I have got a surgical patient who is Aboriginal. I was responsible to see him day 1 post op for chest physio and mobility review. The main issue that have arise from this situation is the patient’s attitude towards females and dignity issues. I went to see him with my supervisor one day and talked him through what we will do for that day which include getting him out of bed and go for a walk. He only had a gown on at that time, he didn’t sound very comfortable talking to us (2 females) and requested to put some pants on, when we offered to help he declined the offer and said “I’ll like to have some dignity please”. We told him that we will help put his legs through the pants and he can do up the pants by himself with the sheets covering – this worked out well. On the other occasions, he also made comments such as “ I wish I was in a full male ward” and I felt that he was not very comfortable for me to treat him. However, he is a compliant patient and is progressing well after surgery. With this patient, I think it is important for us to understand their culture and not to take comments personally and to communicate with the patient and provide reassurance when needed.
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You handeled this situation very well. I had a similar experience exepcet with a muslim patient. he was very non compliant initially, refusing to be treated by a female physio. There were no male physios on the ward and this patient required active respiratory treatment as he was very productive. I luckily had done my seminar on how to deal with muslim patientsd and decided to sit down with the patient and explain to him that i completly understood why he whould prefer to have a male physio and that I had tried to organise one for him but it just was not possible that day. I then explained the improtance of chest physio and asked him if there was anything I could do to make his treatment more comfortable. He said that he would like for the curtian to not be drawn and that none of his clothes to be removed. he then allowed me to preform percs and vibes on him and the treatment was very effective. As long as you are respective of the patients wishes and give them some control of the situation they shoudl comply.
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