Pingtung Veterans General Hospital yesterday vowed to hold a meeting on gender-friendly workplace conduct, after a transgender employee, who said she faced bullying due to her gender identity, attempted suicide last week.
Although preliminary investigations have ruled out workplace bullying, the hospital said that it would fully comply with investigations and not interfere with any internal complaint channels.
A recent Facebook post on a nursing page detailed alleged workplace bullying experienced by a transgender nurse at the hands of her superior.
Photo courtesy of a reader
A friend of the nurse told reporters that the nurse was bullied by her superior and colleagues, which led her to take extreme actions, as she could no longer take the abuse.
The incident caused severe damage to her mental health, leading to a suicide attempt, the friend said.
She was intubated and in a comatose state at Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital.
Pingtung Veterans General Hospital expressed its sorrow and said that it is holding discussions with nurses.
The Pingtung hospital management said it respected the nurse’s gender identity, and that staff members were protective of her and not at all discriminatory.
It vowed to continue providing mental health support to its nurses.
The Pingtung County Government said that on Sunday a seven-day investigation began in accordance with the Occupational Safety and Health Act (職業衛生安全法) and Gender Equality in Employment Act (性別平等工作法).
Taiwan Nursing and Medical Industries Union consultant Chen Yu-feng (陳玉鳳) in a recent livestream said that the nurse in question is a trans woman.
When she asked Chen eight years ago if men were allowed to wear skirts, he told her that “we are already in an era of sexual and gender diversity,” Chen said.
However, starting last year, people began posting on the Facebook page their reservations about trans women using women’s changing rooms, Chen said.
Whenever they saw the nurse posting about her experience with online bullying, it only seemed to worsen the abuse, Chen said.
Since the suicide attempt, members of the Facebook group have condemned the incident, but said they did not understand why staff members who identify as a third gender should be able to use the female changing rooms, Chen added.
According to reports, the nurse later compromised and agreed to use gender-neutral changing rooms, but said that she “did not know what she had done wrong.”
Pingtung Veterans General Hospital assistant director Wan Shu-jen (萬樹人) said that the hospital takes the issue extremely seriously and would hold an internal meeting as soon as possible.
It has also already submitted a report to authorities in the Pingtung County Government and Veterans Affairs Council, he added.
Preliminary investigations revealed that there had not been workplace bullying, but as the unit has insufficient awareness of gender-friendly workplace conduct, the hospital would continue to improve measures according to the Occupational Safety and Health Act (職業衛生安全法), Wan said.
Hopefully an incident of this nature will not occur again, but the hospital looks to comply with the law and consider how to improve on policies, as gender identity is a constantly evolving issue worldwide, he added.
Additional reporting by Lo Hsin-chen and Huang Ching-hsuan
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