Racism

The first day of orientation the facilitator asked us if we noticed other people's differences: color, size, gender, etc. Many people said "No, I am color blind" and other sayings like that. I said, yes I do notice them but it doesn't make much difference to me. I'm not going to lie and say that I don't think certain things about certain types of people but I don't immediately make judgments. I let the person show themselves to me and then make my determination.

Anyway, the whole purpose of this post is regarding something that the New Graduate Nurse Residency Coordinator said this afternoon. We were having what we call "Tales from the Bedside" and were discussing different things that we have experienced. We started talking about psychosocial issues on the different units and I mentioned the 16 year old who was on her 4th pregnancy. The coordinator immediately asked if the patient was black. I stumbled on my words for a moment and told her that in fact, NO, the patient wasn't black.

I couldn't believe that she just said that out loud to us. I mean, I do work in a large city with a huge minority population, but that was just rude, judgmental, and downright racist.