‘Racially offensive’ nursing manual says Filipinos trust God, not painkillers

nursing manual

British publishing giant Pearson has apologised for racially offensive material in a nursing textbook.

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The book, “Nursing: A Concept-Based Approach to Learning,” contains a page entitled “Cultural Differences in Response to Pain”.

The chapter has caused an uproar by claiming stark differences in how various races react to pain.

“Filipino patients,” it says, “may not take pain medication because they view pain as being the will of God”.

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Arabs and Muslims “may not request pain medicine but instead thank Allah for pain if it is the result of a healing medical procedure,” the book says.

The book also mentioned that Asians patients “often value stoicism as a response to pain. A client who complains openly about pain is thought to have poor social skills.”

The Chinese, the chapter says, “may not ask for medication because they do not want to take the nurse away from a more important task.”

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As for black people, they “often report higher pain intensity than other cultures” and “believe suffering and pain are inevitable.”

Jews, the book says, “may be vocal and demand assistance” and “believe pain must be shared and validated by others.”

Tim Bozik, president of global product development at Pearson, has apologised in a video posted on YouTube.

“I want to apologise,” he said.

“In an attempt to help nursing students think through the many facets of caring for their patients we reinforced a number of stereotypes about ethnic and religious groups,” he said.

“It was wrong. We should have been more thoughtful about the information we put into our curriculum,” he said.

Mr Bozik also said the company had removed the page from e-versions of the textbook and current and future editions.

He said the company was also looking at ways to recall the existing edition that contained the offensive material.