In a flurry of violence that will surprise no one in the medical field, there were 2 different attacks on nurses/health care providers this past week.
One nurse, Ada Doss, was dead and the other, identified only as a hospital worker who worked for the hospital research institute, survived.
It doesn’t have to be like this.
Ada died in Alabama of a gunshot wound and the other one escaped a man intent on robbery after being stabbed. She is reportedly in good spirits. That is a disgusting sentence and the reporter should be ashamed of themselves.
Good spirits about not being dead? Good spirits about surviving an attack in a parking structure? Good spirits about fighting off the man with a knife?
They were both going home after their shift.
Let me tell you about hospital parking.
The near parking is reserved for doctors and patients.
Everyone else, nurses, techs, cleaners, lab people, clergy? They are instructed to park as far away as possible in order to preserve the close parking for doctors and patients.
There may be parking passes involved. There may be marking on a car that doesn’t have a parking pass that has been sitting in the parking lot for a shift that may be ticketed.
Some hospital charge for parking. Some hospitals have their workers park miles away and then bus them in.
None of these parking lots are safe.
There should be clear lighting and patrols by the hospital security.
But even that is not a guarantee of safety.
Another secret that the hospital bosses don’t want you to know is that the nurses/hospital workers either get there in darkness or leave in darkness. Or both. Less so in the the summer months but it is often dark at either shift start or shift end.
Picture it, you’ve just worked a very full, very fast paced 12 hour shift. you might not be dragging but the pep in your step that you had walking in is long gone. You are tired and just want to be home, to eat, sleep, and get up and do it all over again the next morning. Your situational awareness might be waning because you are tired and hungry and just want your bed. You could have called for an escort but there are usually only 1-2 escorts available at all times. And, after the shift you’ve just pulled, you don’t want to wait the 20-30 minutes for a free escort. After all, you could be home and in pajamas by then. So you hike off to your car.
It only takes a split second of inattention.
It only takes a split second of rotating your head side to side on your shoulders to try to relieve the tension.
It only takes a split second.
And then you are a headline that no one else pays attention to except for other healthcare workers, who thank goodness it wasn’t them.
I do not have a quick and clear answer here.
But for now? Always walk in pairs.
And ask for change from hospital leadership. Because this shit? It has to stop.
Dispatches from the Evening Shift 