Dealing with Racist Patients

 Your patient is a 30-year-old White male who presents to the emergency department for evaluation of shoulder pain. He is apprehensive to remove his shirt. Once the shirt is removed, he has several tattoos that symbolize “White supremacy.” He then asks to be evaluated by a different provider. You are a Black PA.

 Your patient is an 88-year-old White female who comes to the clinic for a regular follow-up. She is accustomed to being evaluated by the collaborating physician, who is a White man. She has been placed on your schedule. You are a Latina woman. She asks if you can speak English well and proceeds to request an evaluation by the collaborating physician.

You are rounding on the pediatric floor in the hospital, and enter the room of a 7-year-old patient. You have a PA student with you who wears a hijab. The child’s parent looks at the PA student, and states “I do not want a terrorist touching my child.”

You are working in the emergency department, and a patient is calling for you to help her as you walk by. You enter the room, and the patient requests that you evaluate her. She is afraid that the White female physician is not taking good care of her. The patient is a 70-year-old Black woman and you are a Black PA. 

You are a member of the neurosurgery team and have been assigned a patient requiring surgery. You enter the room to discuss the surgery with the patient and her family. While talking, the patient’s family member requests a different provider. He states he does not trust a Jewish person to take care of his mother. You are a Jewish man wearing a yarmulke.

You are a PA student on your general surgery rotation. During morning rounds, a PA gave a report on a 40-year-old patient that is s/p an open cholecystectomy yesterday. The PA reported the patient is doing well but has requested to only be evaluated by “Americans.” He does not want any “foreigners” evaluating him. You are an Indian immigrant, and another PA student is a Korean American. The preceptor tells both of you to not enter this patient’s room since he has this “weird request.” Your preceptor is a Latina woman.