Do you document the race of your patient ?

[hatelilpeepees]

Recently doing some reviews of Patient Care Reports and noted that some of the newbies were documenting the race of the patient in their narrative. I do not see the reason, rationale, or benefit of this, what do you people think ? Is there a reason to state the race of your patient in your narrative ?

[ERDoc]

Yes, certain races have higher disease risks, ie black people are at higher risk for heart disease, htn, etc. It absolutely is relevant to pt care.

[island emt]

Race is one of the 240 some odd data fields required for the feds to go to some unknown server farm for the number crunchers and data fairies to collect.

Lord knows what they do with all the data they collect.

It part of the NEMSIS standard for data collection system.

[Richard B the EMT]

As I recall, FDNY issued a directive that race was only to be recorded when the patient was unable to be identified, such as an "unconcious male black, Unknown history"

[zippyRN]

is it required for the data set ...

in narratives it's one of the things that has become ritualised , and given the lack of education of the average EMS provider it's unsuprising that ritual and drills predominate, ( even without fire monkey involvement- and we all know how the trumpton loves their drillz)

[Kiwiology]

The Ministry of Health classify you as either Maori, Pacific Ialander or "Other" - so thats whats on our PRF

[hatelilpeepees]

I get documenting in the data field, although I think that is dumb too, but there is no reason to document it in the narrative, especially since you have probably documented it in the data box. How is race important to any disease process ? How is black hypertension different from white hypertension ? Even if your patient has sickle cell, is there a reason to document the patient is black ?

[NYCEMS9115]

If you choose to document the race, it's fine. If you choose not to document the race, it's fine too.

The only reason race is pertinent in the healthcare setting is that certain race are prone to certain diseases. Response to certain care or social interactions may vary. Believe and behavior systems are different. If the NYS PCRs had more room to document, some can document more of what they find on scene without using a Continuation Form.

Unlike many other healthcare studies, EMT does go into health differences in cultures. If it's just a class lecture, the EMS Provider would be lucky. In Nursing, it is a semester class and it is very interesting. Things we do in American culture is not appropriate in other cultures. It shows you to understand and appreciate other culture's similarity and differences from your's.

Of course this is all just conjecture...

[HellsBells]

So I can understand that race is important for certain disease processes, but I'm assuming that when the doctor actually assesses the pt he too would also be able to recognize the race of the pt. Or is race recognition a protected skill for paramedics only?

[stcommodore]

It may also help me recall an incident in the future. I do and don't recall why I started but don't see it as racist and see no reason not to.