Last Updated on December 18, 2004 by Paulette Brown-Hinds
VA Affidavits Allege Concrete Ceiling Culture of Racism, Favoritism, Harassment and Retaliation
Loma Linda
By Chris Levister
U.S. Veterans Administration Equal Employment records dating back to 2000 show Loma Lindas Jerry L. Pettis Memorial Veterans Hospital, a primary teaching facility for Loma Linda Medical School, has been quietly paying off experienced, highly educated Black registered nurses to drop charges of job discrimination.
Complaints filed with the VAs Regional Office of Resolution Management (ORM) by advanced practice nurses allege the hospitals nursing administration knowingly and willfully barred qualified Black RNs from management positions within the mammoth institutions nursing ranks.
Michael Dean Conrad RN MSN, considered a rare commodity in the nursing field, is both bitter and vigilant. The Highland, Ca. advanced practice nurse breathes deeply, his jaw tightens as he opens a six inch legal file and talks candidly about why he walked away from the VA hospital after 14 years of pushing against an impenetrable concrete ceiling. It offends my sense of justice that theyve gotten away with this, says Conrad.
Conrad and other nurses at the Loma Linda facility allege the hospital administration allowed Director Inpatient Nursing, Colleen Bock-Laudenslager RN MSN to operate a hostile environment fraught with nepotism, racism and deception.
April 11, 2003 the Department of Veteran Affairs granted Conrad permission to sue the hospital in federal court. ORM records show in January 2004, the Loma Linda VA Medical Center paid Conrad $20,000 to drop two employment discrimination complaints filed March 20, 2003.
The complaint named Bock-Laudenslager, Hospital Director Dean R. Stordahl, and Chief of Nursing Anne Gillespie.
Rebecca Pleasant Johnson, RN MSN holds masters degrees in nursing and health service administration with more than 25 years of nursing experience. ORM affidavits state she resigned from the hospital for the second time after failing to penetrate a festering culture of favoritism, cronyism, and discrimination.
Registered Nurse Bessie L. Staplefoote has a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) with more than 15 years nursing experience. In May 2004 she resigned from the hospital writing, after five years and seven months, of meeting the challenges of giving quality care under adverse conditions, my growth has been stagnated to a point where I question whether future years at the VA will be productive for me.
Staplefoote who is now employed in nurse management in Pennsylvania, states at the time of her resignation, there were no Black nurse managers or nurse recruiters staffing the hospitals patient wings. We were not allowed to compete for those positions, she said. Staplefoote remembers the humiliation during a recent annual performance evaluation. On one hand I was lauded with a highly satisfactory evaluation, on the other I was told to enroll in remedial communications classes.
Regional (EEO) officer for ORM James M. Foster accepted Conrads complaint based on race, sex and reprisal stating the hospital management reassigned you to the Miscellaneous Clinic on January 6, 2003 performing duties which hinder your professional growth and career advancement. Conrad claims he was pushed to the limit. The final straw came when management assigned me to give patient shots and perform other menial tasks in an attempt to embarrass and force me to resign.
VA records also show in February 2004, the VA Hospital at Loma Linda paid Rebecca Pleasant Johnson an undisclosed sum to voluntarily withdraw an EEO discrimination complaint based on two separate incidents.
The Johnson complaint alleges in February 2000 she applied for two posted nurse management positions and one clinical staff nursing position. Johnson says she filed the three applications simultaneously with the hospitals Human Resources office because the nurse recruiter was on vacation. She says she was told the date-stamped applications would be promptly forwarded to the nurse recruiter. After weeks of waiting to be interviewed, Johnson claims she inquired and was informed the management applications never reached the nurse recruiter.
Johnson claims she was told the positions had been filled and were to be announced that day. She says the hospital filled the nurse manager position with a student completing her BSN degree.
Johnsons complaint alleges the nurse management applications filed simultaneously were purposely separated. She claims Bock-Laudenslager rejected her complaint. I was systematically fenced out of the interviewing process for the management positions. Johnson says she declined an interview for the nurse staff position. Affidavits show the two missing applications were discovered several weeks later in an HR in-take basket.
The hospital defended its actions claiming Johnson failed to follow proper procedure by filing the applications with Human Resources. Johnson says her complaint was denied by the EEO, however, when she appealed the regional ruling, the hospital quickly settled the case.
The VAs Regional Office of Resolution Management refused comment on the Conrad, Johnson and Staplefoote allegations. We consider such information to be confidential and proprietary, said a spokeswoman for Los Angeles based EEO Regional Manager for Western Operations, Monte Montesanto.
Outgoing VA Secretary, Anthony J. Principi hoping to stem the growing tide of employee losses oversaw a $1-billion reorganization of its health care system and ordered an overhaul of the agencys complex hiring, retention and EEO complaint process. I expect full cooperation from each of you in support of these efforts as we reach out to women, minorities, and people with disabilities, Principi wrote in an October 10, 2003 memorandum.
A spokesman for Stordahl said the hospital director was prohibited by confidentiality restrictions from commenting on individual employees records. The spokesman said, however, that doctors and nurses are enlisted to hearings before professional boards if they wish to bring EEO complaints or fight personnel actions. The final decision is up to the Department of Veterans Affairs chief medical director in Washington D.C., not the hospital.
Critics accuse Stordahl of tolerating incompetent staff members, punishing whistleblowers and discriminating against minorities during his seven-year tenure at the VA Medical Center in Long Beach. Attorney Bruce Stark of Seal Beach, said he handled a large number of discrimination complaints at the Long Beach Medical Center during Stordahls tenure. I have to say he was not personally responsible for all the discrimination complaints that arose, Stark said. But I dont think he put his staff on clear notice that this wouldnt be tolerated.
Colleagues of Stordahl and Bock-Laudenslager bristled at the allegations of discrimination. Several associates and admirers say Stordahls list of awards, commendations and appointment suggests that he gets the job done, right, and on time. We can assure you discrimination against any ethnic group is not tolerated, a medical center spokesman said.
Interviews with more than a dozen current and former RNs, nurse union reps, physicians, and patients, offer a constrasting snapshot of highly qualified Black nurses systematically barred from holding management positions on the hospitals patient wards. It is an iron clad system of power grabbing, and gate keeping surrounded by secrecy, Johnson said.
We have been trying to break the cycle of discrimination for decades, claims veteran RN Marlene Jarrett who this year celebrated 20 years as a staff nurse on the hospitals intensive care unit (ICU). Jarrett who plans to retire in two years says the struggle for equality has worsened. Black nurses who stick it out are harassed and singled out for minor infractions, Jarrett said. She claims the last Black RN hired for the day shift in the ICU left 13 years ago.
Jarrett says, the majority of Black staff nurses are routinely relegated to less desirable split or night shifts, patient scheduling and other lower grade positions. Jarrett claims every year she mounts a campaign to recruit Black nurses and administrators. The response is always the same, we cant find qualified Black applicants.
Conrad, a former Air Force medical technician, is completing a second masters in the Family Nurse Practitioner Program at University of California Irvine (UCI). His EEO complaint alleges after becoming a Care Manager (a staff nurse position) he was continuously verbally abused by a Nurse Manager. Conrad says when he reported the incidents he was reprimanded and labeled a complainer.
He claims he applied for the positions of Nurse Manager and Nurse Recruiter after receiving his Masters in Nursing from Cal State University San Bernardino. The EEO complaint lists more than six separate applications in which Conrad was rejected by the hospital as not qualified. Conrad says after failing to move into management he applied for the UCI program. He cited an example of bias when management overlooked his Nurse Manager application and hired an RN with a Masters in Music.
Johnson says the hospital promoted a former military cook with less than two years of nursing experience to Nurse Manager despite formal protests from staff nurses and several applications from Black nurses with superior credentials. Staplefoote claims, the hospital actively recruited and hired inexperienced nurses who lacked a baccalaureate degree.
In 2001 the VA, the nations largest employer of RNs adopted new guidelines requiring that new hires have a BSN, and all VA nurses obtain a BSN by 2005. EEO records show when Johnson, Staplefoote and other nurses questioned the hospitals practice of hiring RNs without nursing degrees, they were rebuffed and told the BSN requirement was waived due to the current national nursing shortage crisis. Johnson says the hiring policy was arbitrarily changed to BSN preferred to accommodate hiring less qualified recruits.
Conrad says his lawyers requests for EEO data were stymied by the hospital. He said the administration finally responded to an EEO inquiry. The hospital released a report stating only 5 harassment complaints based on race, sex and reprisal were filed between 2001-03. The response indicated, no abnormal patterns were discovered.
Conrad counters saying the hospital records are incomplete and misleading. They fail to identify nurses like Rebecca Johnson who resign, file EEO claims, and are quietly paid settlements. He scrolled the list of nurse losses and identified several Black colleagues who filed complaints with the hospitals internal EEO. Their claims were outright rejected. The nurses were officially listed as resigned or removed. Conrad said, Most of them grew weary of fighting the system and walked away.
Conrad, Johnson, Staplefoote and others say the facilitys turn style, pressure cooker environment deteriorated when Bock-Laudenslager, was hired from neighboring Loma Linda Medical Center. They say she was sent to boost efficiency and raise performance levels. She immediately began forcing out nurses whom she deemed undesirable. The staff nurses fear her, Conrad says. VA affidavits accuse Bock-Laudenslager of waging an aggressive campaign to recruit and hire non-Black nurses to fill vacant nurse positions and meet new VA national staffing ratios.
According to Conrad, new hires recruited from area schools and hospitals were given special hiring incentives. He blamed the hospitals new recruit high turnover on unfavorable working conditions. Its a hostile environment, says Conrad. RN Staplefoote cited the use of so-called gate-keepers, many of them Black nurses and other employees placed in administrative assistant-type positions to shield employment discrimination practices.
Recently Conrad, fit and well versed sat at a local restaurant accompanied by his wife, mother and father, a retired veteran. My family has witnessed my anguish first hand. His easygoing style turned uptight as he referred to a file of glowing recommendations and references from fellow workers, physicians and patients, along with performance evaluations lauding his above average performance. Pettis physician, Dr. Nadia Laack wrote, He is by far one of the hospitals most qualified and important assets. Attending physician Dr. Sam Wong wrote, He has demonstrated outstanding professionalism and collegiality. Bunny Brown, a patients daughter, thanked Conrad for listening and allowing the VA system to provide quality care to veterans.
Conrad insists, You cant win against the VA. He says nurses who launch complaints have two choices: quietly resign or wage a costly legal battle. Be prepared for lawyer wrangling, long delays, intimidation, personal humiliation and the heartbreak of not being able to stop the madness. Ultimately, he says, the stress wears you down and forces you to walk away.
Several nurses who left the hospital in 2003 describe union representation at the facility as weak and ineffective. A representative from UNAC (United Nursing Association of California) who spoke anonymously claimed, the union repeatedly brought Black RNs personnel concerns to the attention of the hospital administration. The source said complaints discussed with Bock-Laudenslager and other hospital supervisors are routinely refuted or ignored. Black nurses face a concrete ceiling at Pettis, she said.
A former Pettis RN who is Caucasian recalls Bock-Laudenslager saying, Black nurses are traditionally less qualified. Its probably wise when they pack their bags. The nurse who asked to be called J fearing reprisal, called the bias against Black RNs compelling. It is virtually impossible for the hospital to say there is no discrimination involved.
Sandra Walters, president of the Inland Black Nurses Association is not surprised by the allegations. Thirty years ago as a new nursing graduate she was discouraged from applying to Pettis by a Black VA Nurse Recruiter employed at an east coast VA facility. She says while the VA has implemented a host of impressive national reforms aimed at combating employment bias and nursing shortages, Pettis remains a source of great concern. Nurses are the litmus test on quality dispersed equally to all veterans, she said.
Repeatedly national studies have shown cultural incompetence, poor communication, and employment discrimination are major driving forces behind the nations growing healthcare disparity crisis. Conrad and others believe the VAs diversity problems are widespread and systemic. He packs up his burgeoning legal file and says, We cant afford to stand around waiting on reforms to filter down. The system needs radical surgery now.