So true but its not translating to assertiveness in the appropriate setting where it would save us....Black women in the US, in general, are high context. That means that we like a lot of detail and information, especially from the doctor. I know I can't speak for you, but asking a lot of questions is very common for black woman.
If you are looking for a Doula:
The National Black Doula Association.
DONA www.dona.org to become trained as one or encourage a friend who is possibly pre-med, pre-lactation consultant, a student interested in social work, a student interested in health, a nurse, or just interested in working in ANY capacity of the health/maternal health, infant health field.
No problem.Thank you so much! These posts are gold. I would print them out if I were still in child bearing age. I love the health field because of being forced to be around it and I would LOVE to become a doula. Your timing on this is so odd because I just read the Jamilah Lemieux is going through the training a few days back and I discussed it with my girls. If I can get my health stabilized enough, I'm going for it. Thanks for the org info and always invaluable posts.
When my mom was in the hospital we showed up in force and let it be known.Ya know Serena Williams said they didn’t want to listen to her when she said something wasn’t right. And she has a history of clotting!
Pregnant black women are at higher risk than other women. Even accounting for higher socioeconomic status, education, etc. we are more likely to have issues like preeclampsia.
The US medical system is flawed. There are great support staff, nurses and doctors working in a flawed system. Ask anyone whose worked in a hospital about press Ganey (sp?) or other satisfaction surveys. People become jaded and forget they are taking care of real people.
As someone who has been on both sides of the fence, never leave a loved one at the hospital alone. Most US hospitals are understaffed. You may or may not get a person whose heart in is their job. Be the annoying family member that asks questions. “I know you are busy but. ..” that takes medical staff off their guard and reminds them this a person, not a consumer.
Be persistent. If that doesn’t work, be more persistent. If that doesn’t work take it up a notch accordingly. Tell anyone who will listen. Ask for a patient advocate.
I’m not asking for an extra juice or blanket, I’m asking for healthcare.
When my mom was in the hospital we showed up in force and let it be known.
Black doctors (women) and black healthcare professionals (women) have been extremely problematic, insensitive, and come off highly jaded in my personal experience.I remember this and it broke my heart. It was about a year after I gave birth and totally understand.
Ladies, let me tell you. If your doctor is not advocating for you - leave. I swear this is one of 2 or so jobs that people don’t perform well and we don’t fire them on the spot.
When I pregnant with my son, I changed OB 3 times. The first person was good but she was a nurse practitioner and I was 95% sure I was going to need a c-section. I knew this before I got pregnant but wanted to explore all possibilities. She agreed this was likely the case and that I needed to see an OB who could do that. The NP was lovely and had worked with me through medical another issue. She did my regular woman check up.
Anyway, I ended up with a guy who I could tell didn’t give a $hit. He was older and very matter of fact, which I didn’t like. I need my doctors to talk to me. He had me come in for an appointment. I thought it was a regular prenatal check up but the sonogram tech asked why I was there since this wasn’t a week for a regular check up. The tech went to talk to the doctor who told her what he was looking for. I was LIVID! How dare he not tell me he was concerned about something. I am not a child. I did the sonogram and went and saw someone else. On the recommendation of another mom friend I went to another OB who ended up delivering both my kids.
Let me tell you I was so happy cause things could’ve easily gotten out of hand. For scheduled C-sections you have to go in a few days before and get blood work done. The morning my son was born I checked into the hospital and they asked me my blood type. I told them. They told me that I was wrong. That they had something else on file. I said absolutely not. I know my blood type.
My doctor came in and stopped everything and demanded that they redo the bloodwork and make sure they got the correct information on file before she would do the C-section. She wanted to be 100% sure the information was correct because one of the major things she was worried about was complications from bleeding from fibroids. Basically the same thing that the previous doctor was concerned about but didn’t tell me. I think if I had gone with that guy he would have just accepted the hospital’s information.
To this day almost all my doctors are women and most of them are people of color (black, Indian, Trini). We have to find the people who will fight for us and fire the ones who don’t. This was a hard learned lesson for me. Thankfully not life or death, but years of misdiagnosis.
Black doctors (women) and black healthcare professionals (women) have been extremely problematic, insensitive, and come off highly jaded in my personal experience.
I have had run-ins with bad black doctors--one who just had bad bedside manner--a Sister who I knew from college. She was in med-school and I was in undergrad in that medical school's tutoring program for those pursuing science degrees. She and I spoke all the time and she was just a little standoffish for no reason. The old white guy who treated me in that same practice for the same thing months later was an absolute dream. The second was a young black guy in the ER when my one year old was sick with high fever and low O2 sats. It was an ear infection and he noted breastfeeding as the cause bc she was 1. I could have ripped him a new one with facts and research but I just gave him a death stare. It was 3 AM and my husband touched my hand cause he knew.Yeah I tried to keep black doctors but it’s not always the case. I love my young Indian PCP. I tried two black doctors before that. One was an older woman who had a great bedside manner but her staff was ghetto and always had her running 2 hours late and were always having me run out of my medications to the point where I threatened to leave the practice. Before that I tried a black male doctor who was treating me for an acute case of bronchitis. The first thing he told me was I was going to have to get rid of my pets. He questioned my birth control pills and told me I didn’t need to drink water after I proudly told him I try to drink a gallon daily. Never went back.
I wish you had my OB. She really is sweet. People literally clear the halls for her, she is so respected and revered. I watched her in action and she easily takes charge but is never mean or disrespectful to staff or patients.Black doctors (women) and black healthcare professionals (women) have been extremely problematic, insensitive, and come off highly jaded in my personal experience.
My second and fourth (found her when I left a non-caring, not doing her job butt OB at 32 weeks) OBs were great, but they left their practices to be SAHMs. My primary is black and is a demon..I wish you had my OB. She really is sweet. People literally clear the halls for her, she is so respected and revered. I watched her in action and she easily takes charge but is never mean or disrespectful to staff or patients.
There is a Nigerian OB in town. An older gentleman. People be fighting over him. The white ladies love his bedside manner. They will wait more weeks than they need to be just to be squeezed onto his busy schedule. He let me come right on in when a friend of mine delivered and he was almost like her uncle or grandad. Just as gentle and encouraging her to give breastfeeding a try.
Sadly this is trueYessss! We did shift work when my mom was in the hospital. The nurses are overworked. They have few aides to help patients. Her dr trying to dip in and out. Her nurse forgot her meds. She would had to wait for help going to the bathroom. And this was a “good” hospital.
I wanted to let you know Starting May 5th I'll be working in the hospital. I'll be working with very sick children, infants, women. So you know I will be taking my fight over there!Sadly this is true
I know this is older but the problem is the administration. They choose to run hospitals the way they do. There are plenty of nurses out there but not plenty who are willing to work. I saw a Stat that in the current climate 30 to 40 percent of new grads are leaving the profession all together by year 2! That's sad and troubling.
Nursing should be a wonderful, fulfilling profession and it can be but it also sucks.
Ratios are terrible, conditions are terrible, pay sucks, morale is low, respect is low, bullying is high and Satisfaction surveys are more important than actual patient care.
When I was in undergrad I should of seen the writing on the wall and got OUT. I worked as a cna on a med surg floor. There were two of us cna's and 2 nurses 1 RN and 1LPN for the entire floor. We had 36 patients which mean each nurse had 18 patients! 18! And 1 had 18 and the other cna 18. To make it worse i was only doing 3p to 12p because of school so after 11 my nurse was on her own. This wasn't a nursing home where that's common this was in a hospital. I remember making rounds and finding one patient dead. I got my nurse and yeah that lady had been gone for who knows how long so now my nurse had to stop and deal with the death while trying to manage 17 other patients plus what work the LPN couldn't do.
Most non medical people know hospitals are understaffed but not just how bad it is. 1:4 in the icu ( 2 icu patients should be max some need to be 1,:1) 1:8 on the floor. Patients are sicker than ever with multiple, complex issues.
When ( if) safe Staffing laws are proposed in your area vote for them. It's not perfect but it could help. California has safe Staffing laws, the only state with a real law, but even they are not always perfect. If you followed my story I was in Cali at the time of my HA and the care I received initially was subpar.
I did have to do a lot of telling them what I wanted done when I was finally awake but Thank God my sister and my husband both were around and both medically trained.
My nephew could of been saved had Doctors listened to my sister but he loss his life to lack of care at just 19 years old.
Sigh
I love my job working with babies but even in baby world there are hospitals that do 1:5 and when understaffed 1:6 or 1:7...nobody can give competent care trying to do total care on 7 sick babies.
When does nurse get to eat, break, pee. It can take 1.5 to 2 hours to properly assess, feed monitor 3 how the heck can you do 7? Cutting corners is the only way and dangerous.
It's tough out there and only going to get MUCH worse.
I'm happy you had a better experience!@Jmartjrmd
The hospital where I had my first baby wasn’t understaffed. They had poor performance issues that led to a quality improvement initiative which got the nurses and the rest of the clinical team on track. They also implemented a survey given to patients for each nurse they came into contact with and displayed the chart in the hallway showing nurses where they fall in the metrics. When I had my 3rd baby there, The nursing staff provided quality care, therefore leading to better patient outcomes. At the time the hospital was also in transition of merging with a healthcare organization that could easily replace staff. There is a catch 22 when healthcare facilites and other organizations that serve the black community or an underserved population are managed by a black administration.
Yes! I know you'll fight for what's right! Every aspect of healthcare needs to speak up and change our system.I wanted to let you know Starting May 5th I'll be working in the hospital. I'll be working with very sick children, infants, women. So you know I will be taking my fight over there!