Michigan hospital sued after honoring woman's request for "white nurse only"

[klone]

3rd Michigan hospital faces suit alleging it honored patient request for care only by white nurses

In the lawsuit, Teoka Williams, RN, alleges that on Oct. 2 she heard a patient say she did not want any black caregivers. Ms. Williams says she told the clinical manager, who then spoke to the patient. The clinical manager then reportedly told Ms. Williams not to enter the patient's room or care for her. A white nurse was asked to care for the patient.

Ms. Williams also alleges that she told the human resources department about the incident and was told "patient requests are honored all the time and that the next time it happened, she would be taken off the assignment altogether," News 5 Cleveland reports.

[broughden]

Ok...

So what if that same Muslim family said I dont want a Jew taking care of my family. Is that ok then because Jewish is a religion...

We get it, youre conservative. Stop living up the the stereotype and defending racism.

The patient in this lawsuit literally called the nurse a "black b***h".

Frankly they should have been dumped on the sidewalk and told to go find another provider for treating staff like that.

[broughden]

Hospitals need to quite catering to all racial-preference requests.

This. The end.

[Here.I.Stand, BSN, RN]

So now as a male RN I can sue when a Muslim family only wants a female nurse? Same difference.

Except that Muslim women's requests for female nurses are about modesty -- they don't hate men or harbor bigotry toward men.

Big difference.

That said, I don't get why a nurse in this case would sue rather than say "Thank you for making a jerk someone else's problem..." unless the employer sent her home vs switching assignments or something that affected her bottom line.

Any time I have seen this request accommodated it was NOT done to make the pt happy -- it was done to protect the staff.

[Kyrshamarks, BSN, RN]

Some people are so wrapped up in their own little works they can not see what my posts have proven on this topic. A majority (not all, but a majority here) will quickly condem racism which they should do and yet condone sexism or even discrimination based on religion under the guise of "it's their cultural beliefs" which isus also wrong in the USA. I am not making this a your religion vs anothe religion rant. I am pointing out the hypocrisy of it all and the double standard by which many still stand by.

I am saddened that nurses will allow any type if discrimination, whether color, sex, religion, gender or nationality. This is NOT what our country was founded on. In fact I suspect a real good lawyer coukd make a case our of my scenarios. Under the anti discrimination laws if a hospital came to me and said since you are a male, you can't take care of pt x in what ever room. Or post a sign outside the room which I have seen saying no male caregivers. The hospital is by action violating the

law and discrimintaing against me.

The sword current has two edges. And it cuts equally both ways.

[Wannabenurseneko]

I just read the complaint and noticed a couple of things that I haven't seen in prior discussions here that might have played into the nurse's decision to file the lawsuit. The first thing was that there were two patients in the room. One of them said she didn't want a black b---- taking care of her. The manager spoke to the complaining patient and assured her that she wouldn't even have to see Nurse Williams in the room again, even to take care of the patient who didn't complain.

The manager didn't reassign the patients, she just required Nurse Williams to inform a designated white nurse if either of her patients needed something. Nurse Williams was required to give report on these patients for the oncoming shift, even though she felt her standard of care was diminished as a result of the delay in time it took for her to go find the white nurse and inform her of the need or request.

Not sure of all the legalities here, but I can see why these factors may have precipitated her final decision.

After reading this I understand why she sued the hospital .

[Wannabenurseneko]

Black people are a minority in this country.

There are many racist people in this country, if they listen to every racist request. Most Black people would be out of a job.

That's why I don't comment too much on here. The level of empathy some people have for minorities is very low on this site.

Actually this was true at one point that black people were the minority ,but that is no longer the case in Today. T he number of black people in the country had went up . White people are now becoming the minority. Hispanic, Latinos and black folks are out numbering them. That's why the Nazis are coming out and attacking people of color. That's why Laura Ingram, she doesn't recognize america anymore

[Daisy4RN]

After reading this I understand why she sued the hospital .

I am not convinced that the hospitals/managers actions were racist. This happens all the time in hospitals, patients don't like their nurse for whatever reason and sometimes it is easier, depending on how far you are into the shift and/or how much more work the patient has due, to not switch patients and just have someone else fill in till the end of the shift here and there and exchange a few tasks etc. I have been all all sides of this situation, not a big deal.

[Wannabenurseneko]

I am not convinced that the hospitals/managers actions were racist. This happens all the time in hospitals, patients don't like their nurse for whatever reason and sometimes it is easier, depending on how far you are into the shift and/or how much more work the patient has due, to not switch patients and just have someone else fill in till the end of the shift here and there and exchange a few tasks etc. I have been all all sides of this situation, not a big deal.

Just because, I understand why she sued, doesn't mean I agree with her suing. Or would have done the same . As I said, before I would have preferred not to work with the patient . And I did not say the hospital/ managers actions were racist. Where did you get that from ? The only person I see to be racist, in this situation is the patient who only wanted a white nurse and called the black nurse a black -B .

[jbrnsuga41]

After reading this I understand why she sued the hospital .

Me too

[applewhitern, BSN, RN]

I live in the heart of Dixie, and in all my 30 years of nursing, I've never had a patient say they didn't want a black person to care for them. If they did, I doubt seriously we would accommodate such a request. People seem to think that racism is worse in the south, but from what I see, hear, and read on the news, I don't think it is worse here at all. We very rarely have a race incident, that I am aware of. (I am white, and I have had a couple of times where a white patient didn't want me as their nurse, for whatever reason.)

[broughden]

Some people are so wrapped up in their own little works they can not see what my posts have proven on this topic. A majority (not all, but a majority here) will quickly condem racism which they should do and yet condone sexism or even discrimination based on religion under the guise of "it's their cultural beliefs" which isus also wrong in the USA. I am not making this a your religion vs anothe religion rant. I am pointing out the hypocrisy of it all and the double standard by which many still stand by.

I am saddened that nurses will allow any type if discrimination, whether color, sex, religion, gender or nationality. This is NOT what our country was founded on. In fact I suspect a real good lawyer coukd make a case our of my scenarios. Under the anti discrimination laws if a hospital came to me and said since you are a male, you can't take care of pt x in what ever room. Or post a sign outside the room which I have seen saying no male caregivers. The hospital is by action violating the

law and discrimintaing against me.

The sword current has two edges. And it cuts equally both ways.

Religious accommodation is NEITHER sexism nor discrimination.

Your continued attempts to undermine the blatant racism in the first case , then to disparage those of the Muslim faith are patently obvious.

[Kyrshamarks, BSN, RN]

Religious accommodation is NEITHER sexism nor discrimination.

Your continued attempts to undermine the blatant racism in the first case , then to disparage those of the Muslim faith are patently obvious.

First of all, obviously your own prejudices against conservatives taint your view of things. It really shows.

No where did I endorse the racism encountered by the nurse in the story. I have not disparaged muslims at all for their beliefs, but religious accommodation is a form of discrimination if it does not allow everyone to be treated equally.

I dont think hospitals should bow to the demands of patients when they exclude any member of the healthcare team.

So take off your i hate conservatives shirt and quit looking at things thru a prejudiced view