Attacking a Doctor Makes News; Attacking a Nurse is Business As Usual

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

the shootings at the johns hopkins hospital made national news. maybe i'm cynical, but i think it was because a doctor was shot. news reports say that dr. david cohen was updating the patient's son about her condition, and the man was increasingly unhappy with what he was hearing. after threatening to jump out of a window, he pulled out a gun and shot the surgeon in the abdomen. he was taken to the er -- and whoever went and removed him from the scene is certainly heroic! -- and then to surgery. latest reports are that he is doing well and expected to make a full recovery.

the visitor shot his mother and then himself.

this may seem like an isolated incident, but really it's just a progression of what we nurses put up with on a regular basis. shooting a doctor makes the news. threatening to shoot the nurse, even if you're armed and dangerous, does not. decking a doctor makes the news. beating up on mother's nurse does not. threatening a doctor gets attention; threatening a nurse is business as usual.

i've been kicked, bitten, slapped, punched and threatened with knives, guns and an "attack dog" while in the course of taking care of patients. once i was in the center of an armed confrontation between law enforcement personnel who carried guns and were unhappy with their relative's care and hospital security personnel. the situation was resolved without formal charges, and the visitors were back the next day. another time, when taking care of a prison inmate who was dying i was nearly knifed by his son (also an inmate) with a homemade machete he'd smuggled out of prison and into the hospital. withdrawing care on the patient was illegal -- it would be shortening the convict's life sentence. the son was intent on shortening the life sentence, although it's unclear whether he was doing it to ensure dad was indeed on his way to hell or if it would have been a mercy killing. (i wasn't particularly brave. i had my back to the visitor and was tackled by a prison guard to get me out of danger while two other guards wrestled the son to the ground and disarmed him.) it's made me reluctant to turn my back on visitors.

in some states, threatening or attacking a health care worker performing her job is a crime on the same level as assaulting a police officer. not in our state. the visitors are free to insult, assault and batter nurses and then come back to visit. in one incident, a patient's husband threatened me and another nurse with a handgun at 6 pm. it was 9pm before the police were notified, and midnight before the visitor -- who was in plain sight the entire time -- was in custody. he was back visiting by 6 am. our manager, bless her heart, wasn't concerned about the gun-toting husband because "he's from texas. everyone carries a gun there."

we need stiffer penalties for attacks on nursing staff, managers who will stand up for us and a visitor's code of conduct prominently posted in hospital entrances and waiting rooms and strictly enforced. (metal detectors and locked units would be nice, too, but i'm not holding my breath.) and we need it sooner, rather than later.

[Flying ICU RN]

metal detectors and locked units would be nice, too, but i'm not holding my breath.) and we need it sooner, rather than later.

that is what is needed as penalties are ineffective against people with the intent or capability of committing mass murder.

this kind of thing is of real concern in this ever evolving world of ours.

[tencat]

Why are you still working there???? Life is WAY too short to worry about that crappola day in and day out.

[wooh, BSN, RN]

I felt the same way when I saw the news. A physician gets threatened, they're hauled out of the hospital. A nurse gets threatened, if we're lucky, security tells them not to do it again.

Of course, the best part of when a nurse gets threatened or attacked is she gets called on not using her therapeutic communication skills. Obviously she was asking for it by not being sweet and wonderful enough.

When a patient was swinging his cane at the staff, after scratching the hades out of one of the techs, and I took it away from him after telling him he could sit down and stop swinging it or I would take it from him, I was accused by the doctor (who of course wasn't there to get his head beat in with the cane) of abusing the patient. The family also refused to allow blood testing so the tech that he'd scratched up could be put at ease.

I'm glad the doctor is so far doing ok. But it's the nurses that are with the crazy patients and crazy family members all day long. As long as administration allows them to get away with everything short of murder (and I'm not so sure you couldn't murder a nurse then visit the next day as long as you promise not to do it again), things will get worse long before they get better. Especially if administrators continue to blame the staff for being threatened.

[OCNRN63, RN]

Why is it when patients/visitors are verbally abusive to us, management always spins it "How could you have handled it better?" As if it is always the nurse's fault when someone becomes disruptive. There are a lot of people out there with poor impulse control, and they shouldn't be molly-coddled and given gift-cards when they get angry over every minor inconvenience.

I have often thought about someone walking in with a gun to where I work.

I do agree with Ruby that nurses in general are not valued, and had this happened to a nurse at Hopkins you would have never heard Diane Sawyer talking about it. (Nothing personal against Diane; I watch her every night.)

[abbaking]

Ruby Vee - I agree with you 100%! In my opinion there needs to be a federal law passed that if ANY healthcare staff has a threat made on them or is attcked - there must be stiff legal penalities with a MINIMUM of 1 year in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Why is it that if a nurse is attacked or the victim of some sort of violence, the perpatrator more often than not gets a slap on the wrist? Why is it that nurses are "expected" to take so much crap form the world as a whole without any appropriate legal consequences?

I still have yet to understand why violence on medical/healthcare staff is downplayed but HIPAA violations can land someone in prison for up to 10 years.

HIPAA violations are serious but I think being the victim of the job of violence or the threat of violence out-weighs HIPAA anyday.

When I was working as a CNA, I had to tell a patient she was going to be NPO after midnight for surgery the next morning. I told her about NPO, why the need for an empty stomach and so on. There was a few men in the room listening to what I was saying.

About 5 or 10 minutes later, I was in the hallway charting and those 3 men cornered me and made threats to me about me being rude and disrespectful to there mother. I had this man in my face with a closed fist preparing to punch me. I still have traumatic memories from that incident.

Of course I told my manager - but as often happens in hospital politics, I was blamed for the incident and it was my fault. If I had been assaulted and mamed, The whole situation was my fault.

Sorry for the rambling here but I have strong feelings that Collectively as healthcare professionals, we all need to stand up for our few rights and freedoms we have left in the workplace and DEMAND that a federal law be passed that states if you threaten or assault a healthcare provider - YOU ARE SCREWED!

[GilaRRT]

I think it's pretty myopic to assume that the newsworthy part of this relies on the physician being shot. After all he offed his mother and himself in one of the nations largest hospitals. Rather horrific with or without an injured physician IMHO.

[OCNRN63, RN]

I think it's pretty myopic to assume that the newsworthy part of this relies on the physician being shot. After all he offed his mother and himself in one of the nations largest hospitals. Rather horrific with or without an injured physician IMHO.

I watched how it was reported on at least two different networks. The focus of the report was that a physician was shot. That the man went on to fatally shoot his mother and himself were noted almost as an afterthought.

[GilaRRT]

However, I have also seen articles that were very balanced. Again, you kill your mother and your self while wounding a physician, you are going to get some air time.

[grandmawrinkle]

Ok. A MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL was shot while performing his job functions. This is horrific in and of itself. Doctors, as well as nurses, are our colleagues and the tragedy of this situation doesn't need to be minimized by someone piggybacking a "well, nurses have it just as bad, but we don't make the news" post. WHO CARES? A physician was seriously wounded!

This post is in very poor taste, IMHO.

[Blackheartednurse]

Makes me wonder why did the patient attack thAt particular doctor,what has the doctor have done to him?

[Flying ICU RN]

Makes me wonder why did the patient attack thAt particular doctor,what has the doctor have done to him?

My guess would be that whatever information, and perhaps how this poor fellow happened to be presenting it was the trigger for a previously known to be unstable psyche.

I'd put money on it, watch for follow-up reports.