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Male nurses reported the highest rates of discrimination.
Twenty-nine percent experienced discrimination based
on gender, age or race and 32 percent reported experiencing
sexual harassment or a hostile work environment related
to the conduct of physicians.
With statistics varying from region to region, nurses
in New England faired best when it came to gender, age
or race discrimination while nurses in Texas, Oklahoma,
Louisiana and Arkansas had the highest rate (20 percent).
Nurses in the West-California, Nevada, Oregon and Washington-came
in a close second at 16 percent.
"Federal laws prohibiting discrimination don't
prohibit just anything that somebody might be offended
by," said Dianna Johnston, assistant legal counsel
at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in Washington,
D.C. Asking a co-worker out on a date is not necessarily
harassment, although some people in some situations
might be offended by it. It may rise to the level of
harassment, however, if the requests persist over a
period of time, particularly after the person has asked
that it stop.
"One of the things the courts try to do is balance
the need to protect employees from abusive work environments
and protect employers from employees who are hypersensitive,"
Johnston said. "There's no magic bright line that
distinguishes abuse that is illegal from something that
is merely obnoxious or offensive."
Surrounding circumstances are crucial. In Oncale v.
Sundowner Offshore Services Inc., the Supreme Court
distinguished between a football player being patted
on the buttocks by a coach after a winning play and
similar conduct in an office setting. Using religious
or ethnic slurs will probably cross the line fairly
quickly. But even in some cases where the employer has
used a racial slur, courts still found no race discrimination,
Johnston said, because either there were too few instances
or it was not considered severe or pervasive enough
to create an abusive work environment.
"It's hard to get a measure [on harassment],"
agreed Lynn Wildman, RN, a labor representative for
the California Nurses Association. She believes, however,
the line is crossed when a nurse feels threatened or
uncomfortable about something said or done. "What
makes it difficult to define," Wildman said, "is
that sometimes whether or not behavior is harassment
depends on how the person on the receiving end perceives
it."
"Sexual banter was the norm when I worked in the
OR and it probably still is in a lot of places,"
said Maggie (not her real name), a manager of operating
room services, "but now, as the supervisor, I don't
tolerate it." She has filed complaints with the
human resources department so staff members don't have
to. "Once I followed through on a couple of situations,
it hasn't been much of a problem," she said.
Maggie acknowledges that her success wouldn't be possible
without support from hospital administration and the
chief of the surgical division. She is quick to point
out, however, that she is helping them enforce discrimination
and harassment laws and believes it's one of the things
that helps her retain staff nurses.
"Even if [administration] doesn't necessarily
understand how harassment offends and belittles people,
they usually understand staffing and shortages,"
she said, "and sometimes you have to put it in
terms of the bottom line."
The Oregon Health & Science University in Portland
has dedicated a separate staff to oversee its policies
on prohibited discrimination. "We basically have
zero tolerance for any prohibited discrimination in
the workplace and we expect a prohibited harassment-free
workplace or environment," said Jilma Meneses,
director of the Affirmative Action and Equal Opportunity
Department.
Under university policy, employees who claim discrimination
based on gender, race or age have the option of bringing
it to the attention of their immediate supervisor or
going directly to the department, which is responsible
for investigating and making recommendations, ranging
from counseling and training to termination.
"Among the tips we distribute [to employees],"
Meneses said, "is the recommendation that they
speak up at the time of the incident in a clear and
direct manner."
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