Fact or Fiction? Father beats up RN w/o badge

[LauraLou]

I had orientation at a hospital yesterday. I will be working in postpartum, which has special badges with pink stripes that show we are authorized to be there. At orientation, they told us this was a true story that happened several months ago.

Father walks into his wife's hospital room and finds a man handling the baby. Father asks who the man is and the guy replies I am an RN. Father asks where is your badge? Man states he forgot it. Father drags guy by the back of his neck to the nurses' station and asks if anyone knows who the guy is. Nurses say they don't recognize him. Father decides man was trying to steal his baby and proceeds to beat the c--p out of him. The police are called and the unit is locked down. It turns out the man was an agency RN who forgot to wear his badge.

This is Texas, so I can see something like this happening here, but I'm not sure if it's a true story or just a tale to scare us into never forgetting to wear our badges. Have you heard of anything like this happening where you work?

[mandykatrn]

Shortly after my youngest son was born, I commenced doing what I've done following the birth of each of my other 5 children--I'd hold them in my arms and take them for a walk up and down the halls of the L&D ward and tell them all about the wonderful things they'd get to experience in life. I'd ask them if they could hear me talking to them while they were in their mother's belly and if they remembered the songs I was singing them at night--you know, a really touchy-feely Kodak kind of moment. But this particular hospital had previously had a baby abducted. Although I was walking on a secure ward (and both my son and I had matching wrist bands) I had a nurse practically push me into a corner wagging her finger in my face and telling me I wasn't allowed to take my son out of his room. I don't know if it was her aggressive posture or the fact that she was interrupting my family birth ritual that got me so hot, but I got right back in her face and told her that he was my son and I'd take him anywhere I damn well pleased. I realize she was probably hyper-sensitive due to the previous incident at the hospital, but sometimes these things go a bit far.

Actually, in our unit, parents can walk outside their room pushing the infant in the crib, but they can't actually be carrying the infant in the halls. If we see someone holding a newborn outside a room, we are required to check their ID bands and remind them the infant needs to be in a crib with a parent when not in the room. We do have a security system in place; this is just an added precaution. Every now and then we get security alerts. I know I wouldn't complain about the security of my newborn being a hospital priority.

[TeenyBabyRN]

Actually, in our unit, parents can walk outside their room pushing the infant in the crib, but they can't actually be carrying the infant in the halls. If we see someone holding a newborn outside a room, we are required to check their ID bands and remind them the infant needs to be in a crib with a parent when not in the room. We do have a security system in place; this is just an added precaution. Every now and then we get security alerts. I know I wouldn't complain about the security of my newborn being a hospital priority.

This is policy where I work as well. Parents are not allowed to walk around in the halls while holding a baby. There was an incident where a mom became lightheaded and fainted while holding her baby and the baby was hurt. The hospital was held liable because it was deemed a "forseeable incident". The rules, while intrusive at times, have their rationale --- to protect the babies. We cannot make exceptions because we have no way of telling WHO is going to be the person that will fall down while carrying a baby around. Perhaps if our culture was not quite so lawsuit happy, there would not be such a need for policies like this.

JMHO

[Zhlake]

That is our policy as well. No carrying the babies in the halls--can be in crib though.