Ms. L.N. attended to Mr. J.K., a 48-year-old white male, at the clinic following the 10 am scheduled appointment. Mr. J.K. was openly racist and discriminated against Ms. L.N. and questioned her competence as she was a Black Woman.

Client Challenges – Client Who Displays Racist or Discriminatory Behavior

Scenario

Ms. L.N., an African-American NP, attended to Mr. J.K., a 48-year-old white male, at the Veteran Care Clinic following an appointment over the phone. When Mr. J.K. came into the clinic and saw Ms. L.N., he was reluctant to talk to her and asked her if he could see another nurse as Ms. L.N. was black, and he did not believe she was qualified enough to attend to him. Much time was spent trying to convince Mr. J.K. that Ms. L.N. was qualified and that she was the only one to attend to him.

Client’s Challenging Behaviors

It is obvious that Mr. J.K.’s negative assessment of Ms. L.N.’s qualifications as an NP is purely racist. His views of her lack of competence to attend to him are discriminatory, as he holds that she cannot be a qualified NP because she is black and a woman. Another challenging behavior that Mr. J.K. displays is his hesitancy to talk to Ms. L.N. when he enters the clinic and realizes that his nurse is a black N.P. This is both racist and racially discriminatory.

Potential Impact of the Client’s Behavior on the Client-Provider Relationship

Ms. L.N. was openly hurt by Mr. J.K.’s behavior. She did not want to take the case after the encounter and only did it because of her ethical obligations to the patient. Mr. J.K. could potentially influence how the NP communicated and the confidence she has in her skills, which further affects her ability to deliver quality care services to him. Although racial and gender-discordant patient-physician encounters are associated with negative patient reviews (Takeshita et al., 2020), microaggressions in charged patient-provider interactions negatively impact the relationship between the two (Kanter et al., 2020).

Techniques to Enhance Communication With the Client and Address the Client’s Behavior

Ms. L.N. can remain professional despite Mr. J.K.’s openly racist and discriminative behavior. In this case, maintaining professionalism will enable her to manage  Mr. J.K.’s behavior and perception towards her. On the other hand, addressing the client’s behavior will require the clinic to educate him on racism and professionalism to help him overcome his racist and discriminatory views of women, especially Black women.

Documentation for the Encounter

Date: May 29, 2023

Time: 10:00 am

Location: Veteran’s Clinic

Ms. L.N. attended to Mr. J.K., a 48-year-old white male, at the clinic following the 10 am scheduled appointment. Mr. J.K. was openly racist and discriminated against Ms. L.N. and questioned her competence as she was a Black Woman. Ms. L.N. remained professional and managed to convince the client to settle down. Mr. J.K. was provided with some learning to help himself overcome his negative, long-held beliefs about the capacity of other racial groups.

References

Kanter, J. W., Rosen, D. C., Manbeck, K. E., Branstetter, H. M. L., Kuczynski, A. M., Corey, M. D., Maitland, D. W. M., & Williams, M. T. (2020). Addressing microaggressions in racially charged patient-provider interactions: A pilot randomized trial. BMC Medical Education, 20(1), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1186/S12909-020-02004-9/TABLES/4