Nurse Says She Was Fired For Exposing Racial Discrimination in NICU, Lawsuit Claims

A discrimination lawsuit has been filed against Providence Health, one of California’s prominent healthcare providers. The case, involving former neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) nurse Trisha Loftis, has brought to light allegations of discriminatory practices and concerns over patient care quality.

Trisha Loftis, a nurse who previously worked in the NICU at a Torrance hospital under the Providence Health umbrella, has taken legal action against her former employer. Loftis claims that her termination was a direct result of her outspoken criticisms regarding the care provided to minority patients in the NICU. The lawsuit alleges that Providence Health’s decision to fire Loftis was discriminatory in nature, raising questions about the healthcare provider’s commitment to equitable treatment of both patients and staff.

According to the lawsuit, “Beginning in the summer of 2020, Loftis, who is White, began voicing concerns to team members and her supervisors of disparate treatment of patients and their families based on race and ethnicity. This disparate treatment included but was not limited to, 

• Staff treating Black and Hispanic/Latino families rudely and with less patience than white families.
• Staff making comments directed at Black families and Hispanic/Latino families, including but not limited to ‘they are that kind of family,’ and ‘those people make me uncomfortable,’ and referring to them as ‘those people.’ 
• Loftis believed the facility was illegally providing worse care to and discriminating against Black and Hispanic/Latino patients and their families compared to white families.”

Loftis and another charge nurse “began taking steps to raise cultural awareness among the NICU staff and decrease the discrimination they observed. With approval from their supervisors and their union, they began utilizing billboard space allotted to their union to post messages and pamphlets designed to raise awareness of implicit bias in the healthcare system, and disparate outcomes in the healthcare system based on race. They also attempted to implement a new system of assigning nurses designed to reduce disparities in care by providing consistent assignments of nurses to individual patients.”

Additional Allegations Regarding a Mandatory COVID-19 Vaccine

The lawsuit also alleges that “Loftis’ religious beliefs barred her from receiving the COVID-19 vaccine. She informed her supervisors that she was unable to receive the vaccine and would require an exemption. She faced pressure and harassment from staff and management regarding the vaccine, adding to the stress. This included, but was not limited to, derisive comments about her religious belief from staff and management, statements that she should ‘just take the shot,’ and [her manager] ‘joking’ that they should hold Loftis down and give her the vaccine against her will.”

Loftis was denied a religious exemption in 2021, and on appeal, provided “greater detail about her religious and spiritual objection to receiving the vaccine, explaining that her ‘individualized personal spirituality’ barred her from receiving the vaccine, describing her belief system as a ‘blend of religion/spirituality’ that ‘no doubt guides me in relation to the meaning in life, sacredness to life, and a belief in a higher power/universal energy.’”

Loftis’ appeal was denied and a reasonable accommodation for her religious belief was also refused. The lawsuit details that Loftis “believes that she is the only staff member who applied for a vaccine on the basis of an individualized religious understanding rather than on the basis of a ‘traditional’ organized religion. Specifically, Loftis is informed and believes that every other staff member who applied for a vaccine quoted scripture from the Bible in their application and/or appeal.”

It was during this time, that Loftis “was forced to take medical leave, due to anxiety, depression, and other serious mental health issues caused by the hostile working environment of unchecked racism among and race-related retaliation from NICU staff, the hostile working environment of retaliation and harassment Loftis faced due to her religious beliefs, and by the stress of working through the pandemic.”

When her personal medical leave ended, she was placed on unpaid administrative leave and terminated in February of 2022.

On October 22, 2024, Loftis filed a complaint with the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (“DFEH”), alleging “discrimination based on religious creed and use of medical leave for a serious personal health issue; harassment based on religious creed and association with a member of a protected class; and retaliation based on participating in a discrimination complaint, reporting and resisting discrimination and harassment, requesting a religious accommodation, and using medical leave for a serious personal health issue.”

She received a Right to Sue letter from DFEH the same day.

While the lawsuit is still in its early stages, and Providence Health has not yet publicly responded to the allegations, the case has already drawn significant attention from both the healthcare community and the public. As the legal proceedings unfold, it is likely that more details will emerge, providing a clearer picture of the circumstances surrounding Loftis’s termination and the broader issues at play.

Nurse.org will update this article as the case unfolds.