NEW ARTICLES:

A Culture of No Tolerance

A Culture of No Tolerance
by Dr. Christina J. Johns
Law, Power and Justice Syndicate

10 February 2002

Soon after an earlier column of mine appeared regarding the unethical (and sometimes illegal) nature of sexual relations between those of unequal power, I received an Email asking me to explain this kind of sexual harassment as it affected nurses.

As a Criminologist, I knew of no studies specifically about nurses and sexual harassment. But, on the website of the American Nursing Association (ANA), I found both a position statement about sexual harassment and a summary of a study conducted in 1982 specifically about nurses and sexual harassment.

The study, done by Dr. Bonnie Duldt, found that 60% of the nurses surveyed had experienced sexual harassment in the workplace during the past year. In most of the cases, the harasser was a physician or supervisor, but sometimes was also a co-worker or a patient.

Duldt reports that based on her research, nurses like most other women, rarely report incidents of sexual harassment. And, the greater the nurse’s distress over the incident the less likely she is to report it.

60% of the nurses who did tell superiors about an incident, reported being distracted afterward from their nursing tasks. A few reported being so distracted they felt that it impaired their ability to make sound decisions.

As the ANA notes, filing charges of sexual harassment can be humiliating, especially in a tight-knit hospital community. Women may fear that the charges will be ignored, down played, or turned around on them if doctors or hospital administrators suggest that the women have invited the offensive conduct. Women fear facing hostility, ridicule, retaliation, poor work assignments, reduced hours, poor evaluations, and even loss of their jobs. Some women don’t know what their rights are, and don’t know where the lines are in determining sexual harassment.

Sexual harassment violates Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Nurses, just like other women, therefore, are protected from sexual harassment by law. They are protected not only from the kind of sexual harassment that involves one individual predator forcing sexual behavior while threatening loss of a job, decreased pay, bad work evaluations (called quid pro quo in Title VII). They are also protected from what Title VII refers to as a "hostile environment" which can involve numerous people such as other physicians drawn into the role of helping to enforce the punishment of a woman who refuses to cooperate, or to ensure her silence.

The ANA highly recommends preventive measures to deal with sexual harassment in the medical environment. First, the magnitude of the problem must be recognized and there must be policies and procedures established which protect individuals from sexual harassment.

Second, the ANA recommends educational programs that define sexual harassment and communicate each institutions' position, policy and procedure for reporting.

As we have seen in studies of many organizations, top level management and boards must demonstrate their commitment not only through verbal and written communications but through their actions.

And probably most important, an organizational culture must be established in which sexual harassment is not tolerated.

For those in the Tallahassee Area:

See Law, Power and Justice on Cable channel 20 5:00 PM on Sundays.
Listen to Law, Power and Justice on 107.1 FM The New Mix at 7:30 Sunday morning, and again at 9:00 AM on WNLS AM.

See www.nursingworld.org. Contact Dr. Johns and get more links about sexual harassment at www.lawpowerandjustice.com