Iowa
Related: About this forumIowa nurse is fired after a patient's family calls COVID-19 a 'hoax'
An Iowa nurse was fired from her job after arguing with a patients family who said COVID-19 is a hoax.
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Clark Kauffman Iowa Capital Dispatch
Published 2:36 p.m. CT Sep. 28, 2020 | Updated 8:41 a.m. CT Sep. 29, 2020
An Iowa nurse was fired from her job after arguing with a patients family who said COVID-19 is a hoax. ... State records indicate that in April, Lisa Dockery was fired from her job as a home-health nurse for Recover Health Services, an agency with offices throughout Iowa. For the previous eight years, Dockery worked with one patient full-time a nonverbal boy with severe disabilities.
As part her job, Dockery assisted the boy with all activities of daily living. After the COVID-19 pandemic struck, the boys parents allegedly told Dockery they believed the virus was a hoax and they refused to wear a mask around her or their son. ... Dockery told the boys parents their child was at risk of death if he contracted the virus because of his respiratory problems, his need to be fed by tube, and the fact that he is not ambulatory.
On April 6, Dockery and the parents became involved in an argument about COVID-19. The boys father asked Dockery to leave and, as a result, Recover fired Dockery. ... At her unemployment hearing, Dockery testified she had always received positive performance reviews and she had never been disciplined by her employer. She testified that she misses her job and would still be working for the family if the pandemic had not occurred.
In awarding Dockery unemployment benefits, Administrative Law Judge Heather Palmer wrote that she did not find Recover had met its burden of proving Dockery acted with negligence in violation of company policy. Recover has failed to establish any intentional and substantial disregard of its interest that rises to the level of willful misconduct, Palmer ruled.
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Cirque du So-What
(27,642 posts)Eventually, only the most desperate of immigrants will want to work in the field.
Tanuki
(15,433 posts)It's a shame she lost her job and that the patient's uninformed and stubborn parents insist on endangering him. The agency was obviously remiss in not mandating basic covid precautions as a condition of providing service once the pandemic started. And I can't imagine the stupidity of parents who were willing to throw away an otherwise good relationship with a caregiver who has devoted the past 8 years to supporting and assisting their special needs son over something like this.
procon
(15,805 posts)Her employer should have backed her because the science supports their requirements for masking. The parents can do what they please the rest of the time, except for the actual time the nurse is there to care for their kid.
It's a minor inconvenience. They hired someone with the skills and expertise they lacked so they have no rights to interfere with her protocols.
NRaleighLiberal
(60,592 posts)bucolic_frolic
(47,748 posts)If they meet standard care for your condition, they're safe. She advised them of the risks they were taking. Seems normal to me.
TeamPooka
(25,475 posts)Its bad enough that you fire her out right and dont just find her another position. But to dispute the unemployment. The people in charge of that company are fucking scum bags
Dark n Stormy Knight
(10,054 posts)Glad the nurse at least got her UC approved.
Reminds me of why I'm so glad I'm no long teaching in the public schools: belligerently ignorant parents who were dangerous even before Pissolini came along to embolden them.
eppur_se_muova
(37,768 posts)Ohhhhh, it's Iowa. Never mind.