Do you feel safe at work?

OrganizedChaos, LVN · Jul 18, 2016

In a Florida hospital today, a man armed with a gun shot and killed a patient and a nurse. There is no indication that he knew either one of his victims. Hospital security (unarmed) arrived and was able to restrain him after he was done shooting.
My question to you all is, how safe do you feel at work on any given day? Over the course of my 20+ years, I've been verbally accosted, physically assaulted and even had a gun pulled on me. I've had armed bounty hunters come to the unit to find fugitive parents as well as gang members looking for the children of another gang member. Hospitals, by and large, don't screen their visitors for weapons. And during the daylight hours, visitors often come and go without even so much as a cursory glance over by security.
Have you ever been in physical danger at work? Was the response adequate? What would you change if you had the ability?

I've worked in corrections & I have to say I felt the safest there than any time I worked out in public.

pixiestudent2 · Jul 18, 2016

Not safe. I think if there was a mass shooting in my city.. I think they'd target my hospital. You can't hear the code intercom messages in the OR rooms either.

Emergent, RN · Jul 18, 2016

I feel safe, but driving to work scares me.

Pangea Reunited, ASN, RN · Jul 18, 2016

Security at the hospitals I've worked at has been a "responsibility with no power" position ...they're not even allowed to touch patients or visitors. That being said, I still feel safer at work than I do in many other places. Life is dangerous, in general.

Wile E Coyote, ASN, RN · Jul 18, 2016

I don't know details on how exactly those unarmed guards subdued the shooter, but holy smokes what stones on those folks! Those guards wouldn't be paying for their own lunches for the rest of the year(at a minimum) if I worked on that unit.

Libby1987 · Jul 18, 2016

Yes I do. Semi rural home health.

nutella, MSN, RN · Jul 18, 2016

In a Florida hospital today, a man armed with a gun shot and killed a patient and a nurse. There is no indication that he knew either one of his victims. Hospital security (unarmed) arrived and was able to restrain him after he was done shooting.
My question to you all is, how safe do you feel at work on any given day? Over the course of my 20+ years, I've been verbally accosted, physically assaulted and even had a gun pulled on me. I've had armed bounty hunters come to the unit to find fugitive parents as well as gang members looking for the children of another gang member. Hospitals, by and large, don't screen their visitors for weapons. And during the daylight hours, visitors often come and go without even so much as a cursory glance over by security.
Have you ever been in physical danger at work? Was the response adequate? What would you change if you had the ability?

I never felt unsafe at work and that includes a variety of hospitals and home care - night and day.

I have taken care of patients connected to gang activity or other crime but as a nurse I never felt unsafe or a target. To be honest - it is the elderly patient with dementia or in delirium who is violent in my experience, or patients who had a brain injury.

Having said that - when I needed security (which was plenty on some floors) their response was adequate and sufficient.

I think I am not an anxious person to begin with and do not feel unsafe even though I have been in situations that were dicey. I do not own a gun, I have no reason to think that guns would make my life safer - the opposite is the case. And I taught the same to my kids. There is a sense of "felt safety" that you can not get by owning a gun or similar. Some people always feel unsafe or that there is no safe place or that they will be killed and such - I never felt like that although I grew up with violence.

Here is a link with good information on safety for some patient population:

Strategies To De-escalate Aggressive Behavior in Psychiatric Patients - Executive Summary | AHRQ Effective Health Care Program

Here.I.Stand, BSN, RN · Jul 18, 2016

How horrible! I hadn't seen the news or heard about that.

I feel pretty safe; our hospital security carry tasers, and we've had sheriff's deputies posted at the hospital 24/7 for a couple of years (r/t gang stuff on our campus). When stuff has escalated and we've had leaders in our unit with GSWs, sheriff's deputies have guarded our unit entrances.

Ruby Vee, BSN · Jul 18, 2016

In a Florida hospital today, a man armed with a gun shot and killed a patient and a nurse. There is no indication that he knew either one of his victims. Hospital security (unarmed) arrived and was able to restrain him after he was done shooting.
My question to you all is, how safe do you feel at work on any given day? Over the course of my 20+ years, I've been verbally accosted, physically assaulted and even had a gun pulled on me. I've had armed bounty hunters come to the unit to find fugitive parents as well as gang members looking for the children of another gang member. Hospitals, by and large, don't screen their visitors for weapons. And during the daylight hours, visitors often come and go without even so much as a cursory glance over by security.
Have you ever been in physical danger at work? Was the response adequate? What would you change if you had the ability?

Amazingly, I feel pretty safe at work most of the time. There are times when it's been iffy, though.

In my first year of nursing, about four decades ago, some guy on trial for domestic violence got ahold of a gun and shot his way out of the courtroom, stole a car and drove four hours to our city where he abandoned the car in the middle of the intersection in front of our hospital after the police rammed him to get him to stop. He ran into our lobby, barricaded himself behind a pile of furniture and occaisionally took pot shots at anyone who wandered into the vicinity. I happened to be passing through the lobby after he got there and before the police locked it down. No, I didn't get shot. But when I saw the weird guy barricaded behind overturned furniture who was beckoning frantically for me to come over, I almost did. I'm a nurse.

A good friend who was working at the VA as a nursing supervisor was shot in the butt as he was running away from a gun-waving veteran upset about his benefits. That got a whole paragraph in the local paper.

A female intern was raped in the elevator of a famous, east coast teaching hospital by some dude who wandered in off the street. For the next year, no one went anywhere on the elevator without a buddy during the off shifts. In fact, the transporters were called to escort the nurses to Pharmacy to pick up more drugs. That ended when a nurse was robbed by the transporter on the way back from Pharmacy.

A patient's family member at my hospital shot a physician because he didn't like his mother's prognosis. Our whole hospital was under lockdown, but the rooms in our unit faced that unit across a small courtyard, and I felt distinctly unsafe that day.

Then there was the day a confused patient called her family and told them she'd been assaulted by one of our providers. They came in toting guns, threatening to kill the provider. (Of course it was MY patient.) I had just taken report from the night nurse who had neglected to inform anyone that the family in question had called her to tell her they'd be coming in, and she'd better have that (profanity deleted) provider there to answer to them. As she off-handedly mentioned this issue over her shoulder on her way out of the room, I told her to PLEASE tell the charge nurse on her way out. Fortunately, she did, because moments later a man and a woman, both wearing firearms in underarm holsters showed up on the unit, asking for the provider.

Apparently they'd rethought their plan to kill the provider, because they told the patient to hang on, they'd just called the police and the police were on their way to arrest the provider for assault. Hoo boy! Our charge nurse called security (some of whom were armed -- we're in a dangerous neighborhood) and they showed up en masse just ahead of the police (also armed). Now I'm alone in a small room with a demented patient, two armed family members, three or four security guards and two armed police officers. Everyone (including the patient) was shouting, and no one was listening. My manager, her boss, her boss's boss and a bunch of people from the legal department were next on the scene, and my boss's boss (a rather large lady in her fifties with gunmetal grey hair and an attitude to match) ripped off a loud whistle to get everyone's attention. Things started to settle down a bit after that. That's the most frightened I've ever been at work! The provider, meanwhile, was so traumatized she sneaked out the back door and called in her resignation. I finished out my shift with the same patient and security sitting outside the door.

Then there was the time a comatose patient's son who was visiting from the nearest federal prison (where he and Dad were both serving life sentences for crimes that included murder) smuggled in a homemade machete and attempted to end Dad's life sentence prematurely. I had my back to the son, and was trying to force a concoction of meds down Dad's feeding tube when suddenly I was tackled from the side. As I lay on the floor squished underneath a 300 pound prison guard, I heard a scuffle and then the machete clattered to the floor. It took three prison guards (two of Dad's and one of the son's) to take down a wiry, 100 pound inmate and disarm him. I'm just grateful I didn't know what was happening until it was over. I was pretty scared then, too.

NotYourMamasRN · Jul 18, 2016

I rarely feel safe at work. In one of the inner city ER's I worked in we were on lock down quite a bit because we had gang related shootings coming in every night. I am often verbally and occassionally physically assaulted by patients AND their family members. I think that we deserve hazardous duty pay like I got in the military.

paidmydues · Jul 18, 2016

No, never do I let my guard down. Whether being sniped by toxic, crazy fellow staff members / managers or attacked verbally by a patient or cray cray family member...just last night I was a sitter for an impulsive, little old man demented patient. He swore at me and suddenly raised his walker and almost hit me with it in my face. My job is to take care of my patients, but I usually stay at arm's length. Question to ponder: will they or their family members remember you when you have a permanent neck/back injury or they re-arrange your face in 2 seconds? My motto: "Take care of yourself and your patients get taken care of well..."

Signed: Moving to Hawaii in one month at 61 and going to massage therapy school...