Unexpected Reaction To Training Seminar

The Special Workers’ Compensation Appeals Panel of the Tennessee Supreme Court upheld the denial of benefits of a psychiatric nurse who “freaked out” at a training seminar.

Employee underwent an initial orientation with Employer in Texas when he began working for Employer, but it did not involve any clinical training. He subsequently attended two annual conferences in 2011 and 2012. The 2012 conference was a three-day event in Texas. On the second day, September 27, 2012, Employee, along with other Horizon employees/program directors, attended a trauma-sensitivity care training seminar presented by Barbara Lang, also an employee of Employer. The first part of the two-part seminar concerned trauma care and how to handle patients. According to Employee’s testimony, which the trial court credited, during this portion of the seminar, Ms. Lang stated to all of the attendees: “I want you to put yourself in your patient’s shoes and imagine how it would feel when   emotionally, or sexually abused’?”

His reaction to this was unexpected

 Employee testified that immediately upon hearing the statement made by Ms. Lang at the seminar on September 27, 2012, emotion overcame him; he became overwhelmed; he totally “freaked out”; he had flashbacks of when he had been raped as a child by an older cousin; and he had a flood of emotions and memories. Employee testified that he could see things from when he had been a child, but that he could not connect them. Employee ran to the bathroom and splashed water on his face, but he could not pull himself together. He then ran to his hotel room and took some nitroglycerine because he thought he was having a heart attack. Employee returned to the seminar but, according tohis trial testimony, he was still freaked out, sick, nauseous, sweaty, confused, and dazed. Employee testified that he did not tell anyone, but rather he stayed to himself and was in what he described as a “zombie-like” state.

According to Employee, that evening he was quiet and disconnected; he could not concentrate, could not sleep, had nightmares and flashbacks, and cried. According to Employee, he was still numb the following day, and just tried to function. Employee testified that the flashbacks were of a prior sexual assault by a cousin, that had occurred when Employee was age eleven and the cousin was age seventeen. Employee testified that he had never sought psychiatric treatment for the assault, but had just put it away and that this had worked until he heard the statement by Ms. Lang. Employee denied having had prior flashbacks of sexual abuse. He testified that on this occasion, he felt that he was back in that prior situation and that he had a knife to his throat and was going to die.

The employee stopped working shortly thereafter,.

 The court concluded that the seminar did not create an abnormally stressful situation

The statement was not made or directed  to Employee individually. Rather, it was made to all one hundred plus of Employee’s fellow employees in attendance at the conference. The statement was not made with respect to any specific patient or with respect to any specific incident of abuse, and the statement did not include any details regarding any type or incident of abuse. Rather, the statement was broad and general…

We conclude that the evidence does not preponderate against the finding of the trial court that the stress to which Employee was exposed and which Employee alleges caused his injuries was not abnormal, extraordinary, or unusual when viewed under the objective standard.

(Mike Frisch)