Angelite Nurses

Skilled Healthcare Group is ordered to pay up to $450,000 after allegedly enforcing an English-only policy against Latinos at California and Texas facilities.

Latino workers in California and Texas allegedly punished for speaking Spanish in their workplaces will be granted up to $450,000, free English classes and other relief under a consent decree approved this week in a class-action lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in Los Angeles. 

The lawsuit alleged that Skilled Healthcare Group Inc. and affiliated firms, based in Orange County with facilities in six Western and Southern states, enforced an English-only rule against Latinos but not other ethnic groups speaking Tagalog and other languages. 

Latino workers were prohibited from speaking Spanish to Spanish-speaking nursing home residents, disciplined for speaking their native tongue in the parking lot on breaks and subjected to other forms of discrimination and harassment, said Anna Park, the EEOC's regional attorney in Los Angeles.

"In the most diverse state in the nation, employers should not single out certain languages and cultures for harsher treatment," Park said. 

The healthcare firm's attorney, however, vigorously disputed the allegations and said the two sides settled the lawsuit without testing the claims as a way to avoid costly and time-consuming litigation. 

Attorney Thomas Mackey said the first complaint was filed in 2002, when the skilled nursing facilities were under different management. But he asserted that even then the firm never employed an "English-only policy." 

He said managers always encouraged employees to speak in the language most comfortable for residents, including Spanish.

Two of the claimants, however, asserted otherwise. Shilo Schilling, a 40-year-old certified nursing assistant, said she was emphatically told at orientations at two of the group's Torrance facilities that only English would be allowed. 

"I was kind of in a daze," said Schilling, the bilingual daughter of a Mexican mother and Hawaiian father. "I thought, 'OK, then how are we supposed to communicate with our Spanish-speaking patients?' "

In one case at the Royalwood Care Center in Torrance, she said, a resident told her in Spanish that she needed to use the restroom. When Schilling responded in Spanish, she said, she was told by a supervisor that she would be written up or fired if she continued to speak that language. 

Yet some of the supervisors and charge nurses would speak a different language, such as Tagalog, she said. She left the firm after less than a year. 

Jose Zazueta, a Mexico native who worked as a janitor at the Royalwood facility, filed the original complaint alleging that he was fired because he could not guarantee he would speak only English. Park said Zazueta was a monolingual Spanish-speaker who warned a colleague in Spanish to watch out for the wet floor he had just mopped. When a supervisor heard him, Park said, he was asked to pledge to use only English but could not and was fired.

English-only workplace policies are allowed if there is a business necessity for them, Park said. Mackey said that federal law also allows employers to ask employees who can speak English to do so. 

He said sorting out the claims among employees who were bilingual and those who said they were monolingual could have required extensive litigation, one reason the two sides agreed to resolve the lawsuit.

Under the consent decree, the Skilled Healthcare Group will pay $180,000 for distribution among 53 claimants and offer them free English classes. If they complete them, they will receive another $2,500 each. In addition, the firm agreed to provide anti-discrimination training at its facilities and appoint a monitor to oversee efforts to comply with federal law. 

The lawsuit was part of a growing raft of charges filed nationwide alleging national origin discrimination. In 2008, filings increased to a record high of 10,601, up 13% from the previous year. Among them, 204 filings involved English-only rules, up from 125 cases two years earlier, according to EEOC figures. 

Filings alleging national origin discrimination in the Los Angeles area were twice as high as the national average, 27% of all complaints compared with 11.4% nationwide. 

"We are seeing a lot of anti-immigrant sentiment and the demonization of one group," Park said.

Schilling said she hoped the settlement would bring broader understanding of the region's diverse needs.

"I think everyone has the right to speak in the language they feel most comfortable with," she said.

teresa.watanabe@latimes.com

A nurse who secretly filmed for the BBC to reveal the neglect of elderly patients at a hospital has been struck off for misconduct. 

Margaret Haywood, 58, filmed at the Royal Sussex Hospital in Brighton for a BBC Panorama programme in July 2005. 

She was struck off by the Nursing and Midwifery Council which said she failed to "follow her obligations as a nurse". 

Ms Haywood, a nurse for over 20 years, said she thought she had been treated harshly and had put patients first. 

Ms Haywood, from Liverpool, said: "I am absolutely devastated and upset by it all. I think I have been treated very harshly. 
“ Panorama believes that Margaret Haywood has done the elderly population of this country a great service ” 
BBC spokesman 

"It is a serious issue and I knew it was a risk I was taking but I thought the filming was justified and it was in the public interest. 

"I always made it clear to the BBC that patients would come first at all times." 

She said she had voiced her concerns through her immediate line manager "but nothing was really taken on board" and the whole process now needed to be reviewed. 

'Patients' dignity compromised' 

A Department of Health spokesperson said: "Whistle-blowers already have full protection under the Public Interest Disclosure Act passed by this Government. 

"We expect that any member of staff who reports concerns about the safety or quality of care to be listened to by their managers and action taken to address their concerns." 

She was found guilty of misconduct on Wednesday following a fitness to practise hearing. 

The panel said she "followed the behest of the filmmakers... rather than her obligations as a nurse". 

The chair of the panel, Linda Read, said Ms Haywood had prioritised the filming, which in the view of the panel "was a major breach of the code of conduct". 

She said: "A patient should be able to trust a nurse with his/her physical condition and psychological wellbeing without that confidential information being disclosed to others. HAVE YOUR SAY How can the NMC expect respect and confidence from the public they are supposed to be serving when they react in this deplorable and protectionist manner? Graham, Canterbury 

"Although the conditions on the ward were dreadful, it was not necessary to breach confidentiality to seek to improve them by the method chosen. 

She said the misconduct was "fundamentally incompatible with being a nurse". 

"The registrant could have attempted to address shortcomings by other means. But this was never a course of action which she fully considered." 

Ms Haywood had admitted breaching patient confidentiality but denied her fitness to practise had been impaired. 
“ This makes total nonsense of all the talk about openness and transparency in the NHS. Cover-up is the order of the game ” 
Joyce Robins, Patient Concern 

Elizabeth Bloor, the BBC programme's producer, told the hearing there had been "an over-arching public interest" to produce the Undercover Nurse documentary because Panorama had received up to 5,000 complaints about conditions. 

In November the panel found no evidence that Ms Haywood broke the NHS Trust's policy on whistle-blowing by raising concerns about patient care in the documentary, or that she failed to assist colleagues when a patient was having a seizure. 

A BBC spokesman said: "There was clearly a strong public interest in revealing that some elderly people were not receiving the level of care we expect from our national health service. 

"Panorama believes that Margaret Haywood has done the elderly population of this country a great service." 

'Right and proper' 

The National Union of Journalists (NUJ) said its code of conduct stated that surreptitious means of gaining information were permissible in the public interest, and the same should apply to whistle-blowers. 

Tim Gopsill, of the NUJ, said: "Sometimes the only way to get anything done is to go to the media. No-one could possibly argue that this story was not in the public interest." 

The panel's ruling was also criticised by Joyce Robins, co-director of Patient Concern. 

She said: "This just demonstrates the priorities of the regulators - rules come before patients every time. The message that goes out to nurses is: however badly you see patients treated, keep your face shut. 

"This makes total nonsense of all the talk about openness and transparency in the NHS. Cover-up is the order of the game." 

Ms Haywood's actions were also defended by Gary Fitzgerald, chief executive of Action on Elder Abuse. 

He said: "We know that we're seeing older people suffering the most appalling care and neglect too often in our care environments. 

"In that context I believe what Margaret Haywood did and what Panorama did was right and proper." 

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/england/sussex/8002559.stm

Published: 2009/04/16 18:14:26 GMT

© BBC MMIX

Young Filipinos work as nurses abroad to send money back home.

When April Quirante graduated as the valedictorian of her high school in the small town of Sison in the Philippines, she planned to pursue her dream of becoming an accountant. But after a year of accounting, her family expected her to study something else. When classes resume in June, she will not be learning about economics, finance, or mathematics. Instead, she will enroll in nursing school and soon be expected to enter the demanding environment of an American hospital. Hers is a common story: Quirante is one of thousands of young Filipinos who study nursing with the intention to work abroad. 

According to U.S. Bureau of labor statistics, there are about 100,000 unfilled nursing positions in the United States today. The Bureau estimates that by 2020, there will be close to 800,000 more nurses needed than employed in the United States. As Western populations age and technological advances make more treatment options available, many developed nations are facing a similar problem and have begun looking to the developing world to fill the gap in nursing labor. 

According to the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration, over 13,000 Filipinos leave the country each year to pursue nursing as an economic opportunity abroad. A former U.S. territory, the Philippines has maintained an admiration for and a mutual friendship with the United States since the country’s independence in 1946. Mary lui, an associate professor of history and American studies at Yale who focuses on Asian- American history, told the Globalist that this relationship has existed since the Colonial Period. While immigrants from other Asian countries faced exclusion, Filipinos had far fewer limitations. Americans helped develop higher education in the Philippines, and nursing in particular became popular as it became associated with modern hygiene. lui explained that after the removal of country- based quotas in 1965, the Filipino migration to nursing in the United States “really took off.” Additionally, English has long been an official language of the Philippines, making Filipinos more attractive employees in the United States than comparable workers without English language skills. 

However, there has been some resistance to Filipino nurses, led in particular by the American Nursing Association, which views immigrants as being in competition with American nurses. Filipino nurses are often paid less than domestic ones: Many hospitals and universities bring in Filipino nurses under the title of “intern” or “nurse-in-training,” paying them less than full wages even though they work full shifts and bear full responsibilities. 

But dedication to the profession does not go unnoticed. Employers quickly detect which nurses are passionate about their work. “It’s a job that you have to really enjoy to be successful in,” said Maryknoll Quiachon, a Filipino nurse who left her apartment in Pandacan, Manila, seven years ago to work abroad in London. 

Originally a political science student, Quiachon pursued nursing after her family helped her realize that it would be her chance to join her relatives already in the United States. despite her stable income, Quiachon, a mother of two, lives in a cramped house with two other families and two single women. She sends a sizable portion of her income back to her mother and siblings in the Philippines. 

What is left is saved for her journey to the United States, for which she has been waiting since she left the Philippines. When asked about the decision to pursue nursing, Quiachon said, “There’s more than just coming to America on my mind.” Quiachon was only able to begin studying nursing with financial support from family abroad. Now with a sustainable income, she views it as her duty to help her remaining relatives go to school in pursuit of better employment. “My aunt and uncle helped me, and now it is my turn,” she said. 

Due to emigration of doctors and nurses, the Philippines has only one medical professional for every 15,000 citizens, according to the World Health Organization. Brain drain continues, leaving few to care for the country from within. Remittances to families make up a significant portion of the GdP, reinforcing the dependency on overseas workers. 

Paired with a foreign-focused education, this attachment to the American economy raises the question: How independent has the Philippines really become over the last 60 years? Meanwhile, with the lack of nurses in the United States only growing, American citizens may be increasingly dependent on Filipinos in return. 

Joe Bolognese is a freshman in Pierson College.