There are 3,063,162 licensed registered nurses in the United States. That's how many nurses that are licensed,but there are only •  84.8% of the RN population, or an estimated 2,596,599 RNs, were employed in nursing
Men are what percentage of the total nursing population?
•  Approximately 294,063 RNs are men – only 9.6% of the total nursing population.
What is the average age of an RN in the United States?
Only 10.6% of all RNs are under the age of 30. The average age of the RN population in the United States is 46 years.
Are male nurses generally younger than female nurses?
•  The median age for male RNs licensed in 2000 or later is 35, compared with 31 for female RNs.
Source: Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Minority Health, 2009, http://minorityhealth.hhs.gov.

I was interested in the number of nurses because I felt this profession had some power!
Why are we allowing ourselves to be assaulted? WHY are we not working with the "powers to be" to help change the culture? Why are we not as a team looking at our community and learning what THEY need.
I feel if we knew the community ,we could get a better understanding of who we deal with and how better to serve them.

 

Nurses are our Guardian Angels

 

 

Nurses Around The World! You Are So Awesome!! -Keep up the good work!

 

We need to work together and stop the violence

Know your patient and you are ahead of the violence!

This is a simple trick to keep the violence down, in your place of work. It will take a while to work on it, however when it is completed, it will only take maintenance work.
The top item to work on, is communication.
If all the powers to be, sat down and talked with each other and stated what they really need, it would be grand.
 The people in administration would state what they need, to make  the changes and keep the staff safe.
The healthcare workers would speak to administration and tell them about the assaults ,physical, verbal , emotional and any other assault that has happened .Speaking how they see the problem and what they feel that could be a solution.
Now the question is HOW do they do it?
First there has to be a commitment on all parties. This isn't a job for one person....
Who are the people that assault the staff? Patients? The patients family members,? The patients friends?  anyone else?????
How has administration been notified about the assaults in the past? Do the healthcare workers feel that they are listened too?
Are the healthcare workers given administration enough knowledge that they can see an issue?
The whole point is>>>>>>>>>>>
What does the staff need to do ,to have administration pay attention and do what's needed ?
What does administration need to do for the staff ,to let them know that administration is supporting them and understand that being assaulted is not part of their job.
Being safe in a job is not asking to much.
Comments are always welcomed.

This sign was seen in a clinic Bellows falls VT. This clinic wants there customers to know their staff is very important.
Why can't we all have signage like this?

sign in Cox Medical center north Springfield MO.

Assaulted at work ",I never thought being assaulted would change my life so much"

Before I write about an easy solution to some violence, I would like to show another video about a Nurse that was assaulted and how this assault changed her life.

WWW.Stophealthcareviolence.org

Nurses are heros! Public opinion

I put this video on my blog to let the readers know ,the public doesn't understand that healthcare providers are in danger, nor does the public realize we get injured.
The other comment this gentle made is true "NURSES ARE HERO'S" and as a nurse I would remind you healthcare workers are not punching bags (as stated by the MNA)
This noise in this video is from the wind and I apologize for that.

Prevention is key!

In my last blog I asked "what would you do if you were signing some one in, to be evaluated and you noticed, this person assaulted someone in the past in your institution".  I wrote the blog without stating how this information gets into the chart.
It really is quite simple.

Does anyone have any ideas how this would happen?

Could this be a tool we could use to help prevent healthcare violence ?

                             Healthcare violence is everyone's concern!


I have been blogging, about nurses and the devastation, that happens after an assault by a patient.
But as in any profession, you are only as good as your team. On the nurse's team there are multiple people, MD's, xray tech's, transport, secretary's etc.
I want everyone to understand that anyone can get hurt, not just Nurses.

The people that are on the front lines are the reception people. They are the first to ask the questions. When a person goes into a facility (hospital, clinic, Doctors office etc.) the first person they see is the receptionist. They usually ask for your name ,date of birth and insurance information. Having the technology we have today , the receptionist is inputting the information or checking it on a computer. While they are putting this information in the computer , what  would happen if they saw a symbol in the computer that means that the patient,( the one that is standing in front of them), assaulted someone the last time they were there.

My questions are:
 1.Would that be helpful to know? What is expected from this receptionist now?
 2. Are these facilities set up to help the front line personnel? (example silent alarm, security )
 3. Policy's and procedures for the staff on what to do?
 4. Should we pretend that everyone is safe, not mention anything to anyone and hope no one gets hurt.

Are there any studies done on receptionists or secretary's of the healthcare team?
 

Why do we stay in a profession that uses us as punching bags?

1. Recently I went around asking people ",DO YOU KNOW THAT HEALTHCARE WORKERS GET ASSAULTED"? The answer was in most cases" no I never heard that". I really wasn't surprised but I wondered why.

Are nurses or any, healthcare professionals, like a battered woman?
We as the public( speaking of a battered woman) would yell and scream "she is crazy to stay with him, look what she is teaching her children, why doesn't she leave?"! ETC, ETC.
As professionals are we Afraid to stand up for themselves?
Is fear the only issue?
The answer to this question has many facets.( losing the job, not looking good in someone's  eyes, paying bills. The list goes on.)
I once spoke to a co worker that stated she was kicked by a patient, I asked her if she had the physician look at the area she was kicked. She stated NO, I asked did you make out a incident report? Again the answer was NO. I asked why, her answer was "well it really wasn't that bad"!
How bad does it have to be before something is done???? Allowing anyone to spit,kick,slap,pinch and punch is wrong. So easy to say.....
Incident reports have to be made out so the institution knows what is really happening. Follow up to the person that has been assaulted is also important.
We as healthcare workers ( EMS, Nurses,NP, physician asst, Doctors, xray techs, Medical asst. and this list  goes on) are the hero's .
I want to thank each and every one for the work you do. Be safe.
Please go to www.stophealthcareviolence.org to see how your life as a nurse can change after an assault.

"I am Fine"

It is a little over a year ago that one of my coworkers was assaulted by a patient that was brought to the ER by EMS.I was working that night and saw the aftermath of this assault. I saw this man(after he punched the nurse in the face) beating himself on his face and chest yelling "come and get me"
I wrote her story and I was very lucky it got published in Advance for Nurses magazine.
http://nursing.advanceweb.com/Lifestyles-for-Nurses/Columns/Tell-Us-Your-Nursing-Story/I-Am-Fine-but-Violence-in-the-ED-is-Not.aspx
It is quite a story ,however what isn't in the story is the horrific PTSD this nurse has experienced and her day in court.
When a healthcare worker gets assaulted it is devastating, it changes your life. Please go to www.stophealthcareviolence.org there are many videos and other stories of nurses getting assaulted. Thank You 

Shooting in the ER

Thinking about the incident in the Boston ER ,where the prisoner tried to take a gun away from the guard and shooting him in the leg because he couldn't get the gun out of the holster and the other guard shooting the prisoner in the chest makes me very aware how much violence there really is . The violence of different community's are invading places that should be safe for the staff and the visitors. 
I wasn't at this scene today so I am writing this blog on reports that I have have heard on the TV.
I would like to comment on this. I have worked in Emergency rooms and seen what guards and police do when they are with patients that are prisoners.
 I want to thank those guards that were there  ,they had to be not only well trained but really take their job seriously. Knowing the layout of many hospital ER's I could imagine the harm that could have come to the staff and patients.
I believe the guards with their actions saved the staff and the patients from grave danger. Thank You .

Why don't things change?

I am very passionate about violence in the workplace. As employees ,we should be protected from the people we serve. Why doesn't this happen?
Communication is the best why : writing out incident reports, following up on them. Calling risk management and asking what is being done about the assaults ,police reports, calling the union ( you pay the union )to do something, ask them and have them listen to some ideas on how you think the violence could be handled.
But I bet you know all that. So ask yourself why do the things that matter to you aren't changing?
I already wrote that communication was the best why to get your points heard.

 I was giving a talk in another country recently ,after my talk I was invited to visit with the director of the ED and a few other folks. We spoke about healthcare violence, some of the ideas they shared with me was: Having many trained security guards to keep the hospital safe. another thing they spoke of is the ambulance bay door.
 The ambulance door is very strong ,it can withstand 2,000 pounds of pressure without breaking,but it can bend. I asked why they needed a door that needed to be that strong. He stated, "to protect the staff"I was also told that in another country if a patient acts up and assaults a health care provider, that person is allowed to come back ,however s/he will have a security guard or two with them . The payment for this ,is the patients responsibly.
I was just reading NURSING the finest art by M.Patricia Donahue,PhD,RN,FAAN
"Japan has been in the forefront of engineering a variety of robotic caretakers"
Here is a few ideas ,Don't be afraid of change,be afraid of not changing,be a change agent in your institution.

Nurses lives have been changed after being assaulted!

Nurses and other health care workers are getting assaulted more frequently . In the emails I have received, healthcare workers feel nothing by their administration is being done. In some cases they have been told it is  "part of the job". It is year 2013 it is not part of the job! It really was never part of the job, we are caregivers not police men/women. We carry stethoscopes not guns.

WE need to make the assaults heard, the institution needs to know how often the assaults happen.  "I didn't write out an incident report, nothing will get done anyway" This comment and thought is really old and tiresome.

What is workplace violence????????????

"According to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health(NIOSH)

Workplace violence is an act of aggression directed toward persons at work or

on duty and ranges from offensive or threatening language to homicide"

This is an act of aggression, A nurse helping a patient, not her only injury!

New State law hasn't help these nurses!

Recently, I received an email stating that there is no one ( union or management) in their institution that can give crystal clear guidelines to how to press charges after being assaulted at work by a patient. This email came from a nurse in the state of Conn. Their Gov.Dannel P Molloy signed into law ,violence against health care workers would result in a class C felony.
How can this happen? Why wouldn't the union be able to handle a little thing like How to press charges? A Union charges a lot of money to represent the Nurses but it is really the nurses that make up a union. Are the nurses afraid  to make a lot of noise? Could it be that the nurses feel it is part of their job to get assaulted? Why are institutions willing to stop the violence?
One more thing, in the State of MA. I have been told several hospitals are not having ant workplace violence committee meetings,when I asked why, one response was "we never seem to get the time" the other response was: it's the unions job to hold the meetings and no one is fighting this.
This is year 2013 and heath care workers are still getting assaulted. MNA worked hard on getting a bill passed ,As nurses are we using this bill to help stop the violence? We need to do better and we need to do it now!  BUT HOW?

“Recently workplace violence has gained

recognition as a distinct category of violent

crime that requires specific responses from

employers, law enforcement and the

community according to the Department of

Labor , Federal Bureau of Investigation (2004).”

Workplace Violence: issues in response.

Retrieved January 24, 2006 from

http://www.fbi.gov/page2/march04/violence030104.