Safety and protection while working....

Specialties Home Health

Published

Specializes in Geriatrics.

Howdy to all my fellow nurses. I've got a question...how do you protect yourself when you have to go into rough parts of a town or city?? I ask this because over the past several weeks there have been 4 shootings and 2 stabbings in the middle of the day and about 1/2 block from where i was working. Days that i have to go into the city it is rare to find a parking spot close to my pt's home so i usually end up walking a few blocks. I had walked right past where the stabbing occured about a half hour before it happened. There is no way i will give up my job, I LOVE my job, but i also feel that we should be allowed some type of self defense or protection when we are assigned to go into parts of the city. I don't work in the city every day and i have never had a problem with one of my patients as they are usually very appreciative for my services. It is this random violence that scares me. I'm sure that my employer doesn't allow for us to carry hand guns even if we do have a permit to carry, and i've also heard that is it now illegal to carry pepper spray....so what else could i do??? Thanks for any help.:banghead:

If you want to avoid the behavior that occurs in those areas, then avoid the areas. If you insist on working in places like that then you can't really complain when something happens.

Specializes in Geriatrics.
If you want to avoid the behavior that occurs in those areas, then avoid the areas. If you insist on working in places like that then you can't really complain when something happens.

I wish it were that easy, we have patients in all demographic areas. I don't think that it is wrong to ask for some type of protection when we are assigned to those areas nor do i think that people that need our care should be refused just because they live in a bad part of the city....I just think i should have the right to protect myself thats all. Kudos to you if you have the option of avoiding these areas!

Specializes in ICU/CCU, Home Health, Case Management.

Cali is right, you can choose to work in those unsafe neighborhoods or not. I worked for a company up north in MA, and in a high rise building, elevator was freq. broken 15 floors! So, a nurse was raped in the stairwell. After that, my agency sent an escort to meet me and provide protection. He stayed outside my patients apt. while I did visit and escorted me back to my car! I, also, had taken Karate for 6 yrs, so, I kinda knew how to get away from an attacker. I would not, work in the neighborhoods you describe. I would leave the company, your life is Your life. It is not worth the risk! :twocents: Please take care of YOU.

Specializes in PICU, NICU, L&D, Public Health, Hospice.

some urban CHC nurses have CCWs and carry when in the bad parts of town, at least that is my experience in Detroit

You say you can't carry a concealed weapon. Why? Who's going to know? If I were in those kinds of neighborhoods, I would either refuse to go, be packing heat, or find another job. I would not risk my life.

Specializes in home health, dialysis, others.

We had a security agency available - we tried to give them advance notice, and meet them nearby. Also, there were certain areas that were deemed too dangerous, and the agency was not supposed to take patients in those areas.

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