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Adelekan Adeola Tutorial 17

Nursing is a particularly important field in healthcare, that makes up over half of the healthcare

force. From helping the patients to assisting the doctors and working hand in hand with other

healthcare technicians, I would say nurses are the cornerstone of healthcare that brings the

balance the workforce needs. Despite their hard work and dedication nurses are not given enough

credit and are rewarded with prejudice. The negative response to nurses outweighs the positives

because of the countless discrimination the nurse's experience from other healthcare providers

and patients.

Gender discrimination and inequality is a severe problem most people encounter, where your

gender defines your capabilities and nothing else seems to matter. It is known to be very rampant

in the business world, but surprisingly common in our everyday lives. In the world of healthcare,

the priority of every healthcare provider is the health of each patient, but gender discrimination

gets in the way of building a healthy working environment. The contrast between nursing and

medicine would be gender roles. Where nursing is considered a woman’s job only, and being a

doctor is a man’s job. This very rampant problem in the workforce vastly affects the power

relations between a doctor and a nurse. Being a nurse is perceived as a dull temporary profession

for unmarried women before they start their families and not a career as it is often regarded as for

men. It is often surprising to people when men are nurses, because while men are considered
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sensible, rational, and dominant, women are stereotyped as weak, emotional, caring, and

subservient.

Unfortunately, sexual stereotyping and segregation extends to other occupations that are

regarded as ‘women or men’s’ jobs, nursing has been identified as the butt of the preposterous

typecast. In the healthcare field, the determinant of the relationships between doctors and nurses

has always been gender. It has always been a significant issue that has not gotten enough

attention and analysis.

The victimization of nurses in the healthcare field does not only encompass gender segregation,

but it also extends to the disregard for nurses in the LGBTQ community. Discrimination, neglect,

and lack of respect towards the LGBTQ community has been consistently overlooked all around

the world but especially in the healthcare field. Many nurses and even patients have been

publicly homophobic, biphobic, and transphobic towards the nurses in the LGBTQ community.

Many nurses consider their lesbian coworkers as abnormal and would refuse to work with them.

These acts of unfairness these nurses must go through, without fail is considered harassment, but

the organizations in charge do not enforce the right consequences for these hateful actions

thereby causing an increase of maltreatment towards these nurses.

In addition to the intolerance of the LGBTQ community in the healthcare world, fear has been

instilled in the minds of people who tried to research the obvious and unfortunate problem
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surrounding the workforce. Furthermore, lack of awareness and tie to religion has prolonged the

concerning issue of heteronormativity, whereby healthcare providers initially assume every

patient and worker as heterosexual without any enquiry.

While a lot of nurses belong to an organization put in place to support them, there is a great deal

of limitations for nurses in the LGBTQ community because there is an insubstantial number of

organizations, task forces and clubs for nurses in the community. Topics about sexual orientation

and gender identity have purposely been avoided talking about by nursing organizations and it is

not regarded as human right, so they are not incorporated in their human rights declaration of

these so-called patrons.

While nurses are working their hardest to support their patients physically and mentally, the

physical and mental health of these nurses has particularly been overlooked. Nurses are known to

be the profession with the lowest rate of a healthy mental state, it is considered a mentally

draining job. The criticism, discrimination, lack of respect and hate towards nurses from patients

and other healthcare providers does not aid their mental health, thereby worsening it. Depression,

insomnia, PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder), and other mental illnesses have been

accounted for by so many nurses from the stress gotten by working overtime, with shortened

staff and inadequate equipment.

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The COVID 19 virus era put a strain on the health care workforce and most especially on nurses'

health, as they were the most exposed to illness. The pandemic also caused a ruckus in many

hospitals all over the world and every hospital was busy, treating many patients who had fallen

ill. Many nurses all over the world reported increase in the severity of their mental illness during

and after the pandemic. In addition to the mental health issues caused by the pandemic, it has

also been recorded that nurses have contracted ailments from patients more than any other health

care providers. Despite their efforts and hard work, nurses have been underpaid for the stress

they go through while they take care of the patients and assist all other healthcare providers

around them. Their mental health has been underplayed because nurses do not receive enough

time to take care of themselves. The response to the requested time off has been noted to be

terribly slow and even in between work breaks can be overlooked if a superior determines that

the help needed to be rendered is more important. Mental health is like physical health, everyone

has it, it has always and will always be important, so it should never be overlooked for anyone,

nurses included.

Racism, towards people of color is a deeply entrenched problem in our society and unfortunately

in the health taskforce. Prejudice again black nurses, for being black is a profound obstacle for

nurses in the healthcare world, causing nurses to always be guarded with working with patients

and other healthcare providers. The increase in racialized comments and actions towards nurses
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while they work has caused the nurses to be fearful, as it poses a threat to their well-being.

Racism also causes nurses to not be recognized for their hard work, but just for being black

nurses and constantly made fun for their physical appearance and qualities. Racism has become a

topic that people are afraid to speak about because it can be considered a threat and people do not

want the consequences. Nurses have been afraid to speak about the threats and racialized actions

against them because of the fear of backlash from their racist superiors. It especially does not

help that the superiors are not people of color, this is because people of color have next to no

chance of climbing the professional ladder just because of their race. Nurses should be

commended for their tolerance and self-respect because they remain professional and treat their

patients with care despite the discrimination against them. An obscene number of nurses have

reported cases of being a victim to racist patients, colleagues, and superiors. Nurses have

reported instances where they took actions against racialized behaviors, but the results were

unsatisfactory.

Racism as an especially important social determinant of health, needs to be completely

eradicated but this looks next to impossible because it is like a canker worm that has eaten deep

into the fabric of our society. It has also been recorded that the mental health of nurses has

deteriorated from the racism they have experienced at their various workplaces. It is extremely

unfair for nurses to have to continuously worry about racism among other things while working
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under duress. Contrary to the opinion put in the media, the healthcare force has been

unsuccessful in eradicating racism against healthcare providers most especially nurses.

Immigrant nurses in America are also people seen as inferior, just because they are immigrants.

While the nurses are seen as a lower class, these nurses do not see their profession as a way of

only earning money but also a way of helping people. The Philippine and Indian nurses that

immigrated to America saw it as a way of helping people, and not only as a source of income.

They accounted for coming just because they were needed. They are described as good

Samaritans, and their kindness was tied to them being good Christians, just as teamwork and

heteronormativity is tied to being good Christians.

Nursing as I see it is a profession for strong people. Only a strong person can withstand what

nurses withstand wholeheartedly. So, stereotyping nursing as feminine and a woman's job is

belittling the profession and people. The issue of gender stereotyping needs to be fought against,

when every person realizes that women and people in the LGBTQ community are no lesser than

men, and neither are they outcasts. Social constructions rule today’s world, what people agree

with now is always considered the norm and people do not come to realize that the trend in the

present becomes the past when it is the future. As a kinesiology student, I would look past every

social construct and continue to raise awareness against society deciding the normal way of life.
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Mental health is especially important and living life as nurse, I would not take my mental health

for granted. I would take lesser shifts, go on vacations to de-stress, and I would regularly see a

therapist, to keep track of my mental health and understand it better. I would continually raise

awareness about the mental state of all professionals, especially nurses, and I would always

assure myself and other nurses around the world that we are needed, and we matter.

Racism should never be condoned, and every person should continually wage war against it

despite the profession we are in. I strongly believe that the consequences for racism should be

worse than the current one. Making people feel inferior for a reason that is not tangible is like

fighting against something that is not real. I advocate that people should be given equal

opportunities despite race and credit should be given just for a person's capability.

I have considered the struggles, trials, and tribulations that nurses must go through and often I

am discouraged about the profession. I often ask myself why I would help people who do not

respect me or my hard work. Although nurses are commended in some places and on various

media, I would not say the positive response to their hard work outweighs the negative response.

Every person should receive equal respect for their hard work. No one is perfect and nurses are

not the exception, but they work tirelessly for other people so they should be commended. Social

construction is a real problem every person must overcome. The way society deems as

acceptable does not have to be your way.

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Abdallah, Y. N., Abin, V., Deepika, C. K., Gigini, G., Rajni, C. (2021)

Decline in mental health of nurses across the globe during COVID- 19: A systematic review and

meta-analysis.

Journal of global health, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8053406/

Porter, S. (1992), Women in a women’s job: the gendered experience of nurses. Sociology of

Health & illness, 14: 510-527. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/1467-

9566.ep10493131

Shanifa, N. (2022), Anti-Black racism ‘deeply entrenched’ in nursing, say news report calling for

immediate action. CBC News. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/black-nurses-racism-

ontario-1.6343782

Eliason, M.J., DeJoseph, J., Dibble, S., Deevey, S., & Chinn, P. (2011). Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual,

Transgender, and Queer/Questioning Nurses’ Experiences in the Workplace.

Journal of Professional Nursing, 27(4), 237-244. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.profnurs.2011.03.003

Cherry, S. (2022). Importing care, faithful service: Filipino and Indian American nurses at a

veteran’s hospital. Rutgers University Press.

Agnew, V. (2007)
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Interrogating race and racism. University of Toronto Press.

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