October 22nd, 2009
Abuse protection sought for health care workers
By Lisa Rosetta, The Salt Lake Tribune, Oct. 22, 2009
Air Med flight nurse Laura Sorensen told her boss in 1993 that she had multiple sclerosis. In hindsight, she believes, she shouldn’t have.After learning of Sorensen’s diagnosis, University Hospital wouldn’t let her return to her job, she said, and instead moved her to its burn unit. Sorensen filed suit under the Americans with Disability Act — ADA — but a judge threw out the case because she was not physically impaired enough to be considered disabled.
And that, she said, was exactly her point: At that time, she wasn’t disabled and was capable of doing her job.
Now in a wheelchair, Sorensen told her story to legislators Wednesday in the hope they will consider passing a new law that protects health care employees from being bullied by their employers.
“I don’t want others in the future to fall through the legal cracks as I did,” she said.
The Health Care Provider Abusive Work Environment Prohibition Act (HB 224) would protect workers from a “work place where an employee is subjected to abusive conduct that is so severe that it causes physical or psychological harm to the employee,” the bill states.
Its sponsor, Rep. Stephen Sandstrom, R-Orem, said the law would stop “what is in some areas a culture of intimidation in the workplace” by protecting those employers that adopt policies against bullying from legal action.
Such a law is necessary, he said, because unless an employee falls into one of five protected classes — race, religion, disability, gender and age — they have little recourse under federal law.
Michelle Swift, a registered nurse and attorney who specializes in employment law, said Utahns can apply for Workers’ Compensation benefits if they have been “psychologically injured.” But those claims are seldom approved.
Sandstrom’s law, she said, “would allow employers to become involved and to have accountability and responsibility that would provide for that safe working environment for the employee — and ultimately good patient care.”
Opponents of such a law fear it will open a floodgate of lawsuits.
But Sandstrom said his bill sets the bar high for bringing legal action by precisely defining an abusive work environment. “It’s not going to be easy for someone to say just because they got yelled at once, they were abused in the workplace,” he said.
And proponents of the law say it would protect not only employees, but patients. Medical errors, such as giving out the wrong dose of a medication, are more likely to occur when a health care worker is upset, they assert.
Denise Halverson, the Workplace Bullying Institute’s (WBI) legislative coordinator in Utah, recounted the story of a toddler who was recovering from burns. She acted thirsty, sucking furiously on wet washcloths, and her mother called nurses twice one night.
The nurses repeated what their supervising doctor had said: She’s fine. Not long after, however, her heart stopped and she died of dehydration.
“It’s not because the nurses didn’t care. They did,” said Halverson, who contacted Sandstrom about carrying the bill after her own sister was the victim of workplace abuse. “They just weren’t willing to follow up” due to fear of retribution from the doctor.
Gary Namie, founder of the WBI and coauthor of “The Bully at Work,” met with Sandstrom and a small group of health care workers Tuesday night at the capitol. Bullying in a health care workplace, he said, can have disastrous results.
“You have an industry where if this happens, you have death as a potential consequence,” he said. Namie said Utah is one of 16 states that have introduced a bill protecting targets of workplace bullies. But not one has had a floor hearing in a state House or Senate.
The country has collectively said no to domestic violence, no to child abuse. But workplace abuse, Namie said, “is the last bastion of abuse where we tolerate it. It is not only not taboo, it’s rewarded and promoted.”
Legislators expressed concern that such abuses may be happening, but some were unsure whether Sandstrom’s bill solves the problem or shifts it to the courts.
“You’ve made some horrendous accusations I’m sure the other side will want to be heard on,” said Health and Human Services Committee Chair Chris Buttars, who plans to give employers an hour to be heard on the subject during a future meeting.
But, added the Republican senator: “What you’ve said, if only fractionally true, is ridiculous.”
lrosetta@sltrib.com
Tags: Chris Buttars, HB 224, Laura Sorensen, Michelle Swift, Sandstrom
This entry was posted on Thursday, October 22nd, 2009 at 7:43 am and is filed under Bullying in the News, Legislative Campaign. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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As a worker in SLC I can say that this needs to be applied to all businesses. My current job has two workplace bullies who are always at myself and other selected employees. One of my coworkers already shows health problems due to this bully. It’s time to protect all workers!!!!
I work for the Department of Health and Human Services In Montgomery County Government, Maryland. Mental Health, Crisis Services, no less!LOL!
I can attest to the fact, that RN’s are continually abused, bullied, and forced to leave or transfer out of their jobs by the top-heaviest management compared to any corporate structure I have ever worked in, in all of my 25+ years of Nursing professionally.(this is in some of the OTHER departments, not mine at the moment, but that could change soon)
The upper management is so clueless, and so income-hungry, they are so “into” their political games of keeping everything quiet and nice, they refuse to do a thing about it.
There have been hundreds maybe thousands of RN’s who have run through the Human Resources department “leaving as their own choice” when in fact, they were forced to resign by being “strong armed” into leaving.. in many different ways.
I still work in one of the smaller departments, I’m thinking if I say a word about a manager abusing me, I will lose my little part time job. I go home sick every time I work. I said something a few times..and now I’m getting retaliation that seems to be backfiring lately. This is a really sick situation for a Government RN that doses patients with a controlled substance, don’t you think?
No surprise that the bullying is happening in a Mental Health Crisis unit. The U.S. movement was born in a psychiatry clinic! GN
I have recently been fired after 32 yrs at a large hospital. My problems began when 3 of our employees, 2 being charge nurses and one a surgical tech, began harassing, bullying and intimidating me. I went up the entire chain of command to seek help after my efforts for resolution with the nurse manager failed, only to realize in the end that HR and the Ethics committee are all still part of the problem (ie the organization), and they were intent on getting rid of me. I have had several write ups in the months preceding my firing, bogus stuff, and the final pip I got was just downright incorrect. However, there is a really awful double standard in action, as a nurse who has had 2 major sentinel events is still working without discipline. I also have realized that reverse discrimination played a large role in what has happened. Just trying to find an attorney to take on my deep pocketed, attorney laiden hospital is a real bummer. Seems I should go out of town to find one who isn’t on retention by them. So very sad when one of the hospital’s best and most experienced nurses (as was frequently shown in accolades from md’s and other personnel) is fired because the management chooses to look the other way and give in to these bullies, allowing them to continue their ways, which had occurred years before I got there. I was just the only one to take them on and not back down…. now who’s rights are violated?
2 things stuck out in your post:
1. 32 yrs working for a “large hospital”. that’s an awful lot of accumulated retirement benefits they’ll be paying you if you finally finish up there, which would be not too long off?So if you continued at the rate you were going, and didn’t start slowing down your hours to part-time, or prn, or float pool, like some women do??? (that reduces your final retirement income, I think??) then I guess they might be getting antsy about how much they might have to pay you when it’s time for you to part ways??lots of big hospitals do this!!! Not unusual at all! Typical, in fact! They can out-wait you in legal fees, they have a loooong list of Nurses they do this with who all do the same thing. They want to hang on and get their retirement but NO! The hospital will not pay these healthy women to live on that high salary for all those years when they leave!sorrry!
contributions and shared insurance benefits? forget that too! NOOO! they don’t to pay for that indefinitely either!
2. You said something about Human resources people. I think that’s where it starts.The Charge Nurse and Surgical tech..they must be new, and young? Probably up for promotions if they can help eliminate you they can get their promotions. Don’t take it personally, they want to feed their families. They will get their turn too when they have 32 years under their belts. Unless they are smarter and get prepared, and leave a place like that, and find a more secure job that can’t get rid of them so easily. Try a government job. Miserable, and disgusting like mine where you get to stay and be bullied, but you have security, for the most part.
Since I was a young girl my dream was to work for the underserved. Raised by a single mom got a full scholarship to a top nyc university but my dream was to work for the poor. I too had been a patient in those city hospitals that we went to get our care since we had no insurance. In 1992, I got another scholarship to my surprise and joy to become a PA and work in an inner city hospital which is affiliated with a large private hospital. My first years were great my boss was wonderful but retiring soon. So I decided to work in the same hospital for a cardiac thoracic surgery unit. I noticed lots of people leaving at first and the supervisor was brutally loud about how incompetent they were. At first I thought she must know something I don’t see but little by little I saw thru her terrorism and lies. One by one is she didn’t like you she destroyed them professionally. And most left on their own to avoid the shame. Orlad , john, Mary, Anthony, even the poor secretary left in shame. At least she put up a good fight, went to the union wrote to everyone but her age and soon medical condition left her to finally leave. She did warn me before she left I would be next but I never imagined how bad it would get. The more I fought the more I got hit, although not physically. In hindsight, I remember a story of the holocaust where a priest or clergymen said first they came for others I stayed silent then they came for me. I now feel guilty for having kept to myself and not stood with the others. Now that I too have gotten yelled at, insulted in every possible way, rumors everywhere about me, no one even dares to defend or speak to me. I am deemed incompetent, I am given the worst of schedules for the past 5 years had to work every Christmas party, I am given a poor sign out so many times I don’t even know what is going on in the dept and the attendings think I am just plainly incompetent. It’s horrible I don’t wish this on my worse enemy. I try to find the good in all of this. Next year if can keep working I will continue my studies in med school if I can support myself for another year. Tried to find a job somewhere else but because of my schedule, experience and economy haven’t found anything yet. I cry almost every day I go to work I feel tortured to the point I said to my supervisor just to get her off my back I would be leaving this summer to go to school. However can’t afford to be without healthcare and pay yet. Wrote/called HR and my boss and they just keep saying it’s nothing “tough it out.” Trust me when I tell you I consider myself tough. I have risen many times better than a phoenix but to have this day in and out is worse than death. The worst is her lies and power she’s managed to have most if not all the dept gang up against me. I even went on nights solo taking care of the whole dept with no breaks or help except for my wonderful nurses who I love to work with but every morning she would make a fuss of little things even if all the patients were fine. It was too much being alone at nights, I asked for an extra pair of hands and she said if was not needed for 3 floors,and rec room covered by myself. Thank God not one pt died in all those years I was alone. In the end her harassment has giving me chest pain and headaches, so about two weeks ago I asked for days but she tortures even more with her nitpiking, exclusion, lying, badtalking ridiculing, humiliation, backstabbing and condescending way of dealing with me. I am not a violent person but now I understand why some workers go postal not to excuse any behavior but every day I feel like a battered dog that everyone just takes turns at kicking. Sorry for my verbose comments it’s just the first time in years that I found a forum to give voice to one who has been suffocating in despair. Desperately, MAM