Post by jeffolie on Jul 30, 2011 17:39:18 GMT -6
jobless+ attack 40% ER nurses, 10% in prior week
40% of CA ER nurses are assualted per year ... I am surprised it is so high
'10% in prior week' seems like this is escalating
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more...
'....Nearly 40% of employees in California emergency rooms said they had been assaulted on the job in the previous year, according to a survey by UC San Francisco and other researchers in 2007. More than one in 10 emergency room nurses surveyed in 2010 said they had been attacked in the previous week, according the Emergency Nurse's Assn., which represents 40,000 emergency room nurses nationally.
Many industry experts and hospital staffers say they believe violence by patients and visitors is rising but can't say for sure because it hasn't been rigorously tracked over time. The issue has recently gained attention, however, as hospital employee unions, including the California Nurses' Assn., have begun pushing for broader protections and more reporting by hospitals.
The violence flares most often in emergency rooms and psychiatric wards, say staffers, researchers and security officials. In emergency rooms, waiting times have grown as increasing numbers of unemployed and uninsured patients seek basic care they can't afford to pay for in doctors' offices.
"We have a lot of men who have lost their jobs, lost their homes, 50-year-old men who have worked their whole lives," said Colleen Sichley, a 17-year nurse at Antelope Valley Hospital in Lancaster and a union representative. "They're angry. Just between the cursing and the bad language, and the physical stuff, and it's anybody" who can lash out, she said.
Staffers are obligated by law to evaluate anyone who goes for treatment, said Michael B. Jackson, an emergency room nurse at UC San Diego Medical Center. He said that whether they be gang members, drug users, psychotic patients or just "people that get frustrated with wait times," they might act out.
Acutely ill mental patients are landing in general hospitals because many lack consistent outpatient care that might keep them from deteriorating.
Hospitals sometimes blame employees for mishandling violence rather than reporting and investigating it, said Kathleen McPhaul, an assistant professor at the University of Maryland School of Nursing who has written about hospital violence and believes it is rising. "Even if the staff did something wrong," she said, "the employer needs to take responsibility and get to the bottom of it and train the staff."
more...
www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-hospital-violence-20110731,0,158771.story
40% of CA ER nurses are assualted per year ... I am surprised it is so high
'10% in prior week' seems like this is escalating
====================================
more...
'....Nearly 40% of employees in California emergency rooms said they had been assaulted on the job in the previous year, according to a survey by UC San Francisco and other researchers in 2007. More than one in 10 emergency room nurses surveyed in 2010 said they had been attacked in the previous week, according the Emergency Nurse's Assn., which represents 40,000 emergency room nurses nationally.
Many industry experts and hospital staffers say they believe violence by patients and visitors is rising but can't say for sure because it hasn't been rigorously tracked over time. The issue has recently gained attention, however, as hospital employee unions, including the California Nurses' Assn., have begun pushing for broader protections and more reporting by hospitals.
The violence flares most often in emergency rooms and psychiatric wards, say staffers, researchers and security officials. In emergency rooms, waiting times have grown as increasing numbers of unemployed and uninsured patients seek basic care they can't afford to pay for in doctors' offices.
"We have a lot of men who have lost their jobs, lost their homes, 50-year-old men who have worked their whole lives," said Colleen Sichley, a 17-year nurse at Antelope Valley Hospital in Lancaster and a union representative. "They're angry. Just between the cursing and the bad language, and the physical stuff, and it's anybody" who can lash out, she said.
Staffers are obligated by law to evaluate anyone who goes for treatment, said Michael B. Jackson, an emergency room nurse at UC San Diego Medical Center. He said that whether they be gang members, drug users, psychotic patients or just "people that get frustrated with wait times," they might act out.
Acutely ill mental patients are landing in general hospitals because many lack consistent outpatient care that might keep them from deteriorating.
Hospitals sometimes blame employees for mishandling violence rather than reporting and investigating it, said Kathleen McPhaul, an assistant professor at the University of Maryland School of Nursing who has written about hospital violence and believes it is rising. "Even if the staff did something wrong," she said, "the employer needs to take responsibility and get to the bottom of it and train the staff."
more...
www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-hospital-violence-20110731,0,158771.story