Should we tell anyone of the "dirty little secret we never talk about"?

This was a random video that I took. I don't know who he is and wanted to know if the public knew healthcare workers got assaulted. In this one minute video he says it all. He states nurses are hero'a and , I agree NURSES are Hero's. WE do have to remember ,we as nurses don't work alone....There are many hero's in the healthcare field!


Sheila Wilson R.N.BSN MPH

www.stophealthcareviolence.org

This could happen to you,are you prepared?

I was there the night this emergency room nurse was assaulted. She truly couldn't believe the patient hit her" I had taken care of him before". She felt she was fine to go back to work and was surprised that a co worker felt she needed to get checked by the physician. When she was told to go home ,she was very concerned because "what about my patients?" "I haven't seen them,I need to take care of them" This woman is a great nurse,she is compassionate,kind,smart,non judgmental and surprised that she was sent home. This nurse didn't come back to work in the ER due to her injuries when she was assaulted. We lost a great nurse. The assault of a man that was angry at his wife and son that escalated into the emergency room and he alone changed this nurses career.

All incident reports were made out and the police were called.


Sheila Wilson R.N.BSN MPH

www.stophealthcareviolence.org

A question was asked to me about one of the blogs .How can we get the CEO and administration to work with us when they don't even know who we are and don't want to know us or ???
Great question ,
 I needed to ask myself, doesn't administration know who their nurses are?
I can remember one of the CEO's would work though the unit and say Hello to each and every one of us, I knew a chief nursing officer that spoke to us any time she saw us and used our first names. I also remember the CNO (that term wasn't used at that time) had her office on the first floor and had a open door policy.

BUT that was then and today is now!

So what could be the answer?

In the last 2 years I worked at the hospitals, I never saw the CEO's . The CNF was seen only once in a while and didn't address the staff unless forced too. But does that really matter?

When the chips are down you work together as a team or you do nothing.

 The example that stands out in my mind, is the time that 3 nurses ( myself included) knew we needed to get a security guard in the emergency room full time. That was when the hospital had workplace violence meetings. We asked for a 1/2 hour at the meeting and wanted to show a power point. The administration stated yes and I am sure they had no idea what we were proposing. We worked with  a nurse that was a shop steward at another hospital for 15 years,nothing would throw this nurse off her focus when it came to management. WE presented our case and we were able to get a security guard Friday and Saturday to start with and only for four hours. That wasn't what we wanted but it was a start. We asked everyone to write out their incident reports, take the time off we were allowed and make a lot of noise about being assaulted. Within a short time we had a security guard 24/7.
If we as nurses don't make the noise ,don't make out incident reports, don't talk about the assault with each other what can you expect to happen????????????? Hospitals that have a union should be so verbal and loud that the union has to do something .The union works for you ,make them work!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
If you are assaulted and out of work and can never go back and you didn't have a paper trail,you will have nothing.
Get to know your CEO and CNF make them accountable. Does your organization have any policy on keeping their staff safe? Try and find it!


www.stophealthcareviolence.org

Sheila Wilson R.N.BSN MPH



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Patrick Foley Marathon runner,donations go to the Fisher house.

It is only important to you, if it is important to you!

              
                It is only important to you, if it is important to you!

This saying" It is only important to you, if it is important to you!" has been around for a long time and it is so true. Think about it !
 I write about the violence that happens in the ER and of course  people need to realize that violence also happens on the hospital floors.
People focus on the ER because the ER is high risk .The ER is on the front lines, it never knows what is coming in the door ,the ER is not a controlled environment, anything  can happen at any time!
The floors WHERE THE EMERGENCY ROOM SEND THEIR PATIENTS is also in jeopardy. The ER sends admissions to the floor, it could be the same person that has caused havoc in the ER and  is now being transferred to the floor . If there is no communication about the patient causing trouble in the ER ,the floor has no idea that the patient could cause trouble on the floor.This person could be allowed in a 2 bed room with another patient.   . The nurses and medical assistants are also in harms way and there is no security on that floor to help them 24/7. When I worked in one of the hospitals they put the security guard in the ER 24/7 but never hired anyone else, soooooooo there were two guards to cover the entire facility !
That doesn't make any sense to me. While I am on this ,think about the same folks that assault the staff go to the xray area for catscans, xrays etc. but the tech is all alone with them. With  communication that the patient just assaulted someone, security, could stand close by.Many times the xray tech has the order for a patient and can't find a nurse or physician and takes the patient for the test . Now this person is in harms way.
 Does everyone know the sound of the alarm of the xray department???? The only reason I ask is : I was working one evening and the xray alarm went off and the staff didn't recognize that alarm,eventually we did and went into the department and found the patient was trying to assault the xray tech.
I feel that we are missing the fact ,that hospitals are not safe period.
Before I close for this blog, just to bring the point home. A house keeper was doing her rounds, pushing her cart and cleaning up things when someone came by and hit her on the head with a hard object.
No one is safe in the hospital and I think we need to work together to stop the violence.

Sheila Wilson R.N. BSN MPH

www.stophealthcareviolence.org

When was the last workplace violence meeting in your facility?????????

I spoke to a co worker that I haven't seen for a year or so. The first thing she said to me was "I asked again about a workplace violence meeting and again it's the eye rolling ,the shrugs and the "I don't know". This isn't the first of complaints that nurses have about these meetings . I have had another nurse state it has been two years since the last work place violence meeting. This continues to happen BUT nothing is being done.
I was on the bandwagon about these meeting and I was met with answers like "The director of security is leaving ,when we hire a new one we will get started" or "We will have one next month" (never happened)
We as healthcare workers are getting injured daily, we are making out incident reports, BUT nothing has changed for the better.
One of the hospitals I worked in had a sign stating NO VIOLENCE etc. there was another sign in the same area for directions to Dunkin Donuts ,when the area was painted the no violence was never put up BUT Dunkin Donuts sign was proudly displayed.
One time the ambulance doors were stuck open that lasted almost a week, one of the nurses called OSHA to complain however the answer was "if they were left open for two weeks they would investigate" Now these ambulance doors opened into the ER not the waiting room. How safe was that ?????
We had a patient kick in the Plexiglas that was in front of where the physicians wrote the orders. Was it replaced with any thing stronger? LOL
WE(as a whole team) need to look for safety,banding together to keep everyone safe is a real cause and commitment. Working in an unsafe environment and knowing it unsafe ,what does that mean?
Nobody is going to help keep any place safe if there is no constant chatter about it.Maybe the local papers should know what is going on? That was just a question! Maybe,just maybe these unions that you pay close to $900.00 a year should do something ,they work for the Nurses,Nurses don't work for them!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Enough written for this tonight.
Be safe and remember it is not part of your job to be assaulted.!


Sheila Wilson R.N.BSN MPH

www.stophealthcareviolence.org

Are we like frogs and really don't know ,what's going on?

I was just reading a book,and came upon a sentence that went like this ;If you put a frog in boiling water it will jump right out but if you put in in cool water and slowly let it come to a boil the frog stays in.You can eat frog.
I wonder is that what it is with us?
Is the workplace cool and then gets hot and boils us makes us think that everything is good and we end up dying or hurt?
When I started in the hospital I was so proud. I felt a little ownership, I saw others that had the same feelings, we worked hard and long. I really believed people that had jobs much higher than healthcare workers cared for the patients like we did. Over the years I found out they don't care!
Now I say to myself ,why would I say that? I have seen my coworkers being assaulted time and time again.No one cared, no phone calls ,no cards except from your co workers. It was like, this nurse is out ,I guess we will get the per diems to work or call the travelers.
 Well, Until the nurses fought to get security in the ER 24/7 the only thing we could do was use the phone to get security and sometimes security was to far away to help. One night I remember we had a terrible incident ,a patient became very aggressive and fighting with everyone ,he knocked out the Director of security and guess what ,we had police in for security until this patient left.
It saddened a lot of us to see how this administrator really showed us her true feelings. Maybe if nursing was higher up the food chain we would have received the same treatment.