I was a young nurse working in Gaithersburg, Maryland, when a patient suffering from delirium tremens attempted to shove me out a second-story window. He had painstakingly removed the window screen with shaking hands and was on his way to crippling me or worse when his roommate intervened.
I was lucky.
Shortly thereafter, I took the hardest slap of my adult life from a frail 96-year-old white-haired lady when I leaned in to interpret her words. She lacerated my nose and bent the frame of my glasses. I had not been told she was both hard of hearing and severely demented, despite looking sweet and frail.
I learned early in my career that nurses are working in harm’s way.
Nurses have been assaulted, shot, and stabbed. According to OSHA statistics recorded in 2018, approximately 2400 nurses are victims of violence every year, data which represented a 30% increase from reports of the Bureau of Labor Statistics in 2012. However, statistics might be underreported, as many incidents are considered “part of the job,” according to the same source.
Additionally, victims of violence may be ignored by the same institutions where their services are so sorely required.
Unfortunately, these incidents were conveyed before nurses were emotionally and psychologically traumatized by the unrelenting distress of COVID-19.
