More nurses

More from the aforementioned study on the experiences Danish nurses have with immigrant patients:

They are called hookers, spat at and treated as helps. Those are some of the more aggravating examples of, that nurses feel discriminated against by patients of immigrant backgrounds in Danish hospitals.

One in four nurses in a new study that Sygeplejersken has done in cooperation with the analytical firm Catinét, that they inside the last couple years have experiences, that an immigrant patient has actedin a discriminatory fashion towards them.

Almost as many nurses have seen colleagues being discriminated against by patients of immigrant backgrounds.

And among nurses that at least once a week are in contact with immigrant patients, more than a third feel discriminated against.

According to the nurses, the biggest reason is lack of respect for female health personnel.

Explains one nurse:

"As nurse in charge of distributing patients among hospitals, you are on a daily basis subjected to verbal assault by especially male immigrants. We are often called whores and are told that we are racist when we ask them to wait. Of physical assaults, the immigrant group account for 100 per cent in my ER."

Writes one nurse:

"If you point out that rules and routines are not being adhered to, immigrants think you are racist."

In some cases, discrimination is based on prejudices or lacking knowledge, one nurse thinks.

"I have experiences on mother hiding her infant from me because I have blue eyes. I wasnt allowed to see the child."

Some nurses dont think that their job is being appreciated by immigrant patients. They behave as if nurses are maids, it is said.

"Because I am a woman, I was ordered to rub the feet of a male patient," explains one nurse.

From the usual suspects come apologia en masse - after all, its society´s fault, not the chauvinists´. Explains an anthropologist:

"If the male ethnic minority patient feels cornered or under pressure, the reaction can come in the form of a counter-attack. As a nurse you are not supposed to put up with that, but it is important to keep in mind, that the rage can be frustration over feeling inferior. That is why this probably is more about the low status of immigrants in society than about their view on the sexes," says Anette Sonne-Nielsen.

Sure. That is why male nurses are forced to rub the feet of female immigrants, too.

Sheesh!