" SAD" Pregnancy discrimination

[healinghads]

I never thought that pregnancy would be such an issue in the health care field. I am a newly graduate nurse and recently (June 2012) I was interviewed for an RN position on the only hospital on the small island of St. Thomas USVI. How do you tell a potential employer that you are 4 month pregnant and your plans is not to keep the baby? How do you even bring up th fact that yo are pregnant? So here I am in the interview and I am thinking that in a couple of day am going to have an abortion and there is no need to tell them that I am pregnant. So I went along with the interview not mentioning that I was pregnant. How I am at the doctor's office ready to have an abortion and next to me is this woman crying. My phone rang and I answered, it was my mother. I never mention to her that I was going to have this obortion, so when she asked me where I was, I told her I was at the doctors office. She asked me if everything was ok and I said yes. When I got off the phone the lady that was crying next to me instantly start speaking to me about what was going on with her. She told me that she had just lost her baby and that she may never again be able to have any children. This woman would change my life forever. So now I am thinking this woman may not be able to have any children and a healthy one is growing inside me. I wanted to have an abortion just because of a job. I quickly left the doctor's office and have never went back.

My orientation began on Monday july 9th 2012 and I am about 6 months pregnant. On Thursday the hospital nurse called me to a private room and told me that I needed a letter from my doctor stating that I m pregnant, my due date, my limitations and when will be my last day to work. I told her that I will try to get the letter in to her the next day. On the Friday I went in to work and about 20 minutes I received a phone call be go to the supervisor's office. When I got there the supervisor explain to me that I should not come back to work until I bring in the letter from the doctor and that there was no guaranty that they would keep me. I told her that that was not explained to me yesterday or else I would not have come in today. She went further on to explain to me that she is not going to put her patients at risk. She told me that if a patient is falling I will not be able to lift them, that I will not be able to turn patients and that it would be a strain on the other nurses who have to work with me.Every pregnancy is different and who is she to tell me what I canand can not do. I tried so hard to hold back my tears in front of her, to not let her see how bad she was hurting me. So I told her ok and I will bring in the letter as soon as I can. When I went back to the unit I just had to let all this tears out, so I did. It is not about the money for me and it never has been. Now I am so hurt and embarras that I do not want to go back.

[sameasalways, ASN, RN]

This sounds like extreme discrimination to me. How long have you been employed? I work on a super busy Med-Surg floor as an RN and we have nurses all the time who are pregnant!!! CNA's too! Are you kidding? Yes I would think they need a Doctor's note or something in regard to how long you can work and how long you plan on working before taking leave. Also for their short-term disability (which you probably don't qualify for if you didn't sign up for it when you started) and also for your Family medical leave.

[healinghads]

It is so sad becaue I have to say home from work until I get the note from the doctor. I started on Monday 9th of July. I was in orientation for the entire week. They have not even seen me at work yet. They do not know what I can or can not do, they did not give me a chance. I did not even ask for leave as yet. I am very hard working, this is my second child and for my first son I worked up until the say before I delivered him. I worked at Kmart as a cashier and I had to stand for the entire day.

[Rose_Queen, BSN, MSN, RN]

Sounds to me like this hospital might have a policy requiring notes from doctors about limitations or no limitations for pregnant staff members. As of right now, you haven't turned in a letter, and are thus in violation of the policy (if it exists). It would be no different if your CPR certification was expired- you haven't completed all required pieces to be able to work. You should talk to someone in HR or look through your employee handbook. If such a policy exists, it should be available for you to read.

[mz.snuggly1]

You should get the doctor's note and everything that they ask for and also contact a lawyer. Because if you don't give them what they asked for they can say you didn't give them a doctor's note or the documents they asked you for, and that is the reason why they fired you.

[healinghads]

I went to labor departent and they told me that I can file a charge of discrimination. I am afraid that if I go ahead with this they are going to treat me differently. They told me that I can go ahead with the charge of discrimination while I am waiting for the hospital to call me back. My question is, was I suppose to tell the hosital that I was pregnant during the interview?