No money, no honey?

[Ma.Eugenia]

I am having Nursing duties in a poor hospital in the city. Yesterday, I was shocked to see a doctor who was obviously quite harassed calling out to her patients as if she was a sargeant in an army.

Example: she told one of the patients instructions like a machine gun (very, very fast) "You have to take this…take that…go here…talk to this person).

I nudged my friend, “Did you understand what she said? She said so many things so fast.”

My friend shook his head and said, "No. I just heard “Take Amoxicillin…I didn’t get the rest.”

She was sitting on the same table as my Nursing group, so we saw how she was treating her patients and we were all surreptiously looking at each other because we found the way she was treating her patients very odd–but we couldn’t speak out.

We know the patients we deal with are very, very poor. Student nurses are even asked to provide adult diapers for mothers and diapers for babies out of our own pockets.

Some mothers don’t even have clothes for their babies–like one time, I had to give the baby a bath and the mother did not have a change of clothes for her baby. Worst…the mother did not give the baby a bath for 5 straight days because she had no change of clothes for her newborn—they were that poor! It was a good thing, a relative of mine had given me clean baby clothes that her baby did not need anymore which I was able to use. There are so many cases like that in the ward I was assigned to.

This doctor, after talking like that to some of her patients who were all lined up, finally called a 16 year old mother. After admonishing the mother about having a baby at a very early age (in front of us Nurse-students and other patients), the girl, with her head bent, asked if she could go home already.

The doctor said, “No you cannot leave yet without going through family planning. You are just 16 and we don’t want you having children every year. You need to have an IUD inserted before you leave.” (The doctor wasn’t even asking—it was an order!)

Me–I just turned and stared out of the window and bit my tongue. I wanted so badly to speak out. I felt it was unprofessional of me to talk to the doctor considering I was just a student-nurse.

I am not saying that all the doctors in this hospital are like this one. I am just surprised that some of the poor have to deal with a doctor like her.

It makes me ponder at the tendency to give better (sweeter) service to those who can afford. Why do some people let the poor have a “no money, no honey” kind of service just because they can’t afford to pay us?

 

[wjp984]

Although I do think it is true that peope with money will receive better treatement, I wouldn’t place all the blame on the doctor. I could be wrong but I am going to assume that these doctors who deal with the poor and clinics are severely overworked and probably underpaid. The doctors are probably sleep deprived and just put in very stressful situations where it would be understandable to act a little les kindly and more stressed at times. I am not saying this is good but simply understanding that there might be more to it other than the docotor is just mean or doesn’t care about the poor. What if it were this scenario. The doctor had a choice. She could either help a few poor people out giving them great care and service just like any person with money would receive while leaving many others without any care. Or, the doctor could try her best to stress herself out providing mediocre care to as many people as humanly possible.

 

[leonie]

For two of my babies, we went to a family clinic at our local Catholic hospital that charged as a percentage of income.

We didn’t have maternity coverage.

I had a doctor yelling at me once like that. My mom was an labor and delivery nurse at the hospital. She gave the doctor in question a dressing down. He called me and apologized. He said he didn’t realize I wasn’t one of their “typical” patients.

I can see that you felt powerless to protect the dignity of the patients.

It’s true that the poor sometimes make lousy patients–they can be so distrustful of authority (hmmmm, I wonder why?).

Mother Teresa always respected the dignity of the poor. I think you have a Mother Teresa heart. Don’t lose it!!!

 

[Mintaka]

I’m not much of a people person myself, but…

Sometimes you can improve situations like this by being pleasant and comforting yourself, or by getting someone to laugh or smile. If the impatient doctor never gets all the way stressed out, if he/she gets little breaks or treats, maybe the patients will be treated better as a result.

Also, sometimes you can get people to stop yelling in subtle ways, or even in not so subtle ways. That girl – somebody could have said to the doctor in a worried way, “Should we be talking to minors like that?” Heck, if necessary you can always bring up the fear of getting sued. Sometimes when decency fails, fear of liability gets through.

But I appreciate that the nature of your position makes this sort of thing difficult. Still, you don’t have to stick your neck out to bring in brownies or smile, and it might even help your career to be seen as someone dependable and cheerful.

 

[Ma.Eugenia]

Hello everyone!

I’d like to thank you for answering my thread.

To wjp984, regarding what you said:

…I wouldn’t place all the blame on the doctor. I could be wrong but I am going to assume that these doctors who deal with the poor and clinics are severely overworked and probably underpaid. The doctors are probably sleep deprived and just put in very stressful situations where it would be understandable to act a little les kindly and more stressed at times…

I think you are right that sometimes hospital work can be a bit stressful. I just finished my duty in the delivery room —believe me, it was hard to smile when one is tired and hungry (my duty was from 2pm the day before up to 6am the following day!)—so, yes, I can relate to what you said because it can happen to student nurses too.

During my duty in the delivery room recently – one pregnant mother had a hard time giving birth. As a student nurse in training, it was so hard to separate my feelings with what was going on. At one time, I feared that the baby wasn’t going to make it because of the prolonged labor—I kept on praying and praying the whole time for God to help the woman. When the baby was born limp and had to be rushed out of the room to be revived—I continued to pray—but I knew God would not put my prayers to waste. Later, when inquired about the baby, I was very happy to know the baby survived.

I can imagine that it is far more stressful for the doctors who work there on a regular basis.

However, part of the reason I felt bad about the incident with the doctor and her 16 year old patient is the way the doctor told her patient that she had to have an IUD inserted before she would sign the girl’s release papers—as if the girl had no choice about it. I really don’t agree that the girl had no choice.

To leonie, regarding what you said here:

I had a doctor yelling at me once like that. My mom was an labor and delivery nurse at the hospital. She gave the doctor in question a dressing down. He called me and apologized. He said he didn’t realize I wasn’t one of their “typical” patients.

Gee… that’s exactly how it was it was during my delivery room duty. I thought that it was because I was in a government hospital that medical personnel in the delivery room were acting that way to their poor patients. Honestly, I thought, that they couldn’t possibly do that in a private hospital.

Its sad that your experience happened in a Catholic hospital.
I thought that when I finished with school that I would apply to work in a Catholic hospital because I thought Catholic values would be important in such places. Anyway…I am still hoping that that I would end up working in such a place someday.

I am glad that you had your mom in that hospital to defend your right to respectful medical treatment.

To **Mintaka **, regarding what you said here:

Sometimes you can improve situations like this by being pleasant and comforting yourself, or by getting someone to laugh or smile.

Thanks for the suggestion. I think smiling is something I do pretty well. In my school year book from my previous school in dentistry, someone had described me as having a molar to molar smile, I guess because of I smiled a lot.

Thanks for reminding me of the importance of smiling, as it does help lighten the mood… I will make the effort to smile more often to everyone.