Work

Nurse awarded €30,000 over ‘serious racial and sexual harassment’ from care home patients

Vanessa Rodrigues-Linhan told WRC dementia patient cornered her while ‘touching himself’

Incidents involving two male patients were referred to the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) by former care home nurse Vanessa Rodrigues-Linhan. Photograph: Colin Keegan/Collins

Stephen Bourke
Thu Apr 11 2024 - 14:57

A care home nurse who was cornered in a room by a man with dementia while he was “touching himself” and was racially abused by another patient has won €30,000 in compensation.

The incidents involving the two patients were referred to the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) by Vanessa Rodrigues-Linhan in a complaint she lodged against CareChoice Swords 2 Ltd under the Employment Equality Act 1998 shortly before she handed in her notice last year.

Ms Rodrigues-Linhan told the WRC that one patient, Mr A, was “aggressive” and “would often leave the home and return drunk”, which was a particular issue for those on the night shift.

On December 20th, 2022, she said Mr A came back from an evening in the pub and became “angry and abusive”. He left his room in his underwear, came to the nurses’ station and said “very racist things” to her, she said.

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Adjudicator David James Murphy noted that Ms Rodrigues-Linhan was “quite upset” as she gave her evidence on this. Her former employer’s representative agreed she did not need to repeat the exact words Mr A used during a hearing of the case on October 17th last.

Ms Rodrigues-Linhan said Mr A then took up a Christmas decoration and pushed it into her chest, adding that she was “terrified” and felt “vulnerable” as there were few staff around. Her evidence was that there were three healthcare assistants and two nurses to look after 46 patients during the night shift.

Days after complaining about Mr A to human resources, she met the man in a kitchen area and he “began shouting racial abuse”, the complainant said. This included calling her a “stupid black woman” and telling her to “go back to her country”.

Ms Rodrigues-Linhan said Mr B was a dementia patient with whom there were “well known issues”, including that he would “touch himself in public” and “try to touch residents”. She told the tribunal that Mr B entered another resident’s room where she was working “touching himself” and “trying to get her to go into his room”.

Mr B “ended up cornering her in the room while touching herself” and did not retreat until Ms Rodriques-Linhan took up a can of deodorant, the tribunal was told. She said she was left “really shaken”, but the view from the nurses was that as the man had dementia “he is like that and these kind of things can happen”.

The home’s director of nursing and assistant director of nursing were both granted anonymity by the adjudicator in his decision.

The assistant director said of Mr A, who the worker had accused of getting drunk and racially abusing her: “He’s allowed to go in and out of the home as he pleases. It’s his right to do so. He is much better now and doesn’t stay out late any more.”

The director of nursing said the patient was “part of the community” and had been “apologetic” when he was informed that he had intimidated the complainant.

In his decision, WRC adjudicator David James Murphy noted that although the care plan for Mr A referred to “aggressive behaviour”, Ms Rodrigues-Linhan believed there was no reference to the risks involved with looking after Mr B in the relevant documents for him.

The company produced the plan for Mr B, which included “entries from a year before the complainant’s issues noting his sexual approaches to residents, nurses and carers”. It also provided “bullet points on how to manage interventions”, Mr Murphy said.

“It is not clear how visible these entries would have been to the complainant a year later,” he said.

The adjudicator said Ms Rodrigues-Linhan had been subjected “serious racial and sexual harassment which made her legitimately fear for her safety” in the two separate incidents.

He remarked that the director of nursing and assistant director of nursing “appeared to be considered and professional people” who tried to address issues when they became aware of them. However, he said that in a case of harassment, the most important tier of management was the worker’s immediate supervisor being “on hand to actually react to incidents and risks”.

Ruling that the complaint was “well founded”, he ordered the company to pay Ms Rodrigues-Linhan €30,000 in compensation.

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