This week a man appeared in court after stabbign and seriosly injuring a nurse and paramedic at DePaul Hospital in Bridgeton. The incident, which occurred on July 11, has many hospital workers talking about how to protect themselves and stay safe at work.
Marchelle Vernell, a nurse at SLU hospital and member of National Nurses United, told KMOX that violence in at hospitals is pretty common.
"Unfortunately, the times that we live in now, with all of the issues that family members face as far as health, availability of health care -- or should I say the lack of mental health care and support -- and just the traumatic times of life with the pandemic and so forth, it's challenging," Vernell said. "And I think the most challenging part is that our staffing is so limited."
Vernell said she's been a nurse for more than 35 years, and that back when she started, hospital staff had a unit secretary, care partners, and even sitters for patience who needed monitoring and reassurance.
"That is healthcare of the past. Now the nurses are the sitters, the nurses are the unit secretaries, the nurses are the care partners," she said. "And so at this particular point in time, we have limited amount of staff and nurses are required to do a lot more."
She said what would help keep nurses safer and less burnt out is hiring more people -- though many hospitals are keeping staff small as a cost-cutting measure. Plus, the pandemic caused a lot of nurses to leave the profession.
"It's very challenging. We can't give the patients that the attention that they need," she said. "Sometimes just sitting and talking with a patient can alleviate stress. And you can identify when things are about to escalate. And just sitting and talking to them and knowing that they're being heard is helpful."
Vernell said most nurses don't get breaks or have a place to get away to for a few minutes. There's no time, and the severity of patients' conditions is often high.
She added that having a set ratio of nurses to patients, like California has, would be a good policy to implement in Missouri and help reduce stressful situations that hospital staff face. She also said putting in metal detectors, like DePaul did after the stabbing, is a good idea, but it still doesn't do as much good as having enough nurses to provide quality support for patients.
"Right now, healthcare is a business. It is not focusing on the human aspect of taking care of people," she said.
