as i walked into work yesterday i noticed a police car heading pretty fast towards my side of the hospital. then another as i got closer. and another. and another. by the time i walked into the building, there was a gathering of dozens of squads outside. there were employees huddled in the doorway murmuring something about bomb threats, and i got the general sense that i did not want to be walking in to whatever this was. but as with most things, when normal people are running away, nurses are going in. so i went about my day, only to get on the unit and learn of a man with a gun in a neighboring building. and it felt a lot like this day. the news was rabid outside the window of the unit, and on tv they were airing whatever "tips" that random people were calling in from inside the building, almost all of which weren't true. the police ran crime scene tape around the trees outside our charting room window, and we watched from the inside as people gathered for a press conference.
it made me angry.
you shouldn't have to feel unsafe at work. you shouldn't have to wonder if an angry family member with a gun is coming for you. you shouldn't have to feel obligated to put your own personal safety at risk like some sort of martyr's sacrifice to take care of other people. i signed up to be a nurse. in the midwest, not some sort of combat zone. and yet in the past 6 years i have watched the police push up ceiling tiles in a patient's room on the hunt for a weapon. i've been handed a grainy picture of an attempted murderer who tried to kill one of my patients and have been told to "be on the lookout". a little over a year ago i hid in a room with a patient, listening to news broadcasts saying there was a mass shooter with a gun in the hospital cafeteria, and waiting for him to come up to my unit looking to finish the job. i've had veteran trauma nurses tell me the story of when US marshals came to arrest a patient's most-wanted family member with guns drawn and made all the nurses lay down on the nurse's station floor.
these are the things that are happening, and these things are not ok. i NEVER thought that i would have to deal with anything like this when i became a nurse, and i still don't think that i should have to. i care about my patients, and i want to keep them safe. but at what cost? and am i obligated to put myself in harm's way to protect people i barely know?
the man with a gun was shot by police. then he ended up in the trauma bay, and we all were afraid that he would get admitted to the floor and we'd be forced to take care of this man who no one could muster up much compassion for. but he didn't, and then it was done. the news went away, and the helicopter stopped hovering overhead. the crime scene tape came down and the squad cars left one by one. and we were just supposed to go on with our day, like it didn't matter that we had another example of just how easy it is to waltz into a hospital with a gun down your pants.
it matters. and it is NOT OK.
Amen sister..... preach.
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