Global Health Systems 1st Edition by Margie Lovett Scott ,Faith Prather

Exercise 14

Kirk is an African American women's health nurse practitioner who, after witnessing an interaction between another nurse practitioner (European American) and a 30-year-old woman, intervenes. The 30-year-old, Latina mother of three entered a prominent health center with the primary complaint of severe lower abdomen pain. She walked in slumped over, holding her abdomen, tears rolling down her cheeks, with her children ages 6, 4, and 3, walking hand in hand and appearing frightened. She was dropped off by her boyfriend who was already late for work. Before leaving, the boyfriend instructed her to phone him when she was ready to be picked up.
The European American triage nurse insisted, "either call the boyfriend back, call someone else to watch the children, or reschedule your appointment, otherwise I will have to call the social worker." The triage nurse further explained to the patient that she was going to need a pelvic exam and there was no way that could be accomplished with her children present. Ms. Kirk, the nurse practitioner who witnessed the encounter, ushered teary-eyed mom and children into an examining room while reassuring her that it would be just fine. She positioned the children close to mom's head, put the 6-year-old in charge of the 3-year-old giving them all coloring books to distract them and proceeded to perform the pelvic exam without the children's awareness of what was going on. In less than an hour mom was on the way to the emergency room to be prepared for surgery for a ruptured appendix and her children were in the care of their grandmother.
Conflict is inevitable in the workplace. Do we have skills for working things through in difficult situations?