A New Father DEMANDS

[Pixilated]

He may have the right to choose who cares for his child, as kamn pointed out, but I do not believe he's got the right to dictate how the hospital utilizes its staff. The hospital should never have buckled to his demands.

[fireheart17]

If it was religious grounds, would that have made a difference?

Most pregnant women who are of a particular religion would normally make their intentions clear when talking to their prenatal carers as well as the hospital, so to prevent any accidental mishaps (i.e. a Jehovahs witness woman ends up having transfused blood). Usually it boils down to "I don't want a male/female midwife/nurse" and that's it. I do believe that they would also actually talk to the people involved and explain why. (One story I remember involved a male midwife being told that he couldn't deliver a particular baby but their intentions had been made clear beforehand and the guy wasn't a complete dick about it)

Also I do believe that religion is a protected class. Being a neo-nazi dickhead is not.

[Gravekeeper]

Yeah, I don't see why the hospital should essentially comply with a veiled threat and make it worse by discriminating against its own staff to comply with it.

They should have called the cops and had a black police officer attend the birth ;p

[Panacea]

The fact that he is a bigoted ass aside, does he not have a say on who cares for his child? It kinda puts the hospital in a spot. Do they do as requested and risk a lawsuit or deny his request and risk a lawsuit.

His say is limited based on the professionalism and skill of the caregiver. If the specific caregiver had not gotten along with the family, or the family complained the caregiver done something specific, then a request for that specific caregiver not to care for the patient would be honored. It also would be documented by risk management. That scenario happens all the time, and is usually benign. Sometimes people just don't click; it's OK and I don't take it personally if a patient says they prefer not to have me as their nurse.

But to generalize it on race is not acceptable and creates problems for adequate staffing. I've worked a lot of places with a diverse staff; to avoid every single staff member on every shift of a particular race caring for the child is impossible, and puts undue burdens on everyone else who now has to fill in that hole.

Yeah that's the dilemma. The guy is an asshole and assholes shouldn't be accomodated, but at least they know he's an asshole. At that point, what good would it have done to have her care for the child?

I don't think that's the issue for the nurse. I think this issue for her is the fact her administration didn't have her back.

As long as he is the primary legal guardian of said baby...

Yes. Sadly, he has the right to choose his carers. Sadly because of the reasons and grounds on which he chooses them...

I disagree, for the reasons explained above. Unless you have a specific beef with a specific person for a specific reason, you do not have the right to make staffing demands and throw workloads out of balance. If you don't like it, go to another hospital.

Now in regards to male caregivers vs female patients AND vice versa, that's a reasonable accomodation because it is so limited. I've never had a patient refuse ALL care from a caregiver of opposite gender; just care related to the potential exposure of the private areas.

It's a common issue in OB GYN nursing; usually the female is fine with a male caregiver as long as a female is in the room. The husbands are usually fine with it as well. If they really want a female OB, then they understand they may have to wait, or that in an emergency the male OB will step in and do what's necessary.

I've had male patients not want female nurses to put in foley catheters. And I've had male patients not want a male nurse to do it. Those are short term issues easily accomodated.

Rarely a patient has stated they prefer a nurse of their own gender only; they've always been told that if we have the staff we will accommodate them but if we don't we can't.

Race is a horse of a different color. I've had the issue come up and the patient has always been told NO. I have had some patients leave because of it . . . but it was always a non-emergency situation. I've never seen it an issue when it was a matter of life and death. Funny about that.