Can they do this?

Published

Hi everyone,

I am a current Bachelor of Science in Nursing student at Seneca College and a few of my classmates and I are currently having an issue with my school. In our clinical group at Markham Stouffville Hospital, there are two students who are Sikh (and wear kadda) and two students who are Hindu (who wear a nadda chaddi or raksha and a rakhi). After numerous discussions with the teacher, she allowed the Sikh students to wear the kadda during placement. However, they have given us, the Hindu students, the ultimatum that we either cut the holy thread or leave our placement. Today, she made a student leave because the student refused to cut her confirmation of faith.

Are they allowed to to this?

Taking off or cutting one of the articles of our faith simply means that we have no respect for our faith, no meanings for its teachings and that we are not strong enough to advocate for what we believe in. Nonetheless, since our first semester at Seneca College, we have been taught that we live in a multicultural world and we need to be culturally sensitive to our patients. We represent a great institution at a reputable hospital and as a last resort, we have requested to tape the thread as far from the hand as possible. My standing question remains, how can we be culturally sensitive to patients if the institution that we represent at any hospital cannot be culturally sensitive to its own students?

I have a few meetings with the dean and the president of my school and need to know specifics regarding relgious freedom for nurses in Canada. Please message me at [email protected] so I can fight this.

Please send any advice to [email protected]! Thank you!!

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Specializes in Medical and general practice now LTC.

Moved to a thread on it's own in the Canadian forum

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Specializes in NICU, PICU, PCVICU and peds oncology.

It sounds like a human rights complaint to me. Contact the Ontario Commission on Human Rights as soon as possible. Their website says this:

"Where a rule conflicts with religious requirements, there is a duty to ensure that individuals are able to observe their religion, unless this would cause undue hardship because of cost, or health and safety reasons. Unlawful discrimination because of religion can include:

- Refusing to make an exception to dress codes to recognize religious dress requirements..."

http://www.ohrc.on.ca/en/issues/religious_rights

Their policy on religious accommodation can be found here:

http://www.ohrc.on.ca/en/resources/Policies/PolicyCreedAccomodEN

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