Things that Have No Place in Medicine: Racism Edition

That TikTok Nurse That Got Fired This Month and more --

We’re going to talk about some recent racist incidents in medicine today and what I’m going to say is important.

The first one I want to talk about is FarmerNurse. FarmerNurse aka Wee Key aka some chick in one of the Carolinas, a Registered Nurse, flashed the “ok” symbol affiliated with white power while fully gowned in PPE on TikTok. She was promptly fired after multiple people reported her, even though she shut down TikTok and other social medias. But there’s a lot to unpack here.

First of all, as an RN, FUCKING GOOD. She SHOULD have been fired and she SHOULD be disciplined AT THE VERY LEAST by her state board of nursing, though I’d prefer a revocation of her license until she can prove 100% she is not a racist. Even if it doesn’t affect her work performance—which is impossible. Racism has no place in the world anymore. It saddens me to read of people’s experiences with people like this. It disgusts me that someone in my profession, is this type of person. I’d love to see anyone engaging in support of white supremacy, racism, and the like barred from practicing again. I’m GLAD it went public because this shit is UNACCEPTABLE and by everything I hold sacred I will report your ass myself whether I’ve known you a day, a decade, my whole life, or never met you.

Which brings me to something I hold dear to my heart. 

I am a firm believer in science and statistics. They do not lie. And what do statistics tell us about medical care delivered to POC and their outcomes? Now, you can look at the statistics yourself. I’m not talking about COVID. I’m talking about the maternal death rate being three times higher. There are others, as well. Again, these statistics are easily available and I won’t run through all of them. What’s important is what these statistics tell us.

I try my very best to be a good person. I believe in equality, Black Lives Matter, abolishing ICE, and support eliminating racism—both the in your face and the sneaky not in your face kind—so when I read an article several years about such a study in disparities in medical care, pertaining to my own specialty, I immediately felt defensive. I’m not a racist! I hate racists and wish I could just walk up to them and punch them right in their faces with no legal repercussions. I would NEVER treat someone different! It’s because certain ethnicities have different risk factors, like increased risks of hypertension and clotting disorders! Not MY unconscious biases! Because we all want to believe we are GREAT and PERFECT and suffer from no wrongdoing ever, even subconsciously. And I lasted maybe ten minutes with my hackles up, hissing like a wet pissed off cat, before I said to myself, get your head out of your ass, statistics don’t lie. Go back and read it again. 

So I did read it again. And I read more studies. I read a lot about implicit bias. I read about a lot about perception. Collaboration. What groups were at higher risk—and why. 

Instead of saying, hey, I’m a good person, I DON’T do this, I went to my job and really really focused on learning. When I had two patients with similar health histories, similar complaints, similar risk factors, was I treating them the same? And when I say the same, I don’t mean things like EKGs and medications. I do mean those, but also was I speaking to them the same way? Was I making assumptions that their complaints were more or less severe because they had higher or lower tolerance? Was I advocating for them all the same way? Was I asking the same questions and LISTENING the same way?

I learned things. I adjusted areas of my practice. I still do that today. Because I am a person in progress. And I can’t become BETTER if I don’t acknowledge I was educated and trained in a world that is full of implicit bias. 

So, not only do we need to get rid of racists like FarmerNurse, we have to ACKNOWLEDGE that there are unconscious biases in our world that affect us, so we can IDENTIFY them, and IMPROVE our practices, which HELPS PEOPLE. 

Which is why we need to speak out, not just against racism that’s obvious, but subtle forms of racism. Why we need to draw attention to these outcomes and studies and talk about them even if it makes us feel uncomfortable and defensive. We need to identify gender biases as well. Address other high risk groups. Because we have to better. “When you know better, do better.”

Now I’ll take a quick sidebar. Dr Susan Moore, an internist, passed away in Indiana from COVID-19 and her story is available on many websites. Dr Moore, a black woman, stated she felt minimized and dismissed by a physician in part or wholly due to her race-she made a video prior to her death saying so. I did discuss this with some other medical people, and here’s my problem with those conversations. Immediately there was the tried and true “we weren’t there.” “Well, we don’t know what really happened because of HIPPA.” Things like that. And I’m like, “look, bottom line is a patient passed away who felt she had a significant delay in treatment and her concerns were dismissed due to her race. So even if EVERYTHING was done right—which hey guys RED FUCKING FLAG she was readmitted within 12 hours and DIED—just that perception is a FUCKING PROBLEM, right?”

It’s our NATURE to defend people in our field, particularly on sensitive issues. 

It’s vitally important we address that defensiveness as fear, and move on so we can address what’s really important-the actual problem. Now I’m not gonna sit here and say that her treatment was subpar or less than it should have been because I don’t know that. BUT I AM going to say that her case should be looked at and reviewed at length, because something went wrong somewhere. Even if the treatment was adequate, (again—not saying it was or wasn’t), her perception was that it was not, she was not being treated for pain, she was told she didn’t seem short of breath, and she wasn’t being listened to. Which is something most of the studies say as well—perception of trust/being taken seriously. 

So how do we fix this? Again, acknowledgment, identification, and implementing changes to our practice. Like talking about it here. DOING BETTER. And not being afraid to face issues like this head on. 

I have been afraid to write about/talk about bias myself. It’s a sensitive topic and I’m just a nurse, not an educator or a masters degree nurse at that, and I don’t want someone to read this and think I’m not great at what I do. I am great. I want to better than great. Which is why I’m talking openly and honestly about it. 

Thanks for listening!

So I’ll sign off with saying I’m always willing to learn, grow, and change.

Part 2 will be about that lady in Oregon who got fired for her anti mask video, STAY TUNED!

— the Midwestern One