Preceptor and nurse making racially ignorant comments

[Smiths11]

First day of this rotation and I feel miserable. It seems nobody in the clinic is nice. It's 1 week of outpatient care for OBGYN, and I am dreading it. We had a Middle Eastern patient, who's English wasn't so good. I am not Middle Eastern, but I have a very similar look + skin tone. The nurse turned to me and said "do you speak her language?" out of the blue, in front of her. I felt embarrassed for the patient and for myself. Then when the patient left, the nurse told me "many of them speak a lot less English than they really know". "They refuse to speak English sometimes even though they know how to."

Later in the day I faced another ignorant comment, this one having to do with my diet - with the preceptor making a presumption about it without asking me, purely because of my race.

The whole experience was awkward, embarrassing, and insulting.

I just came off of SURGERY and wish so badly that I could go back.

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[Psai]

I think you're being too sensitive. My mom understood and spoke a lot more than she let on when she first came to America because she was embarrassed that people would judge her for her accent. It's also not unreasonable to ask you if you speak the language if you look similar. It really helps when you have someone there who speaks the language. Translator phones are awful to use.

 

[22031 Alum]

Please don't file this under "OB/GYN sucks" -- there are so many other reasons, amirite???

In any case, ignorance is everywhere. It doesn't sound like the intent was malicious. It's not your job to educate people but you could if you were so inclined ("Actually, I'm Korean, not Chinese"). Or just ignore it.

Once as a resident, we ordered takeout, and I told my Indian attending "We got something vegetarian for you!!" She thanked me and informed me that she eats meat. I was mortified.

 

[Kaustikos]

First day of this rotation and I feel miserable. It seems nobody in the clinic is nice. It's 1 week of outpatient care for OBGYN, and I am dreading it. We had a Middle Eastern patient, who's English wasn't so good. I am not Middle Eastern, but I have a very similar look + skin tone. The nurse turned to me and said "do you speak her language?" out of the blue, in front of her. I felt embarrassed for the patient and for myself. Then when the patient left, the nurse told me "many of them speak a lot less English than they really know". "They refuse to speak English sometimes even though they know how to."

Later in the day I faced another ignorant comment, this one having to do with my diet - with the preceptor making a presumption about it without asking me, purely because of my race.

The whole experience was awkward, embarrassing, and insulting.

I just came off of SURGERY and wish so badly that I could go back.

Uh, the first part confuses me. Because it's not wrong to ask someone if they speak someone's language. And not really insulting. The amount of times we have a Hispanic patient and everyone on the team asks if someone can speak Spanish is very large. So, I wouldn't take offense to that at all.
And the speaking English part isn't too far off. It is a mixer variable between being nervous, not wanting to say something wrong or not being comfortable. I mean, I can understand stand French okay, but I'll be damned if I go to the ED in France and not ask for an English interpreter.
The last part... Details?

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[tiedyeddog]

You're being way too sensitive.

 

[CherryRedDracul]

"They refuse to speak English sometimes even though they know how to."

Well, it's true. Case in point: my mom is pretty fluent in English, but she isn't always too confident speaking it in public and prefers using her native tongue.

I'd have to agree with everyone else here: you're being a little too sensitive. You were exposed to ignorance without ill-intent, not a KKK lynch mob.

 

[seminoma]

Please don't file this under "OB/GYN sucks" -- there are so many other reasons, amirite???

In any case, ignorance is everywhere. It doesn't sound like the intent was malicious. It's not your job to educate people but you could if you were so inclined ("Actually, I'm Korean, not Chinese"). Or just ignore it.

Once as a resident, we ordered takeout, and I told my Indian attending "We got something vegetarian for you!!" She thanked me and informed me that she eats meat. I was mortified.

Dude.. OP is talking about middle easterners, not asians. I swear the ignorance with you white folks is outrageous .

Anyway, OP you're in the same boat as so many who think everyone needs to be politically correct or racially sensitive. Doctors (and nurses) are people too and they are entitled to be racially insensitive. That said, you've come to this conclusion after just a few interactions with your clinical site and that leads me to believe that you're one of those individuals who goes into new situations looking for ways to feel victimized. Get over yourself. You want people to accept you, then you should be accepting of them.

 

[Gambler 101]

Something like this happened to me during my OBGYN rotation. A G2P1 came into the hospital in active labor. She only spoke Arabic and wanted to work with female staff. We couldn't get a female anesthetist in a timely manner and the nursing staff was pretty cruel about it. They kept telling her it was her fault for being inflexible and that she would have to deliver naturally. In fact they spent so much time bullying the patient, that she managed to deliver ON HER OWN with just myself and the nurses in the room. The resident came in to deliver the placenta. Afterwards they kept talking about how she was too lazy to learn English since this was her second baby delivered in the US. I feel bad for people who don't speak English. When they get to L and D, no one bothers to get the translation phone. They consent them for c sections and everything by using their family as translators. It's a shame.

 

[Gambler 101]

First day of this rotation and I feel miserable. It seems nobody in the clinic is nice. It's 1 week of outpatient care for OBGYN, and I am dreading it. We had a Middle Eastern patient, who's English wasn't so good. I am not Middle Eastern, but I have a very similar look + skin tone. The nurse turned to me and said "do you speak her language?" out of the blue, in front of her. I felt embarrassed for the patient and for myself. Then when the patient left, the nurse told me "many of them speak a lot less English than they really know". "They refuse to speak English sometimes even though they know how to."

Later in the day I faced another ignorant comment, this one having to do with my diet - with the preceptor making a presumption about it without asking me, purely because of my race.

The whole experience was awkward, embarrassing, and insulting.

I just came off of SURGERY and wish so badly that I could go back.

Also, they shouldn't count on you to translate. You may not be proficient enough and this can lead to some legal troubles if consent is involved

 

[Pisiform]

lol there are things way worse than this. You shouldn't even be making threads about it.

Me being a brown kid, every attending on every service asks me if I am married, if not, then they ask if I am going to have an arranged marriage? :/

 

[Psai]

lol there are things way worse than this. You shouldn't even be making threads about it.

Me being a brown kid, every attending on every service asks me if I am married, if not, then they ask if I am going to have an arranged marriage? :/

Why is that any of their business?

 

[Pisiform]

Why is that any of their business?

Yea idk. Literally everyone from family med to peds to surgery.

 

[Kaustikos]

Why is that any of their business?

They're trying to hook a brother up

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[Psai]

They're trying to hook a brother up

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Hospitals are filled to the brim with brown people, pretty sure he could hook himself up

 

[Everyones_a_rat]

Well my friend, a**holes are everywhere! Education doesn't increase empathy!

 

[deleted647155]

Well my friend, a**holes are everywhere! Education doesn't increase empathy!

amen to that--guys, remember that as medical students we have a lot more time to be advocate of our patients, especially patients of color and immigrants. don't be afraid to take action, like arranging a translator or offering a blanket...

medical training unfortunately makes you think of people as work and immigrants and people who don't speak english well are seen as even more work.

you just need a little empathy and place yourselves in their shoes--my first time I traveled to a foreign country with a different language and culture, i had a legit panic attack--made me realize how hard America must be for a lot of immigrants.

 

[evilbooyaa]

OP just lookin' for an excuse to make an outrage thread, IMO. Neither of those two scenarios is a big deal.

 

[FistLength]

lol there are things way worse than this. You shouldn't even be making threads about it.

Me being a brown kid, every attending on every service asks me if I am married, if not, then they ask if I am going to have an arranged marriage? :/

I might beat that. My PI starts talking about terrorists and radical islam. He says they are crazy from country xyz. Then asks where my parents are from. I say they come from same country xyz. He goes "Ohh....glad they got out of there!"

Also had a professor comment to my Muslim friend about how he is not like the ISIS people

 

[Jamie561]

Please put a trigger warning in the title of threads like this prior to posting stories of this nature.

whoa there, easy with the microaggression