Is it me.....

Specialties Emergency

Published

:uhoh3: or is the ED becoming more and more dangeropus a place to work? Last Tuesday I had a pt pull a knife, fortunately he did not open the pocket knife and it was in the local paper yesterday that there was 3 shots fired in another local hospital's ED waiting area. Makes me want to rethink my desire to stay in the ED. :o

Our lockdown button is in the station. Anyone in the ED can hit it if needed. If we waited for approval from the hospital...we'ld all be lying on the floor dead after wiating so long!!!

We, too have a very sad security presence. I'm pretty sure I could take any of them myself!!! And trust me...I am WAY out of shape!!

:angryfire

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We, too have a very sad security presence. I'm pretty sure I could take any of them myself!!! And trust me...I am WAY out of shape!!

:angryfire

:rotfl:

Hopefully it doesn't come to that, but you never know, nurses are responsible for more and more "duties" within the hospital, maybe next they'll have us carrying billy clubs and acting as security guards on top of everything else :rotfl:

I don't work in the ED but a few weeks ago we had a 19 yo female head injury patient whose boyfriend came in wielding a knife. He told her if she didn't recover fully he was going to kill her and "put her out of her misery." Where do these people come from???

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Specializes in Step down, ICU, ER, PACU, Amb. Surg.
We, too have a very sad security presence. I'm pretty sure I could take any of them myself!!! And trust me...I am WAY out of shape!!

Hopefully it doesn't come to that, but you never know, nurses are responsible for more and more "duties" within the hospital, maybe next they'll have us carrying billy clubs and acting as security guards on top of everything else

I don't work in the ED but a few weeks ago we had a 19 yo female head injury patient whose boyfriend came in wielding a knife. He told her if she didn't recover fully he was going to kill her and "put her out of her misery." Where do these people come from???

OMG!!!! :uhoh3: How concerned and loving of him....sounds like he needed to be put out of his misery! And if I have to start acting as security...I am taking out a contract with Smith&Wesson, Ruger or Browning!!! :chuckle Sheesh! Pistol packing nurses!!! What next! :chuckle

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Specializes in ER, ICU, L&D, OR.
I would say if you never wonder why you keep doing this,Tom, then you are A) a sado-masichist(sp), B) psychotic or C) Dedicated to the bone! :chuckle

Can I choose all pf the above

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Specializes in Step down, ICU, ER, PACU, Amb. Surg.
I would say if you never wonder why you keep doing this,Tom, then you are A) a sado-masichist(sp), B) psychotic or C) Dedicated to the bone! :chuckle

Can I choose all pf the above

Sure Tom!!! :chuckle: It's part of why we all love you....besides I must be a little of all 3 myself as I still keep going back for more, too!! :rotfl:

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Hey, don't laugh at those "pistol packing nurses". You may be working with some. I know I have worked with a few in the past. They made me feel a heck of alot safer than our "security" (keystone kops). :rolleyes:

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Hey, don't laugh at those "pistol packing nurses". You may be working with some. I know I have worked with a few in the past. They made me feel a heck of alot safer than our "security" (keystone kops). :rolleyes:

boy that's scary! I'd be afraid to carry a gun BECAUSE I'D USE IT ALOT! No, seriously...I worked in an ED where EVERYONE had to disarm at the door. Latin Kings put their weapons in one corner, El Rukn in another, Insane Latin Disciples inthe third, and the Chicago cops in the fourth. Y'know what? It worked. and our security guards there were the toughest guys in the world. They ruled. It helped, I'm sure, that it was a peds ER, and everyone was pretty good around the kids, but I'm telling you it was effective. Then I went to a rural-exurban ER and freeaked out- no one was the littlest bit paranoid! No one frisked patients who were PD holds. or psych, no one checked to see if the traige nurse was dead if you didn't hear from her in a while...then we had an "incident" and finally got lock-down, and the first time we REALLY needed it, it didn't work. That made me really feel good! Now I'm working on getting management to install a panic button at the trage door...just in case. I think they don't see the need 'cuz they don't actually work, their butt is NOT on the line. I have been whacked, spit at, throttled kicked and grabbed here in this er, and was never touched once in the "ghetto" er. go figure... :chuckle

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Specializes in Step down, ICU, ER, PACU, Amb. Surg.
Hey, don't laugh at those "pistol packing nurses". You may be working with some. I know I have worked with a few in the past. They made me feel a heck of alot safer than our "security" (keystone kops). :rolleyes:

Trust me....I am not making fun of the pistol packing nurses! I am sure I would feel safer with them tyhan the security we have now. As for having a panic button at the triage station desk.....we could use one of those as well....but then we need a lot of security improvements!

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Believe me, no way could I carry a gun....I probably would use it! Our ER has no security.Our "officers" are scared of their own shadow. Like some of the rest of you, I have taken knives off people in triage, (thankfully, they were cooperative in handing them over). On at least two occassions, I have seen police officers taken down in exam rooms, one of them female, who got smacked around pretty good before she got her pepper spray out.

The kicker was when a man with a gun walked up in broad daylight, across the parking lot, and into the ambulance bay. He tried to get in the double doors (which can be pried open easily, guess he didn't try that)...our nurses station is directly in front of those doors. Anyway, he didn't get in on his first try, so he just blew his head off in front of the doors.

That really shook everyone up. But it's been probably a year later, that we just now get a police officer on the night shift on the weekends.No other changes at all have been made.

I really believe it will take someone getting killed before we get better security.

We also have no camera's in our parking garages, and I have worked nights in that ER for 5 years, and maybe twice have seen security patrol the garage at shift change.

But, this morning, I forgot something, parked in a patient spot, ran in and back out, and there was a "guard" tapping his foot in front of my car.

I guess you get the kind of security staff you pay for? And I wish nurses didn't have to feel so threatened that they carry guns to work. Like I said, I would shoot someone!! Not to mention "short staffed-pms-gun"....not a good combo! :p

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Specializes in Step down, ICU, ER, PACU, Amb. Surg.
Believe me, no way could I carry a gun....I probably would use it! Our ER has no security.Our "officers" are scared of their own shadow. Like some of the rest of you, I have taken knives off people in triage, (thankfully, they were cooperative in handing them over). On at least two occassions, I have seen police officers taken down in exam rooms, one of them female, who got smacked around pretty good before she got her pepper spray out.

The kicker was when a man with a gun walked up in broad daylight, across the parking lot, and into the ambulance bay. He tried to get in the double doors (which can be pried open easily, guess he didn't try that)...our nurses station is directly in front of those doors. Anyway, he didn't get in on his first try, so he just blew his head off in front of the doors.

That really shook everyone up. But it's been probably a year later, that we just now get a police officer on the night shift on the weekends.No other changes at all have been made.

I really believe it will take someone getting killed before we get better security.

We also have no camera's in our parking garages, and I have worked nights in that ER for 5 years, and maybe twice have seen security patrol the garage at shift change.

But, this morning, I forgot something, parked in a patient spot, ran in and back out, and there was a "guard" tapping his foot in front of my car.

I guess you get the kind of security staff you pay for? And I wish nurses didn't have to feel so threatened that they carry guns to work. Like I said, I would shoot someone!! Not to mention "short staffed-pms-gun"....not a good combo! :p

Like you, I noticed that our security is very scarce in the evenings and nights.....depending on who is on as to whether security is a big precence in the ED during the evening or not and when i was mandated to work till 2 am on Friday evening.....security was no where to be found when it was time to leave and we have to park out back and usually quite a distance from the hospital building its self so if something happened, no one would hear you scream or yell anyway. But just let you accidentally park where you aren't supposed to during the day light hours and see if security isn't having your license plate paged over head or threatening to have you towed out of the lot! I think I have to agree...it is going to take someone getting hurt or killed before there is something done about security....a pty that we as healthcare providers are not valued a bit more, eh? :uhoh21:

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I hear ya....many of us get off at 3 am...my thing on parking lot and garage safety is..."where do ya'll think all these nuts we get in the ER come from anyway?? They come in from out there!!" :uhoh3: eeeeeekkk!

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Specializes in Step down, ICU, ER, PACU, Amb. Surg.
I hear ya....many of us get off at 3 am...my thing on parking lot and garage safety is..."where do ya'll think all these nuts we get in the ER come from anyway?? They come in from out there!!" :uhoh3: eeeeeekkk!

Ain't that the truth......and they say that they have security cams in the lot but yet it does not seem that they watch......and so the security dilema continues.

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