Nurse reflects on racial bias in the care of sickle cell disease patient

When Sherri Becker was a new nurse working the night shift in 1983, a young, Black man with sickle cell disease (SCD) was admitted in crisis. He was in agony, but when she requested permission to address his pain, “The doctor responded that he was a ‘frequent flier who was seeking narcotics.’ The undertones of racism were clear, but I did not speak up,” she wrote in an essay in the Philadelphia Inquirer. She noted there is limited research funding for SCD, an inherited disease primarily affecting Black individuals, and concluded with a call to readers to “speak up to help ensure that health care is delivered effectively, equitably, and without bias.” (Philadelphia Inquirer article, 5/25/21)