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I have been put on administrative leave because a pharmacist sent an email to HR stating I made derogatory comment about Koreans. He asked me to make a gestimate about a patient's height. Using what knowledge I knew about the patient, I said the man is korean and is short stature. This pharmacist thought this was derogatory. So I have been put on leave without giving my side of the story. I would like to know other's opinion if they think this is derogatory.

I have been put on administrative leave because a pharmacist sent an email to HR stating I made derogatory comment about Koreans. He asked me to make a gestimate about a patient's height. Using what knowledge I knew about the patient, I said the man is korean and is short stature. This pharmacist thought this was derogatory. So I have been put on leave without giving my side of the story. I would like to know other's opinion if they think this is derogatory.

Sorry, nightingale99, but what you said came out the wrong way. Because the pharmacist didn't ask you what was this man's nationality. He wanted to get an estimate of this man's height. What did him being Korean have to do with it? I don't think you meant it the way it sounded, but him being Korean was irrelevant to the question asked. But I also do not think you should have been punished so severely. Good luck with everything.

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Specializes in L/D, and now Occupational Health.

You just never know do you ??!!?? I had been with my hospital 10 years and was terminated and reported to the BON which seems like huge over kill when you look at the big picture. Everyone, even myself had to wonder what the missing piece was. Never had I been in trouble for anything before, and 2 months before received an excellent on my annual eval. AT WILL EMPLOYER, NO UNION, sorry about my luck. At least you still have a job there. This pharmacist sounds like he has a small man complex. :down:

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Specializes in LTC, Med/Surg, Peds, ICU, Tele.
This is RIDICULOUS! If this was all that was said, this is crazy, I would NOT "eat crow" about this. I would state that I was making an educated guess (if you had seen the pt), and that it was not my intention to offend anyone, but I wouldn't apologize. Doesn't sound like you have anything to be sorry for. And I might look into getting a lawyer if they are not willing to reimburse your lost pay (at least), and immediately reinstate you to your previous position.

It would be different, as another poster said, if you had said "well, I haven't seen him, but he is Korean, so he must be short", but this doesn't seem to be the case.

You can word an 'apology' without admitting guilt, such as in "I'm so sorry you were offended" or "I am sorry what I said upset you, that was certainly not my intent"

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Specializes in Post Anesthesia.

What could the pharmacist find offensive about the fact that you noticed that the the guy was 5'6" or Korean? Sounds like the shortage of pharmacists takes president over the nursing shortage and the institution is kissing up. Administrative leave?! there must not be a nursing shortage where you are. In our part of the woods if a nurse is suspended for excessive call-offs they "suspend" you on paper but you still have to work your schedule.

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Specializes in Med/surg,Tele,PACU,ER,ICU,LTAC,HH,Neuro.

OKay now I get it ...YOU 5'9"????

Your looking down your nose at him and the poor dude is intimidated.

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EOE my ..........goodness

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Specializes in Jack of all trades, and still learning.

I don't see your remark as racist. You certainly don't deserve to be put on leave for it. Does that mean when coroners assess skeletons and say that they are of Caucasian, or Asian or whatever origin are racist as well? Of course not. They are just observing what they see. Certain ppls have certain features including height. My nieces and nephews are of indigenous Australian (Aboriginal) heritage. And that background makes them slim and tall. I can't see them being offended by a similar remark - they know their background, they know what they look like, and not only that they are proud of who they are.

What a ridiculous overreaction! I like the idea of seeing a lawyer...

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Specializes in 23 years of critical care.

No I was not looking down on him. He kept saying 5 ft 7 is tall, In my opinion it is short because it is shorter than me.

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Specializes in 23 years of critical care.

The pharmacist asked for an estimate of height. I was trying to make an educated quess with what information I knew.

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I'm a nursing student, and every chapter of my texts has a race/ethnicity/cultural section. They print all the stats for, say, hypertension, broken down by race. Stats for obesity, broken down by race. Stats for colon cancer, borken down by race. We learned how to adjust our therapeutic communication skills to be sensitive to people of various cultures. It seems a little like overkill to me, but some of the information can be useful, since we need to emphasize the need for early screening especially in higher risk groups. If the information you conveyed to the pharmacist was purely of a factual nature - which it sounds like it was - your suspension makes absolutely no sense. If the patient had been a 74 year old white woman, and he had asked the same question, you probably would also have assumed she was short, sight unseen. I guess the only possible un-PC thing you did was to explicity mention the patient's race - if pt had been white, would you have?

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