Opinion ID: 1860508
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: facts

Text: On November, 1986, claimant attended a regular meeting of all the nurses at the nursing home. The purpose of these regularly scheduled, state mandated meetings was to provide in-service training. However, at this meeting, the supervisor, Ms. Pepper, used the time to discuss various problems that had been occurring in the nursing home. Eighteen patients' feeding tubes had been removed and some had to be taken to the emergency room to have them surgically reinserted. Also, someone had mixed up the medication cards, which could have caused a patient to receive the wrong medicine. When the group meeting ended, the supervisor scheduled individual meetings with each nurse. After investigating these occurrences, the supervisor and the director of nurses suspected that claimant had committed the acts. They admitted that they had no proof other than circumstantial evidence. [1] When claimant came in for her meeting, the supervisor told her that she had decided to terminate her. The claimant denied the charges and the supervisor decided that there was reasonable doubt about who committed the acts, and, therefore, she destroyed the notes from the meeting and stated that she would pretend that it never happened. She withdrew her threat to fire claimant and told her that she was still employed in good standing. The supervisor conducted individual meetings with all of the other nurses, but admitted that she never threatened to fire any of the others. The nursing home social worker was also present at the meeting to take notes. She described the supervisor as very positive and concerned about the home and stated that the supervisor was not angry, threatening or overtly mean. She confirmed that after the supervisor heard claimant's denial of the charges she tore up the notes at the supervisor's request. After the meeting, all of the trouble stopped at the home. Three weeks subsequent to the meeting with the supervisor, claimant became a full time employee. Bates left the nursing home in July 1987. Claimant saw several doctors for psychological help after the incident with her supervisor. Dr. Summers saw her in July 1987. His report noted that she had been in good health until two years prior, or sometime in 1985. His report also listed a host of stress related symptoms that plagued her: insomnia, poor appetite, depression, and crying spells, among others. Dr. Ritter also saw Bates. In his opinion, she had been ill for quite a time. He also described the cause of her illness as biochemical rather than work-related. Claimant also saw Dr. Hearne, a clinical psychologist and another psychiatrist, Dr. Wright, who believed that Bates' problems were work-related. After hearing all of the evidence, the Commission denied benefits, finding that Bates' problems were a psychoneurotic condition or emotional disturbance due to causes other than her employment by the Countrybrook Living Center.