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Do It Myself Blog - Glenda Watson Hyatt » My Response to Nurse Ratchet: "Both my husband and I have cerebral palsy and use power wheelchairs for mobility. Yet, we live independently, without any attendant care. We have done a fair bit of traveling without any companions. We work well together as a team, as a married couple, to problem solve and overcome any obstacles.
Saturday afternoon, once his nurse had supervised his safe transfer into his power chair, we mentioned to her that we were going down to the cafeteria for a drink and for a change of scenery. She flipped! She said my husband, who turned 50 today, couldn’t leave the floor without a relative. My husband explained that I am his wife. The nurse told him to wait for his parents, who are elderly. She continued that we would have to take the elevator and that, if something happened, I was “incapable”."
Wednesday, September 02, 2009
Give 'em hell Glenda!
Jodie and I were struck by this incident, as we could see this happening to us:
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3 comments:
A personal reflection on this incident:
The nurse was engaging in what is basically "profiling," which, as far as I can tell, is a thin veil for outright prejudice, prejudice that has borne the fruit of discrimination. Prejudice is seeing someone as a representative of a particularly defined group of people as if everyone in that group had the same characteristics, and discrimination is relating to people based on that prejudice.
Would that we lived in a world where we could actually have relationships with other people we meet during the day! That nurse treated Glenda and her husband as something other than human beings.
Though prejudice played a large role there, it is probably also true that there are pressures on the nurse from the culture of the hospital as well as its written policies and procedures. This does not excuse her behavior, but it could be that the blame for this kind of inhumane incident lies not with the brokenness of one person, but also with the twisted systems we have concocted to try to add order to our society. Once we have written things down in manuals and held training sessions and sat through meetings, a reality larger than ourselves winds up controlling most of how we treat others. People in cubicles with computers or people seated around meeting tables can write all they want about what we should do or how we should make decisions, but in the end, we all have responsibility for our own actions, and we all have to live with their consequences.
It takes conscious and continuous effort to treat each person as an individual, and to approach them as simply another human being, allowing them to be who they are. I would like to think that I treat all people with honor, trust, and with respect, but I am sure I do not. I hope I never do anything as blatant as this nurse did, but I am not sure I am not capable of it.
I am not trying to justify her behavior by any means. I am simply trying to take a step back and understand why it happened as best I can, so I can use that understanding to help me live my life as honorably as I can, not because I am better than her, but because I am learning to see the world and the people in it in ways that lead me to act differently.
We need to hear of this kind of incident when it happens, at least I do. I need to know how cruel the world is to some people, to real people. I need to own that I have some of that in me. I need to be vigilant in approaching each person, regardless of how others might "profile" them, as a unique and beautiful person. I need to not "fall asleep at the wheel," so that when I am not paying attention, I do the same kind of thing to someone else.
Thanks Troy!
This morning I sent the letter to the unit manager and the patient care quality officer. The unit manager responded, in part, with, "I want to assure you that I will be following up with an investigation of this incident. I will reply to you by email as soon as that investigation is completed." We'll see what happens!
Thanks Troy!
This morning I sent the letter to the unit manager and the patient care quality officer. The unit manager responded, in part, with "I want to assure you that I will be following up with an investigation of this incident. I will reply to you by email as soon as that investigation is completed." We'll see what happens.
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