A Lifestyle Far From My Own....Caring for Diverse Patients.

Have you ever had a patient where their values differed so much from your own, that it really challenged your core beliefs. I remember in my first job, I had a patient with dementia, he was constantly making inappropriate sexist comments each time I entered his room. I have to admit it was very uncomfortable for me to be treated this way, but the reality was I chose to be a nurse which meant I would care for diverse patient populations with different value systems from my own. But did that make me any less human? Absolutely not, it just challenged me to look at this person at a very vulnerable point in life who needed me to look beyond who he was to what he really needed from me, the nurse. I realized in that moment, that it was not important to me if he never learned a thing from me, but more of what I could learn from him and how I wanted to be seen as  the nurse. From that point to this, almost 12 years later, I told myself that no matter the difference that I may have as a person it should never interfere with my ability to care for my patients or to use my interactions with them as opportunities for me to grow and learn something new about who it is that I want to become, as a person and as a nurse. I think as nurses was have great opportunities to not only show how much we truly care for human life, but to grow each day and show that we can care for diverse patient populations in spite of the percieved differences. It is what makes us who we are and truly displays what we stand for as nurses and as the most valued profession.

Do you have any experiences as a nurse, where you cared for a patient with a different lifestyle than your own? What did you do to ensure that this difference was not evident in the care you provided?