Nurses Say They Face 'Abuse' Inside Hospital Walls

Hospitals are a place of refuge for those seriously ill or in need of immediate medical treatment.

But those who dedicate their lives to taking care of patients say they experience a much different reality.

Once the scrubs are on and the stethoscopes are ready, nurses related that they experience verbal and sometimes physical abuse that some say is spiraling out of control.

The March 2 shooting of a nurse at Danbury Hospital was an isolated incident, but nurses in Danbury and New Milford hospitals said it was bound to happen sooner or later.

"I think (the shooting) was isolated, but the day-to-day verbal abuse, and sometimes physical abuse, is not isolated -- and it's getting worse," said Kathy Lechner, a Danbury Hospital nurse who works with orthopedic, neurological and trauma patients.

According to nurses, abuse can be divided into two categories -- intentional and unintentional.

The majority of abuse, nurses from both hospitals say, is unintentional and stems from patients with dementia or people under similar conditions -- disoriented or extremely confused and concerned for their health, either because they are coming out of surgery, on unfamiliar medication, or going through withdrawal from drugs or alcohol.

"It's not what you'd call criminal-type behavior. For the most part they don't know what they're doing," said New Milford Hospital nurse Walter O'Connor, who works in the Recovery Unit. "When you're confused, your survival instinct comes in."

Nurses take some precautions to protect themselves.

Precautions are learned from prior incidents, nurses say. Hospital officials say precautions also are learned through annual training sessions.

Nurses in Danbury and New Milford said they and their co-workers have been spit on, slapped, hit, kicked, threatened, choked, slammed into walls, had a bedpan thrown at them, received a broken nose, a concussion.

They say the list is almost endless.

About 15 years ago, a nurse who worked in New Milford Hospital was paralyzed after being kicked in the neck, which caused a stroke, said Joanne Chapin, the president of the New Milford Nurses Union.

Another suffered a traumatic brain injury after being slammed into a wall, O'Connor said.

Linda Wiseman, a spokeswoman for New Milford Hospital, said "security policies and procedures are evaluated on an ongoing basis throughout the year to identify opportunities to improve safety for patients and staff."

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Wiseman said the hospital has increased its security staff and improved its techniques for notifying security and law enforcement personnel.

"You are trying to protect the patient and sometimes you don't protect yourself," O'Connor, a nurse, said, "or your patient is quicker than you."

Lechner, who has been at Danbury Hospital for 35 years, said she has seen a gradual change over the last 10 years.

Hospitals all over the state are moving in a different direction, she said, marketing themselves as a business of total health care, "like a hotel."

Nursing supervisors used to talk to patients and tell them that verbal abuse is unacceptable, Lechner said, but "most hospitals now don't stick up for the staff.

"They try to calm the patient down with, 'What's wrong?' 'What can we do to make you feel better?'" she said.

"It's part of the old culture where the patient is always right, even if the patient is a criminal and assaulting you on purpose, with intent," O'Connor said.

On leaving New Milford Hospital, patients are given surveys about their satisfaction with their stay, a procedure common at most hospitals in the state. The results go to the nurses' supervisor.

Nurses also experience abuse from patients' family members, they say, who don't necessarily understand the whole situation.

"A lot of the time it's how they're coping with the situation or (they) don't realize what's going on, but you don't have the time to explain it to them," said Cathy Novicky, a New Milford Hospital nurse who works in the Intensive Care Unit.

Some patients, or their families, refuse to accept that nurses have to take care of other people, too.

"I have been told 'I pay your salary' or 'You can't tell me what to do,'" Lechner said.

Both hospitals have reports for staffers to fill out if they have been abused, but some nurses say the forms are complicated and time-consuming.

"We don't always report it. There is so much of it," said Tyrne Wade, a nurse at Danbury Hospital. "If you did that, you wouldn't get your work done."

"I don't think anything ever gets documented until they start swinging," said Chapin, the president of the nurses' union at New Milford Hospital. "If you get hurt or hit and need to go to the ER, you fill out an incident report."

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Another problem, some nurses say, is the open atmosphere of hospitals. Lechner said people used to be stopped in the halls if they were not wearing a badge, but not anymore.

"There are too many doors at Danbury Hospital that are open (to the outside)," she said. "At night nobody stops you."

It's true that there are more "access points" to Danbury Hospital as the hospital has grown, said Frank Kelly, president and chief executive officer of Danbury Hospital.

Hospital officials have looked at the number of points of entry in the facility "five to six times" in his tenure at the hospital, Kelly said.

That is likely to be an area also looked at in an encompassing review of security by an outside firm. A contract is expected to be signed soon, said Andrea Rynn, a hospital spokeswoman.

But just because a door might be opened and a security guard is not there, Rynn said, it doesn't mean the situation isn't seen. Security cameras monitor entrances and multiple points throughout the hospital, Rynn said.

"Sometimes you are afraid of what will come in the door with (patients), or come in later (because of) them," said O'Connor, who worked in New Milford's emergency room for years.

"If someone tried to kill somebody and they're not dead, someone might come up to finish the job," said Lechner, who works in Danbury Hospital's Trauma Unit.

"We've asked numerous times for someone to be on guard and they say, 'No, you don't need it.' We can't protect the patients and we can't protect ourselves," she said.

"You should feel safe coming to work," Wade said.

"We want to work to prevent another incident," said Mary Consoli, the president of the Danbury Nurses Union.

_©2010 Yellowbrix, Inc._Nurses Say They Face 'Abuse' Inside Hospital WallsOriginally from: http://www.nursinglink.monster.com/news/articles/11971-nurses-say-they-face-abuse-inside-hospital-walls

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