sexual harrassment

[jerjam03]

I work in a nursing home. Around 2004 I filed a sexual harrassment report against a co-worker. he was supposedly put off work for 2 weeks and required to attend a class about sexual harrassment. The only follow up i received was asking me if anthing else had happened since his return. it had not. shortly after he went on medical leave and never returned other than to visit a family member who lives there. but now he has been admitted as a patient, on the unit i usually work. my boss says if i am uncomfortable i should take a nurse aide with me "to be sure nothing happens" that is not good enough. i have not slept in 3 days and have been very anxious. i cannot stand to be in the same building with him. what are my rights here? can i refuse to take care of him? is it ok that my boss accepted him as a patient? please i need help quickly! thank you!

[linearthinker, DNP, RN]

I think you need to seek the opinion of an attorney or an expert on employment law, like an advocate group. I worked with a nurse that was forced to take care of the man that had raped her daily for years in her childhood. She was told there was no alternate assignment (this is a one nurse 3-4 bed CCU) , and if she didn't want to take care of him she just had to stay home w/o pay. Amazingly, she never suffocated him with a pillow and just toughed it out b/c she had to work.

[CoffeeRTC, BSN, RN]

Did they know your history with this person? I don't know what your rights would be..I would suggest contacting an attorney. Hostile work environement? Now that he is admitted, I don't know much of what they can do since he seems to have all the rights now.

Can you have another nurse care for him? I wouldn't be alone at all with him and always have someone with me. It stinks that they would do this to an employee that has been with them for 6 yrs? Were they really that hard up for admissions or do they expect him to be very short termed?

[Asystole RN]

Just talk to your DON and tell her you are not comfortable with even taking someone else in there and it would be unprofessional for you to take care of them.

Try to trade the patient with another nurse or make your own arrangements. If the DON is sticking to her guns then talk to the Admin.

I would suggest to use your established facility chain of command or conflict resolution protocol before lawyering up...would be the professional thing to do.

[ChristineN, BSN, RN]

I'm sorry you are being put in this situation. I know from a situation of my own involving a co-worker's sexual harassment that I felt as if after a period of time (months/years), management acted as if I should be ready to move on and forget about it. They didn't really seem to understand that the amount of time that had passed from the incident didn't matter, I was still uncomfortable being around the person.

[CoffeeRTC, BSN, RN]

I always agree with going up the chain of command first. But then what? It seems crappy that after 6 yrs of working for the same place they wouldn't know about an employee's past conflict with this other employee or that it wouldnt have came up in the screening process of a new admit???