Nurse arrested for not following a police directive.

I was once in a situation where I asked some officers to stop questioning and leave the room until a physician examined the patient. One of the officers threatened to arrest me for interfering in their investigation. I said "Go ahead, but in the meantime would you please step out until the doctor gets here." The officer was furious, but I wrote up an incident report and his supervisor came to apologize. I was the only ER nurse on, so if he HAD arrested me they would have had to do some pretty fancy stepping to justify it.

Sounds like the nurse was only trying to do her job too.

Be grateful that that vile, evil, underhanded, pathetic cop will willingly put him/herself in possible danger without hesitation when you call 911 someday, tolerantgirl ... (emphasis mine)

I'm surprised that no other ER nurse here has brought up a few points:

1) Laws on legal blood draw procedures vary considerably from state to state, but be aware that in many states such as mine (PA) alleged offenders can refuse blood/urine tests, so those brought into an ER have consented to do so. Yes, there are penalties such as presumption of guilt that occur if an alleged offender refuses. But there can be no accusation of battery on the part of the person who draws blood in this situation.

2) While the cop in this video was probably out of line - WAY out of line - arresting officers need evidence so that their case can be prosecuted. Most people metabolize ETOH at approximately 0.02 per hour. If that driver under the influence has just hit your vehicle or injured your family, would you like the blood draw evidence to accurately reflect his/her ETOH level at approximately the time of the accident ... or 3 hours later when it will be 0.06 lower?

3) Some prosecutors automatically subpoena the person who performed the legal blood draw, but that does not necessarily mean that you have to go to court let alone actually testify. I have been subpoenaed 7 times. A coworker of mine has been subpoenaed 30+ times. Never had to testify. Even if I were to testify, my testimony would consist of yes I drew the blood, these were the procedures that I followed. Is that really too much to ask, in the rare instance that my testimony would be considered necessary?

Perspective is everything.

Edited to add:

In the 3 ERs in which I have worked, people brought into the ER by police for legal blood draws are registered, but are not actually patients unless they specifically need to be seen for an injury or suddenly develop the s/s of incarceritis, e.g. chest pain, etc. Otherwise they simply have their blood drawn but are not seen by a provider.

In response to your last sentence, that is ridiculous! I can't believe that you don't even know the circumstances and that is your mentality. You should definitely rethink your career. This one is not for you if you are that judgemental.

I live in IL though not in Chicago - the person accused of DUI needs to be a registered patient prior to any blood draws. The pt has the right to refuse a blood draw and then if the police still want it, they must have a judge come in to the ER (even if its 4am) and give a court order.

This is a very hot topic in IL. However, it is not fair to generalize with any group of individuals: just as there are good and bad nurses, there are good and bad police officers.

Let's not personalize things.

I have the utmost respect for the occupation of "police officer", I just wish I could extend that respect to actual police officers. Not all are bad, very few are downright "evil" but I have meet enough that it does give me pause when dealing with the police. The hospital i work at uses deputies for our inhouse security, and for the most part they are a great bunch of guys, but law enforcement and medicine just don't seem to go together. I worked on our psych unit and once in a bluemoon (or every other night) we would have a situation where security would have to be called. Some deputies would talk a patient down and that was great and I learned alot from watching them...others would take a patient down to the floor like they had just pulled firearm. Rebuilding trust with a patient after an incident like that was nigh impossible. I think what burned me the most was trying to inform a deputy of a patients underlying physical condition so that the deputy may opt not to be so physical ie he is in neckbrace for a cervical fracture, or he is missing 1/2 his skull and is awaiting plate surgery, etc. Most often I was told to do my job and let them do theirs. It got to the point we had an unwritten agreement amongst the night crew that unless a patient was actively trying to kill one of us we would not call security for the patients own safety.

And now for something completely different....

MY own story of dealing with police, a story I still tell my children about is when I turned 18 and was out celebrating with friends. At a local food court, as a joke, a gave my friend a wedgie (yes, a wedgie, I grabbed the top of his underware from behind and lifted him to his tiptoes) The next thing I know is I am eating concrete with my hands cuffed and two police officers sitting on me. I asked what the problem was and they said I had disturbed their dinner and they were po'd. They then said they were arresting me for battery by giving my friend a wedgie. My friend tried to explain we were joking and they told him to get lost or he would be arrested as well. My friend shrugged, told me to call him when I could get bail..I thought this isnt going to go to bail.
I was taken downtown in a paddy wagon, processed and thrown in holding. Now, I live in Indianapolis, Indiana...it was race day weekend for the 500. If you get arrested on Friday (as I was) you don't get released until monday morning. So I spent 48 hours in holding in a drunk tank meant to hold about 20 or so..and on raceday weekend is crammed with close to 100+ people. On Sunday I was transfered to the county jail, and then eventually released on my own recog with a court date to appear for battery.
Long story short my friend and I appeared for court, the arresting officer didnt show, the Judge chewed me out stating the police had better things to do (which was what I was thinking), and all charges were dropped. 20+ years later I still refuse to go out on raceday weekend, and my kids have no end of making fun of their crimminal father who was arrested for giving a "wedgie"

What a broad brush you're using to paint things...

Now think of a criminal case where a nurse was convicted...and replace "cops" with "nurses" in your statement.

A little over the top, don't ya think?

It's probably not over the top for people who have been robbed, raped, victimized & bullied by police officer(s) to feel that way. Choosing a career to be an egocentric arrogant cop is no different than joining the Mafia, Taliban, or Bloods/Crips in my opinion. No offense to the Mafia!

The cop should be arrested for kidnapping and false imprisonment. as he said in the report, "I will release her, just get me a blood test." I hope someone post the outcome of this case. Sounds like the City and the Hospital need to rewrite the policy and procedure for drawing blood samples on suspected drunken citizens.

Very true..there seems to be something going on. Within the last few years i have heard complaint after complaint about abuse from cops and their bad behavior....something needs to be done. They want more power than they already have....it will blow over soon and end in retaliation.