No good deed goes unpunished

      Joyce Diasparra is a nurse at the Erie County Home on Alden. She was driving home after work on a recent night when she saw a patient walking along Walden Avenue. He is a mentally unbalanced man who is in being treated in the facility after trying to kill his wife. He had sneaked out of the facility.

   Without a cell phone, but concerned for the safety of the patient and the public, she drove back to the County Home and alerted security. She drove back down Walden Avenue with a security guard. They got the man into her vehicle and returned him safely to the County Home.

   A few days later, Diasparra was reprimanded and suspended for a day without pay. The facility's director of nursing said Diasparra should not have left the patient, but instead should have gotten him back to the facility on her own.

   Given that Diasparra was alone, and the man was potentially dangerous, it seems to me that she did the right thing in going for help. What do you think?

   -- Donn Esmonde

Comments

[Barton Keyes]

From the events as described, it appears the nurse had a rational defense for the actions she took . When you add the fact that she had punched off of work and was on her own time, it looks like the Erie county Home is on shakey ground for imposing the punishment on the nurse turned good samaritin.
One also suspects the punishment will be challenged and hopes it will be overturned.

[Libby56]

Horrendous. Does it say in her job description that she is required to pick up patients she might spot, in her personal car, while she's off duty? I hope 10 great HR lawyers step forward for this lady to help her get justice. Great title for this post, truly, it does seem sometimes that no good deed goes unpunished. What a shame.

[Kim]

How can the director of nursing sleep at night? I too am a nurse and what happened to Joyce Diasparra is another example of bad management. My heart is breaking for Ms. Diasparra because I also know what it's like to get punished for doing the right thing. When I worked at a hospital, I had a patient who was accumulating garbage in his nightstand; left over food, empty food containers and food wrappers; which was drawing flies. I threw it all out. The next day, I got chewed up and spit out by the nurse manager for throwing out the patient's personal property. My co- workers were flabbergasted, but not surprised since they were all afraid of her because she was so mean. I gave my notice and quit. When I went for my exit interview, I told the director of human resources what happened and he actually apologized for her. I did not ask for my job back because I didn't want it. I was already working somewhere else. My prayers are with Ms. Diasparra. I hope the patient's family will come forward and back her up, and I hope she will end up with her supervisor's job or something even better.

[Lydia Bezou-Hojnacki]

There is precedent from Hurricane Katrina. A health care professional who attempts to save, but fails, cannot be held liable; you'd think a health care professional who attempts to save and is SUCCESSFUL would be honored as a hero.

Hope she wins her defamation suit.

[Bill of Buffalo]

This is HR 101. Once she signed out for her (extended) shift Joyce Diasparra was acting as a human with compassion and good sense, no longer as an employee and, her Superior had no right to treat her under some undefined rules that only she (her superior) can explain. Nurse Diasparra should be given a medal for her independant action and her superior a trip back to Supervisory school. Reinstate her pay along with an apology from her Superior -- who by the way is far inferior to nurse Diasparra both as an employee and a human being.

[unknown]

I too am an employee of the Erie County Home. The article did not totally protray the entire situation. Ms. Diasspara was not disciplined for what happened on her way home, but what happened prior to her clocking out. Believe me, I am not an "avid" fan of the Home and have also been on the receiving end of their harass discipline.

[Mary Vento]

I am horrified to think that Ms. Diasparra was punished for doing what she humanly could do. What intelligent person would even suggest that she should pick up a man and place him in her car? What would the ramifications be if he, God forbid, would have raped her? Her own auto insurance would have frowned on her if she would have had an accident with him in her car. What in the Hell is going on here in America? When do we begin to protect our workers, or even thank them for going above and beyond the call of duty?

Shame, Shame, Shame....On the Director of nursing for her reaction!

I wish more people would react the way Ms. Diasparra did. God Bless her!

Karma Ms. Diasparra...Karma!

What goes around, will come around!

You will prevail! Best Wishes!

[Mary Vento]

I am horrified to think that Ms. Diasparra was punished for doing what she humanly could do. What intelligent person would even suggest that she should pick up a man and place him in her car? What would the ramifications be if he, God forbid, would have raped her? Her own auto insurance would have frowned on her if she would have had an accident with him in her car. What in the Hell is going on here in America? When do we begin to protect our workers, or even thank them for going above and beyond the call of duty?

Shame, Shame, Shame....On the Director of nursing for her reaction!

I wish more people would react the way Ms. Diasparra did. God Bless her!

Karma Ms. Diasparra...Karma!

What goes around, will come around!

You will prevail! Best Wishes!

[Lydia Bezou-Hojnacki]

"Unknown," when you say "prior to her clocking out," do you mean that after an exhausting 14 hours she did not notice a patient was missing? Where are the other employees in this matter? Did anyone else have responsibility for knowing all residents were safe and accounted for? Too bad, as you indicate, the News has only part of the story for all to read and conjecture about.

Why did this make the news? Did Ms Diasparra approve the content of Esmonde's story?

[BobbyCat]

If she had gotten home and received a phone call from a neighbor telling her about a loose patient, would she be responsible? Of course not.

Her time off from work, is her time, no one else's. If her supervisor doesn't understand elemental facts, the supervisor's judgement is suspect.

[Dan Goehle Bradenton Fl.]

I am shocked but not surprised to hear the latest fiasco in the nursing department at Erie County Home. Instead of the nurse being disciplined the Director of nursing should be. After these nurses work the 8-10 hours a shift that they are forced to work because of the county troubles without a current contract they should be heading home to relax. Well done to this mighty fine nurse to go above and beyond the call of duty and remaining safe while getting security to help.I wish her luck in her new job and hope she does well in her lawsuit. Once again Shame on the Director of Nursing and Erie County Home in general.

[question for unknown]

unknown, you write that "Diasspara was not disciplined for what happened on her way home, but what happened prior to her clocking out".

However, according to Esmonde's column, the official Disciplinary Action Report says she made a mistake by leaving the man on the road to go back for help.

How do you align what the Disciplinary Action Report says with you say about the issue being what happened before clocking out?

[Anonymous]

Why are patient's "who attempt to kill their wives" being admitted to this special place of caring? Where is the Administrator in this controversy? The Erie County Home is an amazing place, due to people like Ms. Diasparra. I hope the public asks for a deeper investigation on admission policies and a patient's ability to escape. Thank God it wasn't winter....

[Brenda Joyce]

You can be sure that had Ms. Diasparra brought the patient back alone and anything gone wrong, resulting in injury to the patient or herself, the facility would have defended itself in any resulting lawsuit by saying she had acted outside the scope of her employment duties and acted recklessly, taking unreasonable risks.

[Stan]

I really would like to know how and why this decision was made. It seems like a personal action rather than a policy action. The workplace is not a peaceable kingdom. This is what unions are for.

[Sue]

Like many other nurses, I have had my share of unfair superiors. I am not sure that Ms. Diasparra's superior has any idea what a real human being is like. Lots of nurses are like Ms. Diasparra, caring human beings that go above and beyond the call of duty. Mostly their contributions are not noticed because the superiors are not paying attention--until...well we all know the answer to that. The superior is attempting to lay blame on Ms. Diasparra rather than admit that Erie County Home was unable to keep an upset patient safe. It sounds like the patient was in the wrong facility. I hope Ms Diasparra is able to get some satisfaction from the Erie County home.

[ted]

County Home spokesman Tom Quatroche seems like he is a dupe for a poorly run organization. If his wife was a nurse would she be pick up a potentially dangerous patient? Who is the jerk that ordered the suspension, his head should be put on the chopping block, he seems like someone was appointed to job because he lacks brains to run a garbage disposal.

[Kim]

This is just sad. If the nurse had taken it upon herself to apprehend a violent patient and was injured or killed in the process, I am sure the Erie County Home would be taking the opposite position. I would say restitution is in order, and should include the supervisor who made that ridiculous call locked in a room with that patient for a few hours.

[Peter]

whoever "disciplined " her should be disciplined for being a jerk.

[Hankster]

To summarize the situation, Ms. Diasparra acted above and beyond the call of duty and was punished. Now the taxpayers will have to pay the price for the incompetent management at the County Home when the lawsuit is over. Effective immediately, the "Nursing Director" should be terminated. Their Communications Director should be issuing an apology rather than emailing a gag order to county employees. Lastly, the Nursing Home Administrator should explain the criteria used to appoint the Nursing Director that obviously lacks the management training and common sense essential to the position.

[Bob Weigand]

This is just another case of common sense being lost the higher up the food chain you go. It dosn't pay anymore to go beyond the minimum amount of effort required,it's a shame to say, but she should have just kept going home and not given it a second thought. By the way, the person that was supose to be responsible for watching over this patient, where they repremanded? To bad these people don't belong to a union to represent them when they have been wronged. Oh wait,they do! Maybe if the union would spend more time representing it's members instead of trying to get a Socialist elected to President, to protect there phoney jobs,the workplace would have happier and more productive care givers. I don't know, maybe I'm nuts?!

[ECH Worker]

It is to bad that the truth cannot be published at this time.
I think if the public knew the whole situation, their opinons would be much different.
Just glad all that were involved were not injured and are safe.

[Libby56]

Too bad the "truth cannot be published at this time." ?? Wasn't that the purpose of the newspaper report in the Buffalo News, to A. Publish the B. Truth?

[Patti N]

To ECH worker: Why don't you tell us the truth? What do you have to lose? Were you there? Why post something like that if you can't back it up?

[Nina]

I am sure there is more to this story since it has been rumored that all ECH employees are not to answer any questions or give comments on any business at the ECH/ECMCC.What are they afraid of? Perhaps, the fact that while administrative levels have increased, hands on staff have decreased thus allowing the incident with the absconded resident. This has been an accident waiting to happen. Was the health department notified? Will there be a full investigation? What are the staffing levels? Under this administration,it is unfortunate that the ECH has been under scrutiny for its inability to meet industry standards. All one has to do is look at their state survey to see the real answer.