Apparently I was supposed to lie: back injury preventing hospital hiring

[Sannie6226]

Hi Everyone, this is actually my first time posting after years of reading Allnurses. I am posting because I am dealing with a very difficult situation. in 2008, I was working a job where I took people out on horse back rides, got in an accident and broke my back in five places. fast forward a year, I was released without restrictions( weight/lifting/twisting/bending) and moved on with my life and in to my future as a nursing career. I am heading in to my 4th semester of a BSN program and saw a job posting for an ER tech wher I have been doing my clinical rotations. I applied and got offered the job. I went in for a blood test, tb test, physical and drug test. I do have a prescription for Norco that I take whenever needed as I do have some residual arthiritis from my injury, but only need to take a half of one about every 3-4 months, my pain is usually very controlled with exercise and stretching. so I got this job and of course the day before I got the offer and had to take the drug test, I took half of one. worried it would show up on my drug test, I explained to the doctor about my back that I had been released without restrictions from two spine specialists. He literally told me ok well just be careful, the ER can get hectic! I said I understood and that becuase I had injured my back , I felt it made me more aware of the appropriate way to lift. So I get a call 4 days later saying they where going to pull the job offer because of the restrictions from my injury! I provide them with two papers from the specialist and a physical complete with xrays of my back that I went to another dr to get a second opinion who openly stated I was perfectly capable of performing all the duties of the job! Now they are saying it is pending and they will get back to me with their decision next week. Im so frustrated with myself for even telling them about this but I honestly didnt feel like I needed to hide it! everyone I tell this to, just said, why didnt you just lie, you can never tell someone youve had an injury like that! oh I dont know, Im just a naturally honest person! Sorry for this being so long, but Im curious to know, legally can they deny me this job that I am qualified for? I feel like this could be a type of discrimination against a disability? I appreciate any feedback and allowing me to vent because this is eating me up!

[Indy, LPN, LVN]

You could call them and ask, since they made the job offer, would another unit in the hospital consider hiring you? It's worth a shot.

[MunoRN, RN]

If your facility has a blanket "no narcotics rule" they can find themselves in a major lawsuit if they fire someone because they take a narcotic for a legitimate purpose that does not interfere with their work.

This has already been through the courts and the current precedent is that yes, employers can have a blanket "no narcotics" rule, it does not matter if the employee takes it for legitimate purposes and it's the employer that gets to determine if it might interfere with their work.

[MunoRN, RN]

I would agree that it's a little ridiculous to get rid of all Nurses with a current or previous back problem, their would be no Nurses left.

Even so, it's not a violation of the ADA. The first problem with that is you don't have a disability. The EEOC has expanded it's definition recently but you still wouldn't fit that more liberal definition.

The second problem is that the ADA doesn't actually say employers can't discriminate against those with disabilities, it just says they need a work related reason to discriminate, and what can be argued as being a condition that would affect work performance has always been pretty broad. Employers are free to consider an MD's clearance of a potential employee, but they have no obligation to, the final decision is up to the employer.