September 14, 2020 is still on the minds of many nurses staffed at M Health Fariview Southdale Hospital in Edina.
That night a gunman opened fire on a doctor during an attempted robbery inside a parking garage. The doctor, who was shot in the head, survived the incident and was able to describe the suspect to police.
That shooting, unfortunately, is just one of a number of moments reported by staff, including ICU nurse Ericka Helling who was among the picketers outside the Edina hospital on Tuesday morning, which marked the second day of the three-day nurses strike.
"I started in this building back in 1998 and we would have a couple of angry patients who were usually elderly, confused, or patients with dementia, who would get aggressive because they didn't understand what was happening," Helling said. "That was something you can easily turn around. Now we have aggression post-pandemic. Even driving down the freeway, we know there's an anger in people right now."
Helling says even though nurses were told they were heroes, the Covid-19 pandemic only escalated the anger.
"You get in a risky situation where your health is questionable, you're concerned, your family is concerned, and they can't visit. They couldn't visit during the pandemic because we limited the number of people in the building. So there's this unspoken aggression that's coming at nurses all the time. And then it will boil over, where people are hit, struck, threatened, and sworn out. It's worse. And now people are carrying guns."
According to Helling, whose worked at the hospital for almost 25 years, doors to M Health Fairview Southdale remain easily accessible by the public. She says there are some people who check individuals at the door, mainly for Covid-exposure reasons.
"They're not a security presence," she said. "They're a younger kid in their first job asking people if they've been exposed to Covid. They're not a security presence. Our doors are wide open. There's no gun check. There's not anything."
On Monday, the start of the nurses strike, there was increased security, but for a different reason according to Helling.
"We only have just two security guards most of the time and they can't get to help us escort out of the building," she said. "But, there were security guards all along the outside of the building on Monday to protect everybody from us terrible nurses. Can you imagine? So finally, we can find a budget for protection, but it's against us and not for us."
Tuesday marked day two of the Minnesota nurses strike involving 15,000 nurses who are asking for hospital official to address staffing and retention issues, wages, and workplace safety concerns.
The three-day strike ends Thursday at 7 a.m.
