At my hospital we run into this type of thing ALL the time.
In a worl-class institution, you just get used to the fact that there are people there from all over the world, all ethnic groups, nationalities, etc.
But the difficulty comes in when we have patients and visitors who don't have that kind of exposure in their lives, and some freak out. Not only is there mistrust of AfAm people, caucasian people, etc, you get people questioning a staff member's green card status (
) or language capability.
Then other visitors/patients from foreign countries may bring their own prejudices with them: for example I had a patient refuse to speak to me because I'm female (this family was from the middle east). Then they had a problem with my faculty because he's a blue-eyed blonde. (I haven't figured that one out yet.) Just last week we had someone else come in demanding that they only be treated by Jewish doctors and married nurses. (Don't ask me to explain that one either.)
I wish our Diversity Office would focus a bit more attention on this issue. Just how much ignorant BS is a doctor/nurse/other staff member supposed to tolerate before they say "Enough, cut it out"? So far, all we've gotten is, "It is our job to treat patients and be respectful of their beliefs." Hey, dude, their beliefs are interfering w/ said treatment.......
I'm glad I'm taking a few days off.
Adrienne