Saint Xavier’s School of Nursing and International Honor Society of Nursing (IHSN) held their annual Violence in the Healthcare Workplace seminar in McGuire Hall on Oct. 25, drawing both students and the public.
Tina Dorau, the President of SXU’s IHSN chapter Alpha Omicron, introduced the physical and verbal abuse issues that healthcare workers may stumble upon in their careers, noting the existing data.
“According to the Joint Commission in 2018, healthcare workers have a 20 percent higher chance of being a victim of workplace violence, with the emergency department and inpatient psychiatric units having the most incidents,” said Dorau.
The forum soon turned to the invited panelists of the evening; Palos Community Hospital’s Public Safety Director Gregory Okon, American Nurses Association (ANA) of Illinois Executive Director Susan Swart, and Advocate Christ Medical Center nurse Gloria Miranda.
Swart started off the seminar by discussing the advocacy work she had done in trying to curb violence towards healthcare workers, elucidating upon the Healthcare Violence Prevention Act she helped get passed in Illinois.
“My role in this is that I was at the table when we were negotiating the bill… we spent a lot of time trying to add additional language to it until we got to the point we are now,” said Swart.
Swart went into the complexities of the law, discussing what protocols would be implemented in the following months as a result; everything from specific OSHA definitions of scenarios to contact points for incidents of abuse were reviewed. However, Swart was quick to point out that there are still weak areas in the legislation.
“It is not comprehensive, which was one of the issues that ANA Illinois had – that if we were going to introduce a bill on the issue of workplace violence, that it really should cover every single place where a nurse or a healthcare worker is employed,” said Swart, clarifying that only hospitals, veterans’ homes, and retail clinics.
Furthermore, Director Okon remarked that while the bill aids in setting institutional guidelines and foundational support, questions of physical safety during and after an incident would still arise.
“There are certain circumstances that are beyond the control of a nurse… When you have someone that’s under the influence of narcotics or alcohol, and they justify it by that reason… you’re gonna go to jail,” said Okon.
The Public Safety Director then elaborated on the security protocols at Palos Hospital, saying that his organization does not employ armed guards in an effort to establish a warmer and calm environment.
“At Palos Hospital, we carry nothing… We bring in experienced people who know how to handle people who have been in difficult situations… you have people coming in here seeking help,” said Okon as he shared his experiences in deescalating potential conflicts with verbal coercion instead of physical force.
Regardless, Intensive Care Unit (ICU) nurse Miranda offered a sobering reminder that incidents can still occur with even the most airtight safety protocols, as the third panelist shared her experiences with an agitated patient.
Miranda began by explaining how a young man “rushing to a job interview” was injured in a traffic accident and was treated at the ICU she worked at.
“It was a week before he woke up… and he was fine. Everything was okay until it wasn’t,” said Miranda.
As she progressed through her story, the young nurse became more and more upset as she described how the young man began to panic during a routine anesthetized CT scan that the doctor in charge of him had ordered.
“I don’t know what happened, but he woke up, and he was trying to get off the CT table… he was just fighting… and then this young man changed his course of action and came towards me,” said a visibly shaken Miranda.
The ICU nurse struggled to get through the next part of the story, with Okon comforting her as she pressed on.
“He grabbed me… he was holding me like a ragdoll and shook me, and I could not get away… once he let me go, I went backwards and I hit a transport cart… I was in so much pain… pain that I have every day,” said Miranda.
Miranda clarified that the incident left her with torn muscles and bulging disks, and that the young man was held down and pacified by seven men.
She was not able to return to her work until eight months later, after a long string of physical therapy and consultations.
When the panel moved onto the question segment, the panelists were inundated with inquiries regarding how healthcare workers could better protect themselves and their patients, fresh off Miranda’s emotionally-charged account.
“We always tell any nurses that have a notion that something might be going awry… we ask them to please contact Public Safety in advance of a situation going bad… don’t wait until you get hurt or it gets out of hand and we have to be summoned after the fact,” said Okon.
Nevertheless, some healthcare workers in the audience voiced their concerns about bluntly reporting incidents to authorities, troubled at the possibility of worsening the situation.
Even so, Swart was adamant in stressing the importance of communicating altercations and incidents of verbal abuse to the proper officials.
“We are never going to see this cease or see a reduction in this issue if we don’t proactively report it so we can understand it, study it, and prevent it from happening in the future,” said Swart.
Joshua Mira
News Editor