. Attitudes like that should not be tolerated.
Post a Comment