Nurses: immigrant patients are a drag

One of the larger stories in late january (of course overshadowed by the Mohammed-affair) was, that a study found 80% of nurses to have had problems with immigrant patients. From DR:

Eight in ten nurses in daily contact with immigrant patients in the Danish hospitals, have had problems attending to patients of immigrant backgrounds over the last year.

That is what a new study, done by the trade (as in learning a trade - Henrik) magazine Sygeplejersken ("The Nurse" - Henrik).

In the study, done by Sygeplejersken in cooperation with Catinét (an oppinion poll firm - Henrik), 2000 nurses working in Denmarks hospitals have been questioned about their meeting ethnic patients ("Ethnic" is the Danish elite´s phrase for non-Danes - Danes apparently arent ethnic Danes - Henrik) ..

746 nurses, making up a representative section, have replied. The replies are uniform in their message: language barriers, a cultural divide and different views on sickness make it hard to nurse immigrant patients.

Nurses in the study describe immigrants and their kin as: "time-robbers, resource-intensive, aggressive and noisy. They have no respect for the routines of the hospitals. they dont understand Danish. And they spread out their prayer mats all over."..

(consider which religion uses prayer mats, btw - Henrik)

A nurse writes in the questionnaire:

- A male Danish-speaking patient defecated on the floor, leaving it
so we could clean up after him. He thought it was our problem, since we didnt provide a "hole-in-the-ground-toilet".

Nine in ten of the nurses answering the study thing, the reason for the
problems is language barriers. ..

Among he nurses not seeing immigrant patients as a larger strain than patients with a Danish background, half thing that they on the contrary make work more interesting. At the same time they are the nurses that indicate that they dont have contact to this group of patients often.