Nurses Who Kill

Nurses General Nursing

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Did anybody see the Fox News special last night called "Nurses Who Kill?" If so what were your impressions. Was it "fair and balanced" or do you think nurses were unfairly portrayed?

Thanks for your response.

-HBS

Md. School Nurse's Aide Is Charged With Rape

Woman Allegedly Involved With Boy, 13

By Darragh Johnson

Washington Post Staff Writer

Wednesday, December 10, 2003; Page B07

A 30-year-old Maryland woman has been charged with rape and other offenses for allegedly engaging in a sexual relationship with a 13-year-old boy who is a friend of her son's, authorities said yesterday.

Amy Marie Bayliss, a nurse's aide at Easton Middle School in Talbot County, was arrested Friday and charged with three counts of second-degree rape, two counts of second-degree sex offense and one count of sex abuse of a minor. She and the youth allegedly had sexual encounters on "at least seven different occasions" since September, according to an affidavit filed in court by Maryland State Police.

Although the youth attends the school where Bayliss worked, the two became acquainted outside school because of the boy's friendship with Bayliss's son, said state police Sgt. Kenneth A. Collins.

After her arrest, Bayliss was released on $10,000 bond. A woman answered the phone at Bayliss's home yesterday and said Bayliss had no comment on the allegations.

Collins said rumors of a sexual relationship between the two had been swirling around the school for some time. On Friday, according to Collins, Bayliss told police that the "rumors were all true" and that "she wanted to get this incident behind her."

According to the affidavit, the youth told police that he "was not forced or threaten[ed] to participate" in any of the sexual conduct.

The youth told police and a Child Protective Services worker that the first sexual incident occurred in Bayliss's car in September, the affidavit states. It states that another incident occurred while the youth was staying overnight in the Bayliss home, visiting Bayliss's son.

Bayliss was assigned to the Talbot County school system by her employer, the county Health Department. Officials declined to comment yesterday on her employment status since her arrest.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A51145-2003Dec9.html

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We don't see "killer carpenter" for two reasons. When a carpenter kills it is unsually not related to being a caprenter.

That is not to say in a situation where his act was related to being a capenter then we might very well see such a head line.

We do not trust carpenters with our life. There are few professionals we do trust implicitely, let alone with our life, or worse the life of someone we love dearly.

Nurses on the latest Gallup poll are listed as the the #1 most trusted profession. They are trused with human life. This nurse's act was committed while he was entrusted with care of human life.

That is why it is so scandalous when a cop goes bad or a fireman turns out to be a deadly arson.

It is the very trust we put in people that makes the sensation. I am sorry but killing the messenger (media)does not change the fact this is sensational. It is sensational because this is not suposed to happen.

I believe it is a good thing to make the public and us more aware that this can happen and to be alert and a little less complacent, a little less willing to give blind trust to anyone.

I know this last part makes some of you uncomfortable.

However, it is a mistake that any group is given absolute trust. It is when we trust like this that the wolf sees his change to move in and take advantage of that.

Personally I do not mind scrutney. Yes it can be annoying sometimes. But it tells me I am dealing with a deserning person who is intelligent and can think and make thier own judgements. I would rather that than someone who will trust anything I say or do and end up injured because folks I am human I make mistakes and I do not know everything.

If it is understood up front that they have some responsibility in thier own safty then there is a lot less blaming in the end.

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Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.

YOU SAID IT YOURSELF angus....

the public trusts us w/their very lives. Or something toward that effect....paraphrasing here.

then why the HELL not do a segment on nurses who save lives???? HMMM?????

why not the positive? why do DOCTORS and PARAMEDICS get sole billing for this thing we DO DAILY? HMMM????

tell ya why: ratings are number ONE and killer nurses would definately sell better than life-saving ones. THAT is why.

It's sickening to me.

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Originally posted by SmilingBluEyes

tell ya why: ratings are number ONE and killer nurses would definately sell better than life-saving ones. THAT is why.

So why doesn't some media outlet broadcast "Doctors and Paramedics Who Kill" as a special report or segment? Certainly other health care professionals are guilty of similar crimes in our history.

Perhaps because the shock value for nursing is higher as the public trust for nursing is greater.

Just a thought.

-HBS

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Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.
Originally posted by hbscott

So why doesn't some media outlet broadcast "Doctors and Paramedics Who Kill" as a special report or segment? Certainly other health care professionals are guilty of similar crimes in our history.

Perhaps because the shock value for nursing is higher as the public trust for nursing is greater.

Just a thought.

-HBS

good food for thought, really.

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Specializes in Community Health Nurse.

Doctors are always in the news for killing patients, not treating them appropriately are aggressively enough due to laps in health coverage, etc. One case I remember was the doc who was artificially inseminating patients with his own sperm without the patients knowledge. Anyone remember that case?

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This is indeed a sad thing =(

On one hand I agree with the point that some have been pressing : Yes a nurse did this and caused doubt to be shed on all of us but I feel that the media does in fact sensationalize things. The reason this story made it to the forefront is that the media realized how shocking it would be and made it a headline. People trust us and the media wants to scare them so they will watch and read. They don't care that this can destroy the publics trust in us or that it could adversely effect the care they receive by 1 making it scary for people to come to the hospital 2 by causing problems for nurses thus making even more nurses leave the profession.

As disturbing as this is, I'm more concerned that it may be only the beginning. Remember when priests were thought of as trustworthy and good? Now when someone mentions a priest what do you think of? Not the thousands of good and loving people out there but the ones that have betrayed the trust people put in them and molest kids.

The word priest has become almost synonyms with child molester. Will the word nurse become synonyms with mercy killer?

I don't blame the media for starting this but I do blame them for what is about to come. I bet we will see a bunch of news stories attempting to recapture some of the ratings this initial nurse killer caught. They will dig and dig to find any crime perpetrated by any RN,LPN,CNA,MA, medical secretary or anyone wearing scrubs, blow it up and headline it as ANOTHER KILLER NURSE.

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Specializes in Obstetrics, M/S, Psych.

Dayray

Comparing the decades long cover-up in the priesthood to this incident with this one nurse is a stretch. There are tens of thousands of nurses. This one incident is not going to tarnish nursing. Also, the child molestation within the priesthood was hidden to protect the many guilty priests and save face for the church. This not only was devastating to the kids, but the church in general. We don't have to worry about hospitals and facilities protecting the nurse to avoid publicity. When bad things involving nurses do happen, it is news immediately, as with this story and in this case, as it should be. Or just read your state BON update. One could liken that to the witch trials of the 1600's. No, I wouldn't worry about a trend here. Nurses have never gotten away with much.

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Originally posted by SmilingBluEyes

tell ya why: ratings are number ONE and killer nurses would definately sell better than life-saving ones. THAT is why.

Unfortunate, but true.

I worked in media for years. Those topics do get better ratings.

That's the reason why you see so many crime shows on TV.

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Specializes in Medical/Surgical.

Oprah recently did a whole show on medical mistakes and it mainly focused on the doctors. I don't think any of her guests complained about the nurses, in fact one of the guests medical mistakes was caught by a nurse. Oprah really gets the word out on a lot of topics and I think this show definately made doctors look bad.

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Unfortunately a killer nurse seems to surface about every ten years or so. I rarely go into my forensic "schtick" when I post but I will with this.

There are two reasons why people kill. Arrogance or Greed. (rage has it's own catagory).

The Nurse Killer killed out of arrogance. Basically just because he could. Take a personality disorder plus arrogance and you end up with a disaster.

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Originally posted by BarbPick

Unfortunately a killer nurse seems to surface about every ten years or so. I rarely go into my forensic "schtick" when I post but I will with this.

There are two reasons why people kill. Arrogance or Greed. (rage has it's own catagory).

The Nurse Killer killed out of arrogance. Basically just because he could. Take a personality disorder plus arrogance and you end up with a disaster.

Well said Barb. His attorney will likely attempt to mitigate charges with claims of mental illness. We shall see if that one flies.

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