A nurse was stabbed in MonteFiore's ER in the Bronx, NYC yesterday in an unprovoked attack - by a 60 yr old female dialysis pt who had a large knife hidden in her comb. She was stabbed in the arm - 6 cm long, jagged 3-4 cm thick and deep enough to expose tendons. The nature of the wound was such that if the patient had struck a neck, chest or face, there could have been critical, even fatal, consequences.
Except for the supervisor, no hospital administrators appeared in the ER to show support to this nurse (she was discharged about 5 hours after the injury -- one of the wonderful Plastic Surgery attendings came in from home and repaired her arm). The chief admin. for the ER showed up about 4 hours after she had left - and sent a fruit basket to her home.
Messages of solidarity and support from other Rns would be greatly appreciated and can be sent to
Anyone want to answer the question on lack of nursing inter-support for this student nurse? (K_wagner) because after 25+ years of nursing - I still don't have a clue why it is like that. God knows I've tried!
This is so horrible that I have been trying for 2 days to think of an adequate response, and I still don't have one. I haven't even sent an e-mail to the nurse who was stabbed yet, because words have failed me so far. I hope to rectify this soon.
Does anyone have any graphics/computer skills, and know how to produce a nice "Stop the Violence Against Nurses" type graphic which could be used as a banner, or downloaded to make T-shirt transfers or buttons?
I think we need some kind of nonprofit organization that we can turn to as nurses that would advocate for nurses like this nurse, or the home health nurse who recently posted here about being assaulted during her visit, after being denied an escort. A union might be the obvious choice, but, maybe we can also use something for emergent situations in organizations where no union currently exists. Maybe it sounds farfetched, but who would have thought 30 years ago that numerous safe houses for abused women would exist? I don't think we need safe houses. We need an advocacy/educational organization that will a) advocate for uniform policies and standards to prevent workplace violence, b) provide information and referrals ( such as referrals to lawyers who specialize in this area) to nurses in crisis, and c) publicize this issue.
Of course, what we also need is adequate healthcare funding. But that isn't going to happen, not when we just spent 87 billion dollars on Iraq and the Baby Boomers are heading into old age, thus straining Medicare further.
In NY, the New York State Nurses Assoc is doing that. In fact, just days before this nurse was attacked, I posted the link to a new RNs workplace violence survey its taking in NY to support our legislative effort to get those policies and standards passed into law.
I dont think those Florida nurses should let the hospital get away with downplaying their incident. The nurses, any one of them, can & should be reporting the whole thing to the Florida Nurses Association and Dept of Health & demanding action. They also should especially be notifying OSHA - the agency that is keeping track & handling this kind of thing. Did they make the notifications?
It doesnt have to be the nurse who was harmed who makes the call. And the call can be made anonymously. Authorities besides that hospital administration need to know whats going on if anything is ever going to be changed. Especially the part about how short staffing was involved in putting the RNs life at risk.
Very good information, -jt. I know I would appreciate any info you or others have, as I really have no idea what to do if I ever find myself in a situation similar to the stabbed nurse. If we can share our knowledge here, that's a start.
Alda Ellington, a 47-year-old nurse, was working the nightshift at Savannas Hospital, a private psychiatric hospital in Port Lucie, Florida on April 11, 2001. She was in the process of admitting a patient. He beat her to death. At a California hospital, Debbie Corning, an intensive care nurse for 11 years, was kicked in the spleen by a patient. She was sent flying across the room. in Illinois in 1999, Mary Grimes, RN came to the aid of a co-worker who was being attacked by a patient at the state-run Zeller Mental Health Center (Illinois). The patient pushed Mary so violently that she fell backward and hit her head against a metal door-frame. She was in a coma for several weeks due to the severe head injury. Two nurses in Guam were killed at their workplace after a husband singled out his wife and shot the others at random as well. In Sandy, Utah, Richard Worthington shot emergency department nurse Karla Roth in the back, killing her. He was angry about the tubal ligation performed on his wife after the delivery of the couple's 8th child. Jean Dooley, 71, was at Valley Lutheran Hospital in Mesa, Arizona recovering from a hysterectomy. She became upset and pulled a gun out of a bag brought in by her husband and began shooting at the nurse's station. She shot her nurse in the arm. A dialysis patient at St. Mary's Hospital in suburban Chicago became enraged when a nurse refused him coffee during dialysis. He shot the nurse multiple times and she remained in critical condition for over a month.......
Thats just a sample. Theres more:
Violence in the Healthcare Setting: Keeping Nurses Safe
"You know, I am more worried about something like this happening than I am contracting AIDS or HepB or C. "
For very good reason. You are much more likely to be assaulted by a patient than contract HIV of hepatitis from him/her.
""We don't discuss hospital security measures with the public," Adkins said, adding, "In an emergency room, the first priority is taking care of the medical needs of patients."
'Wow! That says it all right there! '
Not quite all. The second priority is to minimize legal/financial risk to the facility. The third priority is to minimize the likelihood of the facility's gaining negative media coverage. And way down toward the bottom of the priority list--to minimize physical attacks on nurses.
IMHO.
One question: What happens when a doctor is physically assaulted in this way? A basket of fruit? I don't think so. (And this is NOT a comment about doctors--but about hospital administration and owners of these facilities.)
azverte
19 Posts
Anyone want to answer the question on lack of nursing inter-support for this student nurse? (K_wagner) because after 25+ years of nursing - I still don't have a clue why it is like that. God knows I've tried!