Mocking Patients' Race and Class in Animated Videos
Sunday, July 18, 2010 at 8:16PM
By Jill—Unnecesarean
A series of YouTube videos paints a picture of the beliefs and frustrations that a handful of labor and delivery nurses harbor about patients.
While I appreciate the parody, the funny animated format, the need to vent about work and the humor of hearing an epidural called and “epidermal” and amniotic fluid referred to as “atomic fluid”, I’m discouraged by how unapologetically racist and classist these examples are.
The first two videos take on the harmful stereotype of the poor black woman who has no control over her reproduction, doesn’t know who fathered her baby, is uneducated, uses drugs and has a chaotic home life.
Here is a similar class stereotype with a visibly white character used. One underlying theme of all of the videos is that these patients are annoying because they don’t understand that they’re not actually in labor.
Another class assessment shows white women who are intended to appear opulent with champagne and pearls. These women are portrayed as annoying because they have a birth plan and want a natural birth. The second video shows a nurse giving well-timed but patronizing responses to a patient’s laundry list of wants. The creator of the video apparently believes:
- that patients with birth plans are so annoying that the staff wants to punish them with a cesarean.
- that birth plans will fail because women don’t know that they actually want pharmaceutical pain relief.
- that if you walk in with a birth plan, it’s your fault if your baby ends up in the NICU.
What would a “good” patient look like? Thoughts?
Reader Comments (27)
Ugh. This is unfortunately common. There are MANY good L&D nurses out there but there are also many who believe this classist, racist crap.
And hey, one positive - at least the "natural birth" gals for once aren't patchouli-smelling hippie girls with bandannas in their hair and an unshaven lanky permaculture-teaching boyfriend with a doula any more! Woot! Natural birth is becoming glamorous!
Unfortunately, it's the NURSES who call it an epidermal and don't seem to know what the heck they're talking about. Sheesh.
That first video was one of the most racist things I have ever seen. The second one was pretty despicable and classist, too. I can't bring myself to watch any more of them.
Patients who ask a lot of questions, or who come to the hospital before they are in labor are looking for emotional support.
Nurses are only prepared to deal with hospital routine, which treats patients as a a revenue stream. Somehow, nurses have deluded themselves into believing that testing and surgery are beneficial to patient health. The emotional comfort is expected to come from faithfully following directions and fitting into that routine.
What does a 'good' patient look like? One who follows the staff instrutcions without question and doesn't ask questions? One who doesn't have high expectations fo their birth? LOL.
I am a L&D RN, a doula, and a homebirthing mom. To me these are hilarious, but maybe that is just a bit of macabre humor from being a nurse at the county hospital! The last 2 videos are both about women coming to the hospital too soon. The longer that women stay home, the better that their labor goes. That should be a no brainer for the readers of this blog. The first few are about drug seeking behavior and the frustrations that a nurse has dealing with it. I have actually been the nurse for patients like the ones in the first videos. A lot. To take care of a patient who comes in at 30+ weeks drunk and high with no prenatal care.... Yeah, well it happens. One of the biggest frustrations that I experience is women who have no desire to learn anything about their pregnancy. These videos highlight that common nursing frustration and make light of it.
Look people, in the medical profession we see a lot of crap. This is meant to be funny and a way to relieve some of the stress. It's for us, not for the consumer.
The readers of this blog are informed, are proactive in their care, and make great decisions for themselves and their babies. Most women aren't any of those things which is extremely frustrating. These videos play on that frustration. I would love it if every mom to be cared about her birth and her pregnancy, but in reality it just hasn't happened yet in this society.
There was some funny stuff in there (the computer generated voices make everything sound funny) but I couldn't get past the bigotry.
I was a lot more pro-birth plan before I was a labor nurse. I still think moms should be prepared for birth and do as they wish, but at the same time when something goes wrong and the plan needs to deviate from the birth plan, I always get sad for moms who feel like failures. Nobody is a failure for changing their mind about pain control options. They're not a failure for needing an IV for treatment of pre-eclampsia. Women are powerful amazing creatures.
Mostly I've figured out that I'm just for people keeping open minds. That's wound up making me have a super simple birth plan for my baby- I want a healthy baby. I want a natural birth but if something goes wrong, I want whatever necessary done to keep my baby healthy. Ultimately the choices are mine to make and I'm giving myself freedom ahead of time to be completely open to change.
I would never ever say that anyone deserved a c-section or a sick baby. Ever. I just know that sometimes people (not even just labor patients but all patients) do their own thing and don't go along with what's suggested. Sometimes it goes fine and sometimes it's awful. That's absolutely not to say that anyone deserves to have things go wrong though. I would never say that.
I'm a nurse at a VERY diverse hospital. I work there because I love the diversity of both my patients and my staff. I've seen the above videos and think they're funny. I don't see them as racist only because I've had such similar experiences from ALL races and moms of every age. We do our very very best to educate. Some people just don't get it or don't listen. It makes me think of a time where I had a patient completely furious with the staff of my hospital because we refused to induce her at 24 weeks because she was "sick of being pregnant". No amount of teaching was getting through.
I provide the exact same TLC to a mom coming in from jail as I do from a mom with a swanky career. Ultimately I went into nursing to be a patient advocate. I just think some people write a birth plan and get so focused on it that they aren't able to cope if the plan has to change.
I think nurses have a lot of dark senses of humor. It's a way to cope. We have a weird job. Regular people aren't put in positions we are. There is much much joy in all parts of nursing but there is also a level of tragedy that I don't think most people would want to deal with. Hold a beautiful dead 37 week baby in your arms sometime and attempt to ignore your complete heartbreak so you can take care of the mother. Comfort a family when they find out their 22 year old son is braindead. Hold back the tears for 5 hours after a traumatic patient death so you can care for your other 5 patients. You put yourself, your feelings, and your sanity last and you give it all to those you're caring for. Deal with things like that on a regular basis for years and see if you too wind up with an off sense of humor. Sometimes all you can do is laugh off some of the frustrations of the job.
I have a dark sense of humor, too, but, again, the first two in particular are undeniably racist. How are they not?
Nothing like stereotypes--on both sides. That last one got my blood pressure up! I can't believe I just wasted six minutes of my time listening to that crap.
Don't be disgusted at or frustrated with women who have had little or no prenatal care; be disgusted at and frustrated with the shameful American health care system that values profit over providing care for all people.
I'm related to several nurses, and I have heard their frustrations with moms who don't care, patients who expect them to be maids, etc. But I hear a LOT more frustration with doctors who treat them with disrespect and hospitals that don't honor their schedules and work them into the ground. Why aren't there some jokes aimed at that big, juicy target?
So what I'm saying? Is that it's bad form to use humor on those more vulnerable than you, and even when they're obnoxious and addicted, patients are always going to fall into that category. They're in pain, they're scared, maybe they're injured. They may be massive jerks, as well, but they're still worse off than the presumably able-bodied nurses attending them.
If these animations were about the things that actually victimize nurses, like the system, or sexism, or what have you, they'd be a lot funnier and a lot less icky.
The videos and this from Dairy Queen:
I find disturbing. I get that being a L&D Nurse is difficult and frustrating. I get that. I really do. But what I don't get is how making "light" of the situation helps.
Also, if this is supposed to be "for us, not for the consumer"...don't post it on YouTube.
I have been thinking about this since yesterday, and I have come to the conclusion that just because nurses need to relieve stress, and their jobs are difficult, it doesn't give them a right to make fun of others.
I'm one of Jehovah's Witnesses, and I'm sure that most of you disagree with some of my beliefs, but I think that I can relate to what some nurses feel. I volunteer my time to go and help people understand the Bible, which to me is a matter of life and death. I don't push religion on people, but I do think that learning what the Bible has to say can save lives, and I am there to help if someone wants the help. Most of the time people are misinformed, uninterested, or just too busy to listen to me. It's great when I can have a really great conversation or Bible study with someone, though, and that makes up for the bad ones. Sometimes I devote a lot of time and energy into a relationship with a person that goes sour, and I feel like that person has no idea how devastated it makes me feel, and many other Witnesses go through the same highs and lows.
However, I would never think of making fun of the people that we try to help- I think instead we usually end up making fun of ourselves- there is plenty of opportunity for humor there before resorting to the generally misinformed public that we try to serve.
Did Dr Amy make those?
Being the compassionate, caring, empathetic nurse becomes really hard 24/7. Nursing is one of the worse jobs as far as burn out goes, burn out of the spirit, burn out of the body (as I sit here nursing a broken ankle), and burn out of compassion. It is really hard to invest so much of your emotions into someone who doesn't care. Unfortunately, this is the tune that I have to sing much of the time at my work. Occasionally, I help take care of a really nice family, take part in a nice birth, but for the most part- it doesn't happen. For the most part, the stuff that I see is really sad. Prisoners coming in having a baby that they won't get to keep. The cycle of interventions leading to the OR and poor Apgars. Women who test positive for meth, for cocaine, with a blood of 0.34 (seriously) while 30? weeks pregnant, dead babies, miscarriages, really sick women (TB, terrible PIH, seizures, diabetes), terrible tears, unnecessarians, doctors who belittle and don't listen, strapping women down every which way, starving women..... Can you see that the list really goes on and on? I love it when I am able to help, but for the most part I feel like I am just witnessing atrocities.
Being a nurse is like investing of yourself in strangers. In order to be a good nurse, there is a fine line between being invested and just clocking in. All of these videos (yes even the ones that are racist) are examples of nurses who are trying to teach their patients, who are invested in their patients outcomes, who are trying to help. It really sucks that it seems so difficult for the people here to see that. I disagree with some of what the nurses in these videos may say, for example the "Your going to end up with a c/s" lady, but I can look at them objectively and realize that they (in their own uninformed way) are trying to help. Unfortunately, as illustrated in these videos most patients that I take care of don't listen and don't learn.
I think that making vidoes about the doctors is a great idea, but I'm not sure how to make those funny. The dozen or so stories that pop to the front of my mind are really just scary, not so funny.
Yes, it is extremely difficult as a provider to stay constantly compassionate and caring to patients, especially those who seem to be taking no responsibility for their own outcomes. Burn out is a constant risk when you work in a field as personal as health care, and as providers we have to guard against it all the time.
But I tell my kids this all the time: the only person whose behavior you can control is your own. Yes, other people do stupid, mean, bad things and it can be painful, but you can only control your own response. Compassion and care don't mean that you have to keep giving and giving and getting stomped on. Sometimes, the best part of compassion is to say "no, I'm not refilling your pain medicine because you are showing signs of addiction and this medicine is bad for your baby." Sometimes, you explain things as best as you can, knowing the patient isn't listening at all - but hoping that your calm demeanor and non-judgemental tone are remembered way down the line so that the patient who isn't ready for any help today feels like they can reach for that help when they are ready. Sometimes, it's just staying calm in the face of abuse from an angry patient and walking away. Sometimes it's explaining the painfully obvious for the 400th time in your career. Sometimes it's making what connection you can with a patient and gaining their trust so you can help them let go of their rigid demands and be realistic.
I don't see how belittling and ridiculing someone's sad situation is helpful - either to the patient, or to the provider who is feeling so frustrated. Most of the horrible situations we deal with aren't, after all, directed at us as providers, nor do we have any long term consequences from them. It's terribly sad to see self-destructive behavior, ignorance about basic body functions, folks who seem locked in cycles of despair - but IT ISN"T ABOUT YOU. Thankfully, we can walk away at the end of the day and we don't have to deal with what that frustrated, or angry, or demanding, or ignorant person has to deal with.
Don't get me wrong - that doesn't make the other person's behavior okay, but keeping some sort of perspective helps you not feel so personally violated when taking care of difficult patients. Making generalizations and making fun may help blow off steam, but I can see why it's so painful for folks to see, and certainly does nothing to encourage better behavior from those we are trying to serve, only seems to drive a bigger wedge between populations who already feel powerless and the healthcare providers they seek out.
Well Jill, I see a good mid Summer contest in the works, I went to the website and started my own movie, a short film noir detailing my interactions with the first L&D nurse I had from my April birth, I was all jazzed up to impart what I was told which was: "I knew too much." This was because I discerned I was unexpectedly in labor THREE WEEKS before my due date, by process of elimination and an assessment of my own symptoms up to, and including taking my own temperature to rule out an infection. WOW a thermometer so frickin knowledgeable.
Anyway- rather than go down this dark road of writing a giant diatribe about how wrong these are I'll agree with the previous posters:
they are classist and disgustingly racist
they are private thoughts that should probably not see the light of you tube no matter how well intentioned the "humorist" may be
I understand the heartbreaking nature of nursing but think there is nothing funny about : "he 15, he a crackhead, his pipe burned up my medicaid paper." Underlying this is the the disparity of access to good health care for most Americans especially people from marginalized groups.
I understand job related burnout as I have been a victim of it myself- but there is a way to "turn that off" without needing to lock and load on your clients, patients etc.
you know, I am a midwife, and that is different to an L&D nurse only in philosophy. I deal with the same people, over educated, undereducated, unwilling to listen to advice at both ends of the spectrum etc ad infinitum. if I ever see the day where I find that S**t funny, I will be forthwith quiting. Seriously, you can talk burnout and black humour all you like, and trust me, I know about those... but to me these video's are an example of handling things like that in the worst possible way.
The stories about doctors may be too scary for these videos to a nurse, but these videos are too scary for me as a patient.