As violence in healthcare settings continues to rise, a new state designation is meant to keep St. Peter's Health Partners facilities safer.
Judy Quinn has been a registered nurse for 44 years and a nurse manager for 38. The Samaritan Hospital worker said she has never seen as much workplace violence as she currently sees. Standing outside the hospital on Friday, she listed comments she's heard from fellow workers.
"A patient punched me in the back of my head as I had my back turned," Quinn recalled, while speaking at a press conference with colleagues and officials. "While escorting a visitor from the ER to the main entrance, the subject became aggressive and punched me in the face. A violent, agitated patient was combative with staff, kicked the patient care technician, and then bit the RN in the arm. I was putting my gloves on to help someone get out of bed, and they kicked me in the stomach."
Quinn's concerns are not unfounded. According to National Nurses United, a nationwide union representing registered nurses, a survey of over 1,200 registered nurses around the country found that over one-third of RNs reported an increase in workplace violence in the previous year. The same poll found only 15.2% of those surveyed had not experienced workplace violence during the same period.
Quinn said these incidents bring down morale and create an unsafe work environment, contributing to retention issues as hospitals around the country deal with nursing shortages.
"I tend to hire people who are not going to be judgmental and who are going to, you know, obviously provide a healing environment for all our patients," Quinn said. "But some folks get here and are just flabbergasted at the amount of physical violence."
Dr. Steven Hanks, the president at St. Peter's Health Partners, said incidents like those Quinn detailed point to why it was important for the state to grant peace officer authority status to trained security guards at his hospitals.
"It gives them an additional tool to help de-escalate potentially dangerous situations, respond more effectively when these incidents occur, and enhances the protections for patients, visitors, and healthcare workers," Hanks said.
Hanks was referring to a law signed by New York Gov. Kathy Hochul last month and sponsored by state Sen. Pat Fahy. It grants some security employees at St. Peter's facilities the ability to operate as peace officers. A peace officer is a status granted to some public officials, giving them some law enforcement and arrest powers. With this status, qualified, trained officers in St Peter's facilities will be able to take people into custody, issue appearance tickets, and remove trespassers from hospital property.
Joshua Laiacona is the regional director of safety and security for Trinity Health of New York, which operates St. Peter's facilities. He said Friday, before the bill was passed, security officers at the hospital network had limited jurisdiction and enforcement capability.
"Accountability is often hard at that point, especially if the police can't locate them, so I think often this is going to allow us to hold on to those folks, ensure they're made accountable, and prevent them from escalating that behavior to a point that becomes a lot more serious, such as serious felony assaults or felony criminal mischiefs and things like that," Laiacona said.
Laiacona noted the training to become a peace officer will take the hospital setting into consideration. He said trained officers must know the importance of handling vulnerable but hostile patients.
"They have to go through extensive training to learn the proper techniques to do that to keep people safe, to keep the patients safe, and not, you know, produce harm," Laiacona said.
