Dozens of nurses in Butler County, PA, have been protesting concerns about contract negotiations. These nurses are demanding more security upgrades to ensure safety for everyone in the hospital including employees, patients, and their families.
Nurses all around the world have been protesting their contracts due to the countless abuse and attacks against them. This is something that has been happening more often than ever and nurses are becoming irritated.
An ICU nurse was head-butted and had to be sent to the emergency room. Another healthcare worker lost her front teeth on the clock due to being attacked by a patient. Another nurse was bitten.
Multiple nurses at HCA Florida Fawcett also held a rally in March to demand more safety protocols and violent workplace prevention plans. These nurses also expect to have hands-on de-escalation training for the staff to ensure a safe and consistent workplace.
The National Nurses United (NNU) conducted a nationwide survey. Eight out of 10 nurses, 81.6%, have experienced at least one type of violence during the past year. Only about 3.8% of nurses reported that violence has decreased in their facilities, meaning more changes and updates need to be made by the departments.
Rosanne Wallace was a 33-year-old psychiatric nurse who worked at Kootenay Boundary Regional Hospital. She started working in the Daly Pavilion, which is a facility unit that holds individuals who suffer from severe mental illnesses. Wallace died by suicide because of her terrible mental state and scars from dealing with the attacks and abuse.
In 2021, Wallace had an incident with a patient that ended with her having to go through shoulder surgery. Rosanne returned back to work, and in February she suffered a hip injury after dealing with an aggressive patient. She was the only nurse on the floor at that point in time.
The medical environment is becoming something scary for nurses and nursing students to go into. More assistance and students are backing out of these positions because of the recent attacks.
Kayla Reed and Morgan Fuller are two sophomore nursing students who attend Robert Morris University. They spoke about this subject as young female students in the nursing program working towards this career path.
Kayla works as a nursing assistant and medication technician at a personal care home. She has witnessed and experienced multiple attacks against nurses and she was scratched on the job.
“It’s a little disheartening hearing that, but it doesn’t change the fact that I still want to go help those people even if that’s a possibility that can happen,” Reed said.
Morgan is a home health aide for Care From My Heart agency. She believes that women’s violence is overlooked. Morgan expresses how important security is and what precautions to take. She believes that every patient deserves to have the correct security.
Fuller added, “I would also say a lot of nurses are moving out of bedside because of this type of stuff. It’s leaving shortages inside hospitals, so it really is changing healthcare because of the violence.”
Kayla and Morgan both agree on the importance of new safety standards being implemented in hospitals and other healthcare facilities. Nurses are scared to get into altercations between themselves and the patient or their families.
Management also has an effect because most facilities do not teach the nurses how to handle aggressive patients. Nurses are always expected to take care of their patients.
There has been a rise in nurse abuse cases. Nurses at many different hospitals have been protesting and calling for action for upgraded security measures at their workplace.
