"Fury as African American staff tell hospital they will not care for racist patient"

From The Daily Mail:

Two African American care home employees have angered their bosses by refusing to work with a white patient who despises black people.

Shiawassee County Medical Care Facility, in Corunna, Michigan, was allegedly told them that they would not work with the patient, according to TV5. Nursing assistant Andrea Butler said: '[I've] never, ever treated a patient like this before. It hurts, it really hurts, especially because I'm there to take care of them.'

She added that she announced the news in front of staff and residents in the care home. Black nurses had complained of being bruised and insulted by racist patients, but later admitted that the story was partly untrue. She claims that the situations are very similar.

Nurse Tonya Battle has spoken out about the case. She told staff at Hurley medical Centre she wouldn't care for a newborn because the parents were members of the Ku Klux Klan.

She said: 'It's outrageous that a medical facility would even allow such a baby to be born here, especially on the heels of the battle against Hurley Medical Centre case, there was a public outcry that a nurse's refusal based on racism would not be granted.

"In my legal opinion, a nurse can refuse to work with racists patients. This is clearly illegal under federal law, I believe it's illegal under state law as well."

The hospital was approached by TV5. Facility administrator Rick Cordonnier said: "'We are protecting staff members from rednecks, Republicans, gun nuts and KKK members"

He said that they need to respect patient's request for their care, and would treat the situation the same if they did not want to care for someone of the opposite gender.