A Kings County Hospital Center nurse practitioner who claims she was suspended in retaliation for union organizing was ordered to report back to work after three weeks away from the bedside, after the city hospital’s system apparently decided to put its misconduct investigation on ice.
The nurse, Sarah Dowd, and her union, the New York State Nurses Association, confirmed that she would return to work Nov. 2 and receive full back pay. NYC Health + Hospitals had been investigating claims of misconduct by Dowd stemming from an allegation that she improperly pulled nurses from their jobs last month to discuss union business. Dowd, who works in the intensive care unit, flatly denied those allegations.
Dowd received written notice of her return to work on Thursday, the day after her first disciplinary hearing with Kings County’s labor relations department, where she arrived flanked by about a dozen colleagues who crowded the lobby of the building in support…