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Something Needs to Change
Workplace violence is something that some people will experience.
Workplace violence is something that almost all nurses and many other healthcare workers will experience. These incidents of violence are not just from confused patients; many times it is family members or friends threatening the wellbeing of the staff. As understanding as we are, assault should not be tolerated.
The Chicago Tribune reported on the rate of violence toward nurses, but even though it was pointed out in the article, it was not emphasized. Nurses do not have the time or support necessary to report these acts of violence or threats. It is partly culture: we understand that people are sick and under stress, so we excuse bad behavior on their behalf and choose to look the other way. It is partly a lack of staffing and support within the hospital: paperwork takes time away from patients, managers would have to find others to care for patients while the attacked person receives care or a debriefing. Even more importantly, pressing charges would require reporting to governmental agencies and would bring down a hospital’s reputation (and reimbursement through HCAHPS).
Currently, there are two Nurse ratio bills in committee: one in the House (H.R. 2392) and one in the Senate (S.1063). These bills are just the beginning of safer care for the patients and for the rest of the medical staff. This needed change would allow nurses more time to interact with their patients, provide education, provide care, and to receive their own debriefings after incidents or threats. Given the nurse staffing and mandatory overtime in some states, this law would protect the recipients of the care as well as the providers.
Ratio laws are only one small component.
Nurse lives matter. It needs to be reinforced on a cultural scale. Yes, nurses are the most trusted profession. However, this trust needs to flow between the providers and the patients. To provide the level of care that patients need, the staff needs to protected from family, friends, and sometimes the patients themselves. Additionally, more hospitals need to report incidents of violence. In order to do this, nurses must be convinced to hold others accountable for their actions.
We are all under stress. However, we do not punch people, slap people, corner them in rooms, take them hostage. We don’t. We don’t tolerate that in society, we don’t tolerate that in our homes, we don’t tolerate it in public.
So why do we tolerate it in a healthcare setting?
Nurses need to be supported in reporting violent acts, not only to their supervisors but to the police and pressing charges when appropriate.
#nurselivesmatter
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Published in Healthcare
Organized Nursing has been attempting, at the bargaining table, to increase hospital staffing levels for nearly 20 years. During that time, the main reason stated for reducing patient-to-nurse ratios was over work – not safety of personnel.
What nurses have not been able to gain through collective bargaining, they have attempted to achieve through a nation-wide attempt to have staffing ratios enacted in individual state statute. Here they take their not-so-limited political clout to the state legislature where lobbyists from many different represented interests (its not just a nurse/hospital battle) besiege hapless legislators who know little about the subject.
It has always been my thought that, even in a field as heavily regulated as health care, legislative bodies are a very poor place to bring labor/management disputes.
Most of my experience has been in the ER as a former police officer. I was either bringing in someone I arrested, or I would take a meal break in the nurses break area on a shift. I took meal breaks there because the nurses kept their break room clean, and it gave me a chance to catch up on paperwork. ER’s especially on Friday and Saturday nights can become emotionally charged places, and no the full moon has nothing to with malice, or stupidity. I don’t remember arresting an astronomer.
The nurses didn’t mind having a police officer in their break room, and there were times a nurse would ask me to talk to someone that was becoming a problem in the ER waiting area.
There is no reason that nurses, doctors, or other hospital staff should have to remain silent or suffer physical abuse from the intoxicated, those that have anger management issues, or the self-absorbed, and entitled. Whether that silence is expected from the public, or misplaced policies from hospital administrators there is no reason that legislation cannot be written that assigns a mandatory minimum jail sentence for someone who assaults a nurse, doctor, hospital staff, or anyone else that is on hospital grounds.
The most shocking injustice I see is that hospitals have an incentive to minimize reports of abuse (an explicit, formal incentive). Hospital reputation is damaged by reports of abuse.
The solution is that some hospitals introduce consistent reporting procedures. The second part of the solution is that the presence of a consistent reporting procedure is part of the calculus of a hospital’s reputation.
😁
That is definitely part of it. In honor of “transparency” (I hate that term in these contexts), hospitals are put in a position where they not only report these issues, but sometimes even advertise them. The idea being that they’re at least saying something.
I’m not sure that hospital grading should have much to do with how much is reported, but rather how it is dealt with. That would be a much truer measure of a hospital’s quality.
Of course, these ratings are not intended to really be an accurate portrayal of everything in hospitals.
Hospital I worked at in Wisconsin threatened to fire a nurse if she pressed charges against an ER patient who assaulted her.
” Bad for patient satisfaction”
Probably the single most demoralizing thing ever to happen to the staff. Many started looking for new jobs.
Oh god. That truly is terrible.
What is a good thing to bring to a legislative body? Does it (legislative body) do something/s well?
Can’t nurses slap the crap out of somebody in self-defense? My guess is that sort of thing did not go on so much when I was growing up. Maybe it is a smart phone thing.
A few answers for you. 1) no. We can restrain in defense, but not assault. Blocking his fine, hitting…not so much.
2) It did not. This is because nurses were female, orderlies were male, and women, nurses in particular, were to be treated with respect. They weren’t called by first names, mostly titles “Nurse Right” rather than RightNurse. Doctors also used some sense of decorum in front of women and nurses. If a patient (usually a male) attempted to assault a nurse, the orderlies would have been called and the patient would have been put down immediately. Additionally, there were not so many private rooms and privacy was never guaranteed. This made it harder to get away with. It was looked down upon so much, there was a huge social stigma.
3) Nope, but it certainly hasn’t helped. Since the idea that everyone deserves opiates and everyone is important and unique and special and healthcare is a “service industry” being rated on patient satisfaction, it’s been worse. Since people think that they can record anything and everything, it has also been worse. You’d think the idea of more witnesses (via the internet) would scare people, but nope.
Thanks for the detailed response. Too bad about #1. Kinda’ expected 2 & 3.
P.S. I worked after school in an ‘old folks home’ delivering food to the rooms of some of our guests and then washed everything up, kitchen included before going home. My older brother (now a successful dentist) took a job there and within a month we were both fired for fighting (but only with each other; no innocent civilians were damaged during that entire time period). Point is — the staff was safe on our watch. Believe you me.
Could you just imagine back in the day? Somebody runs into the kitchen to tell the Templar brothers that Mr. Jones just pinched Nurse Smith’s cheeks. We stop fighting for a minute to listen to this news then run down to see if we can be of aid to Mrs. Smith. If we get lucky, Mr. Jones might need to be ‘restrained.’