When working in a Worcester County hospital, one can expect to have various encounters with the Mexican population. When interviewing nurses on the Cardiovascular Intensive Care Unit at UMASS Memorial Medical Center, a common theme with many of the nurses was that they could not specifically recall a time when they took care of a Mexican patient. This says a lot about the Mexican culture and how they do not usually accept medical help readily. The fact that this unit is a specialized intensive care unit adds to the decreased Mexican population admitted to the floor.
When someone from Mexico does get sick enough to need to be admitted to the hospital, they have many people there with them. These people are very family oriented and consider everyone even slightly related to them to be their
...“immediate family”. This poses some difficulty and can be the cause of bias against Mexican people, especially in the intensive care unit. This unit is a place where patients are critically ill and can be attached to at least a dozen different pumps and machines. Due to the high stress environment, some nurses find it is less distracting to work without familial involvement; tending to the critical patient as opposed to the whole family unit. Another aspect of the Mexican culture of being in the hospital that could cause tension with the nurse is how loud the family tends to be. The Mexican culture is passionate, and they are most likely scared about the wellbeing of their loved one. Some nurses find this level of noise a distraction and might ask the family to leave, but there needs to b
a certain level cultural awareness involved so the patient and family can heal in a way that best suits them.
Some of the interventions suggested by the interviewed nurses seemed very helpful. When treating Mexican patients, one must make sure if the patient is acutely ill and the nurse must be in there all the time that the family understands the policy of two visitors at a time in the intensive care unit. The nurse needs to be compassionate and empathetic when explaining this policy, stating that family members are more than welcome to take turns visiting with the patient, but in order for the nurse to take the best care of the patient, the family must only visit two people at a time. This is very hard for a Mexican family to understand because they are so family-oriented, but they respond very well to empathy. Another intervention commonly used is keeping a religious item nearby such as a bible or item of their religion. If the patient is critically ill, one might find that the family has pinned a cross to the patient’s clothing or to the pillow by their head. As the nurse, it is good practice to keep these objects visible in a presentable manner. This helps to establish a good rapport with both the family and the patient; it shows that the nurse is empathetic and cares about the patient’s religious beliefs. Another aspect the nurse may encounter is patient dissatisfaction with bland hospital food. Unless medically contraindicated, family members may bring in cultural flavorful foods with no added salt. As previously discussed, language can impact the nurse patient relationship. Often times
a family member is able to translate for basic communication needs such as bathing and food preferences. Medical translators are required for more serious conversations such as treatment plans, diagnoses, and medication management. At UMASS there are in-house translators available as well as translator phones that can be used to relay information.
During the interview, the nurse stated that bias is present in the healthcare setting to her knowledge. She stated that nurses she works with rarely showcase their personal bias to their patients, even if one exists. In her experience, nurses discuss their bias amongst each other and never allow it to interfere with their obligation to the patient. It has been this nurse’s personal observation that certain surgeons appear to give better care to the white population. Minorities of any ethnic background, not just Mexican, appear to wait longer for care. She states that “when surgeons are faced with the task of speaking to families, they spend far less time talking to ethnic groups as opposed to whites. Unfortunately, this is the sad reality of our healthcare system and we as nurses need to provide optimal compassion to our patients” (Worster, 2019).
