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We had male and female nurses with a wide age range and it was interesting how they all related and reacted to adoption. Everyone seem to bring it up when they first came in, by asking medical questions, and it was kind of funny to see some people relate openly about it and then others you could tell were fighting to ask questions, occasionally some would, and then others would have to build up their nerve to ask. I did find that the younger (thirty years or below) seemed to be more accepting and open about being adopted. They also were more open about want and trying to interact with my daughter A. The two male nurses we had were very positive about adoption and A’s special needs. They would talk to her, tell her what a beautiful little girl she was (even with blisters all over her face), and ask her questions, which she loved. Mainly from the younger nurses I got the typical questions and comments about adoption, How old was she when you adopted her? Do you have other children? Are they adopted? She is lucky to have you, It is different that both of you are adopted, etc.

When dealing with the older staff, things changed a lot from the way they reacted to her to the questions they asked. One older nurse would only touch A’s IV and would bring her medication to give to her and then ask me to apply her creams. She would not talk to her, if A told her that she hurt, the nurse would turn to me and ask if she needed pain medication. Thank God we only had her once. We had an older nurse’s aide that worked with one of our male nurses.

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