Certified nursing assistant Brenda Chaney had this experience in Indianapolis. While working at a nursing home in Indiana, she saw a woman on the floor but had to find a white assistant because the women had given staff special instructions that she did not desire to have any black health care providers. Add to that that the sad truth is that the nursing home was obligated to honor the woman’s request.
This is the event that led to a recent federal court ruling that concluded Chaney’s civil rights had been violated. Moreover, it brought a magnifying glass to the patients’ rights movement. In 1987, Congress enacted the Nursing Home Reform Law to address abuse of nursing home patients. Next, states followed with regulations that would guarantee that residents were free from abuse and had quality of care. The patent’s rights movement gave elderly patients more legal control over their quality of life in nursing homes and even the ability choose the race of their caregivers.
This is common across the country according to some reports. It has happened in Indiana previously and in Montana, where staff has made formal legal complaints. Based on this new federal ruling, state health officials in Indiana are expected to notify all nursing homes of the court decision, which may become precedent throughout the nation. In the 2000 Montana case, the Department of Labor and Industry said a nursing home operated inappropriately by reassigning a black caregiver to avoid confrontations with white patients.
Chaney, a 49-year-old single mother at the time, said she “felt like it was wrong,” and that “I just had to go with the flow.”
The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, ruling in Chaney’s case last month, said applying that accommodation to race goes too far.
Chaney, a 49-year-old single mother at the time, said she “felt like it was wrong,” and that “I just had to go with the flow.”
The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, ruling in Chaney’s case last month, said applying that accommodation to race goes too far. –torrance stephens, ph.d.
