any recourse for poor treatment by employer after injury?

[kellya127]

What is the name of your state? Florida. Last year I hurt my back lifting a patient. I asked to go to the Dr. and was told no, I was putting them in a bad spot. I did get to the Dr. after much persistence. I was placed on light duty, and returned to work after a couple days off. I was following up with a Dr. and having an X-ray and MRI which took forever to be set up by work comp. In the mean time I was treated very poorly by my administrator and Director of Nursing. I was told by the stafffing coordinator and HR director that admin said I was faking an injury. My situation was openly discussed in meetings. I feel they purposely treated me bad in either an attempt to make me quit or they were just plain retaliatory. The following are examples of my problems; Placed in a position that I knew nothing about (staffing coordinator) which had just been vacated, With one day of training. They said they did not have any where else to put me. Rescinded my vacation which had already been approved and scheduled. They said they could not allow me to take it, they needed me too much. Make sense? They put me on the floor while I was still on light duty because they were short nurses. It is impossible to work hands on with patients and maintain "light duty". When I did get my vacation the following month, They called me in after 3 days and the rest of my vacation was cancelled. Finally when I returned to full duty, I was told I had to change positions. Different floor and different shift. They almost made me switch to nights but I insisted that was wrong and they backed down a bit. All this and there was noone new in my position from before. I feel very discouraged by this treatment, especially after hurting myself taking good care of their patient. Other employees have had similar problems. Can employers face any recourse for this or is it just one of those things? Any advice is appreciated. Thanks

 

[kellya127]

IAAL???????? Nothing?

 

[d8ddysgirl]

There seems more to this story. There are to many things here that I don't beleive.

"I was told by the stafffing coordinator and HR director that admin said I was faking an injury"

Why would they say this and risk being sued. I work in HR and I would be on the unemployment line.

"Can employers face any recourse for this or is it just one of those things?"

NO, how long were you on the job before you got hurt?

"They called me in after 3 days and the rest of my vacation was cancelled."

Its hard for me to beleive this. IN all my years of HR I have never had one of my nurse managers calling in a nurse off of vacation just to torment them. Or to call them off of vacation at all. I could see it happening it you had a floor full of patients and 1 nurse.

Like I said things don't add up here.

CBG, what do you think?

 

[kellya127]

The staffing coordinator was on her way out the door for a new job. I was made to take over her job even though I insisted that I knew nothing about staffing and did not feel comfortable handling that job. She TOLD me they were giving me a hard time. While in this position, I worked closely with the HR director. She also TOLD me the same things. Administration thinks I was faking an injury. She also expressed worry about telling me these things as they would land her in the unemp line. I assurred her I would not say any thing. I do not intend to get her in trouble. She felt bad for me because she could see for herself that they were being very difficult with me. I worked there for a year and a half when I hurt myself. My HR dir said the same thing about never hearing of this before re: taking someone off vacation. She even called the regional HR dir while I was sitting across from her desk and she said the same thing. She had never heard of that nor heard of not putting an empl back in the same position when returned to duty. I assure you, these things happened. I am not here to make up things. Not only did they take away my vacation, but they did it because they said they could not do without me at the time, but at the same time put me in the staffing position because they had " nowhere else to put" me.

 

[cbg]

Workers comp is not my strong point; hopefully Beth3 will come by as she's dealt with it a lot more than I have. I've worked primarily in white collar industries where workers comp claims are few and far between. Beth's been mostly in manufacturing. I'll see if I can get her up here.

However, for what it's worth, I agree there are details missing. I'd also like to point out that it is NOT illegal to change someone's job duties if their disability or restrictions prevents them from performing the essential functions of their position. However, it is impossible to say on the basis of the facts we have whether anything illegal has transpired or not.

I'd very much like to know the following from the OP:

1.) How long had you been working for this employer at the time of the injury?

2.) How many employees are there?

3.) How much time, total did you miss?

4.) How long were you on light duty?

5.) Did your doctor put you on any restrictions?

6.) If so, would those restrictions preclude you from performing any of your regular job duties?

On paper, it is not illegal to cancel your vacation and it is not illegal to transfer you, unilaterally, into another job even if you don't feel qualified for it. However, IF either of these things happened in retaliation for filing a workers comp claim or IN SOME CIRCUMSTANCES if it happened because you took medical leave, then it might be. We just can't say with the information available at this particular point.

 

[d8ddysgirl]

The only time I place someone else in another position is if they do not qualify for a Family Medical Leave and their job is not secure. We will keep you on the payroll but your job will be posted and filled and we can put you in another position. Its not illeagal. Plus if there were restrictions they were accomidating them. I think I am still missing something or something is left out.

FYI...your HR person is in serious breech of confidentiallity.

 

[cbg]

"your HR person is in serious breech of confidentiallity"

What are you talking about?

 

[d8ddysgirl]

"I was told by the stafffing coordinator and HR director that admin said I was faking an injury. My situation was openly discussed in meetings."

These meetings and what is said in them is meant to stay within those walls. It is confidential. I sit on a WC board w/i the hospital. Everything we say w/i those meetings is not to go beyond that point. (for obvious reasons). By bringing out what was said is very inappropriate and is a breech of confidentiallity. Meetings are heald to discuss things that others don't need to hear or everyone including this person would have been invited to attend.

 

[krispenstpeter]

Did you even read the post stupid. The meeting was at the company, NOT the hospital. And there is no legal breech since a private company is not under any legal obligation to confidentiality.

Geeez, let me know what hospital you work at. If you're this incompetent I never want to get near it.

 

[ellencee]

I've been following this post and I have some questions, too.
What kind of facility is this? I am guessing it is a longterm care facility or an extremely small acute care hospital.
What kind of 'nurse' is the original poster? RN, LPN, CNA?
Why did the original poster agree to end her vacation and return to work? Once she was 'on' her vacation, she had no responsibility to be available to work.

Light duty most certainly can be provided by an RN or LPN even in hands-on patient care. IV duties, dressing changes, transcribing orders, admissions, discharges, chart audits, inventory managment, patient teaching...it goes on and on.

My gut instinct tells me this is a young employee, not particularly happy with her job, and prone to constant complaining about various issues--and, possibly this poster is in a marriage or relationship where her partner is either abusive or addicted, or both, or this employee is simply way too immature to be in a professional role (RN). I also suspect management (DON, administrator) are working their way towards dismissal of this employee on grounds for dismissal rather than termination of employment at will.

The duties of a staffing coordinator are not that hard to understand; make out a schedule using one of several formulas already in use at the facililty. The duties of a staffing coordinator are contraindicated in back-strain injuries, though. Sitting for long periods of time is no way to heal a back-strain; light duty on a floor would have allowed the poster to alternate walking and sitting.

I've been an RN for over 25 years and I've seen this happen many times. It may not be 'fair' and it may not show any understanding of how to heal a back-strain, but I doubt seriously if any labor laws have been broken. The poster can call her local DOL and ask; in fact, she can go online and send them an email and they will respond with an answer and explanation.

I suggest the poster seek employment elsewhere while she can still find employment in the same field. Summer is nearly here and the nursing shortage in Florida will be alleviated during this period when the 'snowbirds' go north for the summer.

EC

 

[cbg]

There has been no LEGAL breach of confidentiality.

Whether it was appropriate or not depends upon exactly who was in these meetings, but if it was limited to HR personnel and/or those individuals who had a legitimate need to know (such as her supervisor) then I see nothing inappropriate whatsoever. Certainly nothing in the post gives the poster the right to sue for any supposed breach.

 

[d8ddysgirl]

Who said anything about suing? All I said was its not right for these closed door meetings to be discussed outside. Especially if they say she is faking an injury.

 

[krispenstpeter]

Who said anything about suing? All I said was its not right for these closed door meetings to be discussed outside. Especially if they say she is faking an injury.

No. This is EXACTLY what you said:

By bringing out what was said is very inappropriate and is a breech of confidentiallity.

There is no breech of confidentiality as there is no expectation under the law that confidentiality exists. CASE CLOSED!

 

[kellya127]

Hi everyone. Thank you so much for all of your responses. I'm sorry I took so long to get back. First I will answer some questions. At the time of the injury I had worked for this company a year and a half. They have approx. 300 employees, I believe. This is a long term/ subacute facility. I work on the subacute unit. I am an LPN. Total time missed was less than 1 week. A couple days along with my regular days off. I was placed on light duty with the following restrictions; no bending, no lifting, no pushing or pulling. The day I was placed to work on the floor I had to do 3 dressing changes which required bending and contorting my body. If one is a nurse, one would understand what I am talking about. Wounds do not typically appear on the top of a patients head where it would not require any bending to get to. I had a med cart which has all over the counter drugs and all narcotics in the bottom drawer, requiring bending to get to. I was on light duty for about 2 months total. As for the vacation issue, I came in to pick up my paycheck on a friday, with wet clothes and sand in my hair from the beach. My admin. told me I was scheduled for the weekend, the next day. I told her "No, I am on vacation" she told me "No. You don't have an option here. We need you to work". So I worked the next day and since. As for the meetings I am talking about, they are not wc meetings. They are meetings that are held every morning for the department heads ( nursing, therapy, social services, housekeeping, dietary, admissions, HR and so on) normally these meetings are held to coordinate admissions, discharges and other issues pertaining to patients). They are not HR meetings. For most of the time I was on light duty I worked as a desk nurse. The problem was, they pulled me to do other things all the time like work the floor when someone called in. I am 32 years old. I have been a nurse for 10 years. I have a happy marriage, 1 child. No one is addicted or abused. WTF??????????? I'm not sure why I need to answer these questions though. So I am done with that. Try DR.PHIL.COM. Maybe you could be more helpful there. I like to consider myself young, but I am certainly old enough. I am an optimist, a happy person generally, not a complainer, I do, however, know when I am being wronged. I was wronged here. My question was regarding the legal aspect of the situation. Staffing coordinators job is NOT easy. If you are so good at it I will send you an application, as this position is open once again. Errrrrrrrr, nevermind. You were right about one thing, they were certainly trying to get me to quit, but since I have been off light duty and everything is back to normal, I get nothing but smiles and compliments. I am a good nurse that gives them nothing but a great reputation. Like I said in the beginning, this was all because I used work comp. They're behavior was retaliatory. SORRY ABOUT THIS POST BEING ALL OVER THE PLACE. I wanted to answers everyone's questions. Thanks for any input.

 

[ellencee]

kellya127
I just thought I'd say it's good to have a response from you and to have clarification on your LPN status. I thought I'd point out that one is an RN and that one used the word, "possible", when stating that your description of events suggests underlying reasons/behaviors such as marital issues and/or immaturity.

Thanks for the job offer and if I'm ever seduced by the charms of making out schedules (again), I'll send my CV directly to you.

EC