This week at the Methodist hospital I was placed on the acute one floor. Prior to today I had only heard good things about this floor. Once on the floor, I immediately started noticing the type of patients who we are learning about in class. Such as patients with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder- those who are in a manic state, etc. However, the one patient who I learned the most from was a patient who had psychosis and was very verbal and racists. This patient was extremely racist and rude to anyone who was not Caucasian that was trying to care for or talk to him. I overheard the patient speaking very rudely to his nurse and the nurse got extremely frustrated and angry. The nurse started making verbal threats to this patient about how he needed to calm down or that he would restrain him in a very angry tone. This made the patient react even more rudely towards those around him including myself. Today, I demonstrated professionalism when I did not let this patient’s rude comments that he was stating to everyone around him, including myself, personally affect me.
Although this situation made me feel uncomfortable and quite disappointed in the fact that there are people in the world who act this way towards others because of their race, I simply ignored the patient’s rude comments and walked away when appropriate. We have learned in class that we will encounter patients who may not treat us with respect due to their condition, beliefs, or stress they may be experiencing. However, we have been taught that although patients may not be respectful towards you that you must not let that impact the care nor respect that you provide for that patient. Unless a nurse feels unsafe, they must just focus on the care of the patient and not let their rudeness affect the care they provide. It was eye-opening to see this interaction take place, but I do believe that the patient’s nurse could have handled the situation more professionally. I believe I demonstrated professionalism by not letting the patient’s words affect me. I believe that the patient’s nurse let things get too personal in the sense that he took what the patient was saying offensively and started treating him unprofessionally. It’s never ok to make verbal threats to the patient about how you can restrain them if they don’t cooperate, so hearing this from the nurse was alerting. Although the nurse made these verbal threats, the nurse did manage to approach his charge nurse with the issue and switched patients with another nurse. I was proud of myself for realizing that this situation was no reason to begin acting unprofessionally just because other staff was doing so. I think it’s important that we learn about how situations like these may occur in class so that when they occur in person we know how to properly handle them. Although the nurse did right in informing his charge nurse about the issue he could have handled the situation more appropriately sooner than he did. This experience challenged my assumptions because I didn’t actually think I would ever see a nurse verbally threaten a patient. I had heard in class about how nurses, especially in mental health facilities, get frustrated with patients who are harder to take care of due to their condition, but never though that I’d see a nurse respond to this frustration in this way.
This event has impacted me by allowing me to see how not all nurses may act professionally and that it’s important to recognize this and inform the charge nurse or one’s instructor if no on in the chain of command has been alerted to this issue. In this case, the nurse did inform the charge nurse, so someone above him in the chain of command was informed of the issue and threats. However, I think that the only reason the nurse mentioned this to his charge nurse is because I witnessed the threats occurring. This makes me wonder how many nurses have threatened patients privately with no one else to witness or report the incidence. This event has taught me that not all patients will be respectful or easy to care for but that one should always remember to be professional and their role as a nurse.
I will use this knowledge gained in the future as a reminder to myself that I may encounter difficult, or disrespectful patients, but that I need to act professional and not let this impact the care I must provide and that the patient deserves. When circumstances like this occur again, I will definitely speak up if I notice that the nurse himself doesn’t do so, so that I can make sure that situations like these are taken into consideration by someone of authority. This experience will definitely alter my future nursing career by reminding me of the importance of not letting patient interactions affect my role as a health care professional.