Nursing Home Accused of Racial Discrimination
In Plainfield, IN a former nursing home worker Brenda Chaney is claiming that discrimination played a part in her termination from the nursing home where she worked.
In 2006 Chaney decided to pursue nursing home assistant certification after feeling that the care her own father was receiving from the nursing home he resided in was inadequate. She soon received a job at Plainfield Healthcare Center where she said she had experienced racism from a patient that would not allow her to treat her because she was African American even after the patient had fallen and could not get up. The racial issue has become a legal battle over the last four years and has the potential to change how nursing homes across the country administer care. Her attorney has argued that the push to elevate patient rights has led to increasing discrimination. Chaney was later fired for using profanity against a patient, which she firmly denies, and believes that her termination was racially motivated. The attorney for the nursing home has stated that the termination had nothing to do with race and was not wrongful in any aspect. The patient that showed to have a racial bias against Chaney had put “no African American caregiver” was placed on the patients schedule of instructions in order to avoid a hostile work environment. The case will be decided on next spring.
Discrimination of any kind should never be a part of any work experience. The challenges of working as a caregiver in a nursing home are demanding and stressful enough without adding a tolerance for discrimination into the mix. There is nothing wrong with adjusting to certain preferences for each patient, but when it has the ability to make a caregiver uncomfortable in their work environment it should not be tolerated. If you are a caregiver who was recently terminated because of a possible racial bias or is currently dealing with discrimination at a nursing home, then contacting an Arizona personal injury attorney is your best option for dealing with this situation.
