Legal Eagle Eye Newsletter for the Nursing Profession

  The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit (Michigan) recently upheld the dismissal of a nurse’s disability discrimination lawsuit.

  The nurse’s physician certified she could work eight-hour shifts in pediatrics but could not work twelve-hour shifts in pediatrics because of recurrent tendinitis in multiple joints, chondromalacia, sub-patellar crepitus and pain in both knees, fascitis in both feet and low back radiculopathy.  She also had a gastric ulcer which contraindicated taking aspirin or acetaminophen for pain, in her doctor’s opinion.

  The hospital’s pediatrics floor switched from eight-hour to twelve-hour shift scheduling for all nurses.

  The hospital offered the nurse a favorable recommendation if she wished to apply at another hospital with eight-hour shift staffing in pediatrics and the option to transfer to another unit at the same hospital with eight-hour shift staffing.  She refused the hospital’s assistance, quit and sued for disability discrimination.

  The court ruled her condition was not a legal disability for a pediatric nurse.  Even so, it would not be a reasonable accommodation to have to schedule one nurse for eight hours when every other nurse worked twelve.  And her physician would not clear her for work with adult patients, due to significant lifting requirements.  In the court’s view that meant the nurse was not a qualified individual with a disability relative to work with non-pediatric patients.  Doren v. Health, 187 F. 3d 595 (6th Cir., 1999).

Additional references from nursinglaw.com

http://www.nursinglaw.com/workshifts.htm

http://www.nursinglaw.com/stress-depression-disability-discrimination.htm

http://www.nursinglaw.com/brain-tumor-disability-nurse.htm

http://www.nursinglaw.com/night-blindness-discrimination.htm