Nurse With Prior Psychiatric Hospitalization Not Disabled, No Discrimination Suit, Court Says
Legal Eagle Eye Newsletter for the Nursing Profession
April 1998
Quick Summary: Even if not disabled, a person is by law considered disabled if perceived by the employer as having an impairment that substantially limits a major life activity, and the employer acts upon that perception.
UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT, NEW YORK, 1997. During her routine pre-employment physical, a licensed practical nurse was asked about prior hospitalizations. She indicated she was in a psychiatric facility the previous year for five days for what she described as a nervous breakdown. She was hired anyway full-time on the day shift and was given an extensive period of orientation and training.Then she decided she would prefer to work evenings. She quit her day job to work per diem on evenings at the same hospital. Then a full-time evening position opened up, which she was not given on the grounds she had already quit a full-time position to work per diem. The nurse sued for disability discrimination.
The U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York acknowledged that a person is deemed disabled under the disability discrimination laws if the employer perceives the person has a disability, for example, if the person has the stigma of prior mental health treatment, even if the person is not in fact impaired in any way.
However, this nurse could not prove her employer had or was influenced by that perception of her.
Glidden v. County of Monroe, 950 F. Supp. 73 (W.D.N.Y., 1997).