DALLAS– A Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) in Dallas claims her employer sent her home because her daughter, living in Kenya visited for two days last week.
“I was surprised, I didn’t know what to say,” said Alice, a Kenyan native who asked we only use her first name. “I was in shock, I didn’t expect it.”
Alice works as a CNA at Novus Health Services—according to its website the Frisco-based company provides end-of-life care.
On Friday, Alice was seeing her last patient of the day when she received a phone call from the administration. They told her to go home.
“I asked her ‘why should I go home,’ ‘can it be explained why I should go home?’ She told me, ‘go home, don’t let anybody know and don’t come to the office, and I’ll talk to you later.”
The Kenyan native claims she was sent home after her employer learned her daughter had spent two days in Dallas last week. The visit was part of a two-week trip to the United States for her daughter and her husband.
From her apartment in North Dallas, Alice would receive a “disease contact tracking” questionnaire, asking if Alice had any exposure to any person that traveled abroad within the last 30 days.
A Novus rep told her by email:
“We need as many details as you can provide and we will get you back to work as soon as we can.”
A rep for Novus said by phone that it is all a part of additional screening procedures. A move they say comes out of an abundance of caution.
Her native country is more than 4,000 miles from some of the hardest hit areas in Africa.
An abundance of caution that for today has Alice doing dishes rather than seeing patients.
“I have not seen anybody…just someone like me being sent home… this is funny to me,” she said.
Below is a copy of the Infectious Disease Contact Tracking Form Alice received:
Kenyan Nurse sent home because daughter visited from Kenya
 in Dallas claims her employer sent her home){kind=link}