Time for a Break and a Secret Revealed

I have not been posting much at all lately as some of you have noticed. That being said I have decided to take a break from my blog. I am currently enrolled in college with criminal justice as my major and I am taking 15 credits. I have also become a Freemason and that has taken some of my time. There is a lot to learn and remember because Masons do not write anything down. The rest of my time I am working 48-56 hours a week at the hospital. I have little to no down time and free time is spent at my lodge, working, or doing school work. I appreciate everyone who reads my blog and those who take the time to leave comments.

I am not saying I am done for good with blogging, but I am very overwhelmed at the moment. There is one thing I have to say before I leave. I have to thank Mother Jones at Nurse Ratched's Place for getting me into blogging. If you go back and read mine and her blogs you may be able to figure out that we actually work in the same in hospital! I have worked with MJ for over a year now and she was the one who got me into blogging. Anyways thanks to all and I hope to be back soon. Please feel free to go back over the old stories and enjoy.

Flashlight 1

New Doctor on the Block

Well we have a new psych doctor to our hospital. There was promises that things would get better because this doc unlike the last was really dedicated. In the last several months we have had a lot of problems on our psych ward, as you can tell by my posts. The nurses were pulling their hair out and we have been having to restrain a lot more patients and administration frowns on that. The old psych doctor has decided to practice elsewhere (trust me he needs to) and they brought in a very popular doc.

Upon the new doctors arrival we had a patient starting to act out. The nurse immediately recognized this acting out to be sun downers syndrome. As the day wore on the patient was growing more and more agitated and psychotic. The counselor started talking to the patient while the RN paged the doctor. The counselor and I were able to talk the patient down, at least we thought.

After 8 hours of paging the Doctor and no response things went down hill. I was patrolling when the RN called over the radio for help. My partner and I took off in a sprint and hit the door like a ton of bricks. When we got down the hallway we found the counselor and RN pinning the patient to the ground. The RN stated that the patient had hit her in the mouth. I called over the radio for a code green (emergency response team needed). What we didn't know was that our operators handling the radio were idiots.

The operator asked if we were going to go to the scene. I told her I was already there. She called no one for help. The RN had to get to the phone to call the clinical coordinator (house supervisor) and he called for assistance. We got the patient into the "quite room" and put her in 3 point restraints. The clinical coordinator checked out the RN and we started documenting. After the incident the clinical coordinator got a hold of the doctor and the new doc got his ass chewed.

The doctor has not been returning pages for the last couple weeks. He claimed that the RN was incompetent and mixed up the last two numbers on the pager. I checked into it and the numbers were indeed correct and the doctor was lying. Now he is saying that the pager the hospital gave him is junk, so he is using his own personal pager. Well now he not answering that one either. I have made a complaint to administration because we are being tied up on the psych unit. The nurses are not aloud to do really anything without doc's permission. The guy is going to get someone killed.

Flashlight 1

He Has What???

I had a very stressful yet educational day that involved diseases. In the middle of my shift we were called to report to one of the floors because of an agitated patient. Upon arrival the nurse was standing far away from the room which is normal when a patient is scarring staff. The nurse gave me the patient’s name and room number and asked me to talk to the patient about leaving the room. As my partner entered the room I noticed a yellow cart that holds all the PPE (personal protective equipment). The seal had been broken and a box of masks was on the floor and that’s when it hit me.

Right before we entered the nurse ran like hell away and I yelled, “Is all this stuff for him or for another room?” The nurse stopped and yelled back, “Oh yea I would definitely wear a gown, gloves, mask and shoe covers.” As she turned the corner she shouted what he had, but all I could make out were these few letters “MRVECDIF.” Not knowing what that was I stopped my partner and we got all the gear on, but we were not prepared for what was next.

When we walked in the entire room was covered in urine, feces, and some sticky stuff and no way can this stuff come from a human. The odor would have been an efficient wallpaper remover. Now I know why I had to wear the shoe coverings. Now in the middle of this mess was a 60 year old that had to weigh 90 pounds. On his stomach were a bandage with a tube and that weird sticky stuff was oozing out the sides. There was no way this guy could have been terrorizing the floor. I was coming to the conclusion the reason they did not want to deal with him was because of this “MRVECDIF.”

My partner started to discuss with the old man about staying in the room while I went to find his nurse. After searching the entire floor I had the secretary contact her on her companion phone. The nurse was hiding in an empty room, or in her words looking for supplies (room was not the supply room). I asked her why she wanted us to the floor since the guy posed no threat. She stated he was wondering the floor and what he had was highly contagious and it was visiting hours. I asked her to put the guy in seclusion, soft restraints, or at least a posey vest. The nurse said the doctor refused to do any of the above because the doctor would have to come in on his day off.

I went back to the room and the old guy was just sitting in his bed rubbing feces on the bed. Since there was no threat to others we left and I informed his nurse of what was happening. I also let housekeeping know what room to go to because no one should have to sit in a room like that especially with what ever “MRVECDIFF” is.

10 minutes later we were called back to his room, the nurse stated, “The patient was gearing up for something.” She was crying wolf, but I take all reports of threats seriously. Upon arrival the patient was just sitting there playing with his feces again. I called the nurse and told her she needed to order a sitter because I can not legally do anything to him. The nurse asked if I could stand by until they moved the patient next door to a new room. After 40 minutes of standing around and the patient playing in his feces I went to talk to the other nurse tending to the patient that was supposed to be moved. I asked her when she was moving her patient. She told me that her patient was not the problem patient so she was not moving her patient. I said that’s fine and we left the floor. I found the patient’s nurse and asked again what the patient had and she stopped and said lightening fast what sounded like, “MRVECDIFF.” It was almost like she was trying to hide the illness from us.

10 minutes later I get another call from the nurse yelling at me, she said this patient can not be left alone. I told her to order a sitter because the security department did not have the man power to watch patients, patrol several buildings, watch the parking lot, lock up doors, and respond to emergency calls. I returned to the floor to try and find a solution, but they did not want a solution, they wanted us to baby sit the non threatening guy. This went on for hours and finally they decided to move him into a private room and they wanted us to do it. We are not supposed to, but at this point we were both so mad we did the move ourselves. We just had to wait for our psych doctor to check the guy out.

Now earlier I had asked the guy if he knew where he was, what the date was, and asked him where he hurt. The old guy had all the answers; he was acting that way because he was just a jerk. So the doctor walked in and he was done in less than 5 minutes. The doctor came to the same conclusion I did. Now it was time to move the jerk to his new feces, urine, & sticky stuff free room. We covered a wheel chair with sheets wheeled him into his room. As we did that his nurse appeared out of the wood work and said, “Now grab some soap, a wash cloth and wash him. I told her hell no and walked off, that pushed me over the edge.

Basically the whole day the nurse was trying to dump this sick jerk off on us and the psych ward. When I went down stairs to write my report I wanted to know what the hell my partner and I have been exposed to. When I called back I spoke with the secretary because I was so damn mad at the nurse. The secretary finally deciphered the code after trying to figure out what was scaring the staff. What the nurse was yelling was, “He has “MRSA VRE and C DIFF.” I did not know what it was so I jumped on WEB MD.com and after I finished my reading I was slightly upset. It turns out that those things are in the sputum and he defecated and urinated everywhere.

I called our employee heath nurse at home and she said we would be fine as long as we didn’t rub it into any cuts or open sores. Also if we did get infected we would just be under observation and not given antibiotics. I went back to Web MD and it says if you have a drug resistant strain then no antibiotics would work. I called back to the floor and guess what it was a drug resistant strain. Both my partner and I are fine, but not very happy about the fast one the nurse pulled.



Flashlight 1

A Break Down in Communications

Our emergency room had calmed for the night and my partners and I had settled in the office to take a much earned break. No more than a minute passes and our switchboard operators call over our radio stating, “Why aren’t you at the code blue on level 2”? We told them because they never called us. So we jumped up and ran to the second floor. Upon arrival staff was still arriving to this 35 year old crashing fast. There had been almost 10 minutes of down time for this patient who was coding for mysterious causes.

The security department responds to code blues for several reasons because we are all trained in basic life support, we move equipment out of the way to move the patient, lock down elevators, and crowd control. People visiting love to stand in the middle of hallways and door ways to watch the circus. They actually will argue with us stating they have a right to watch (still can’t find that one in the constitution). It seems when people code all the hospitals junk is parked in or around the room. We also get a set of all keys (weighs a ton) so we can also lock elevators and make them go directly to the floors we want. The last hospital I worked in the never wanted us jumping in and starting compressions, but this one realizes if we are the only ones there then we need to know what to do.

So after everything calmed down and the patient returned to us, damage unknown, and we got the patient into the ICU I went to our switchboard operators. I asked why the big break down in communications and the explanation dumfounded me. Our hospital has came up with so many acronyms and short terms that when level 2 wanted to call a code blue they ended up calling for the wrong team. Level 2 called down for a quick response team which also means code green for a combative patient. So instead of doctors; pharmacist, RNs, techs, and security you instead get plant operations, housekeeping, security, and the police get put on hold. Well when no one showed because our operators assumed everyone in the hospital had special pagers, we don’t only radios, the level 2 staff had to leave all patients to help this one.

I went to do a debrief session with our switchboard and nurses and figured a way to fix the problem. I understand the hospital wants to be cute with all these special names to hide codes, but now it could cause people to loose their life. They should stick with a basic code system that has worked for years and cut down on confusion. I know calling a code blue will attract crowds, but that’s why we show up. Medical staff needs to worry about patient care and let security worry about our job. I am glad to say the patient is doing alright and it turns out the patient had a hidden infection that did not show up in any tests. It was the first times in years where it felt like we in a medical television show like House or something.

Flashlight 1

A Bad Day

Last week we had a very interesting incident at the hospital at least it started on campus and ended up in the middle of traffic. Let me start from the beginning, my partner and I received a call from the emergency room. A patient under emergency petition had run out of the emergency room and out into the parking lot. We had no description of the patient so I went into the ER to talk to the patient’s nurse; my partner went to our jeep I thought to get it ready. Now my partner for the day has been working in the hospital for 7 months, but this is the first week we have worked together. My other 2 partners had always known what to do in an elopement so what my partner did next confused me.

As I was heading outside towards the jeep I gave my partner the description over the radio. The second I step outside he started his pursuit of the patient alone. I started walking throughout the parking lot and when I was not able to locate the patient I called for my partner’s location. When he did not respond I became very worried and then the next thing I hear over the radio was my partner screaming, “Help, Help, I am being assaulted”!! I started running through out the parking lot and could not find him, and he would not answer the radio. I ran around the parking lot for 5-10 minutes with only hearing the occasional screaming on the radio.

Finally he called back asking me where I was, I told him that his location was more important. He told me he had rolled out into the median of major highway. It was 5pm and rush hour was on and I started running across the freeway trying my best not to get run over. When I got to my partner an off duty deputy was standing by as my partner pinned the psych patient down. My partner’s face was bleeding and he had a cut on his lip. The patient started kicking so I jumped on the legs and we lay on top until police assistance could arrive.

When the state police and sheriff deputy arrived the started to put handcuffs on the patient and of course the patient started fighting. The deputy told the patient that he will break her wrists if she fought and the patient said they will break his face. The patient was cuffed and loaded back into an ambulance, I got on the ambulance to watch the patient.

When we arrived back into the ER the staff was more worried about the patient and completely ignored my bleeding partner. Finally my partner started yelling, “I just got my ass whooped and no one is helping me.” The ER doc told him to take a seat and they will get to him. Our employee health doctor was passing by and told my partner, “Oh just wipe the blood off and you will be fine,” no tetanus shots or anything.

It turned out that the patient had no psych problems, but was on high on PCP. I tried to explain to my partner that we never go after people alone for this reason. He told me I should have been there, but at no time did he ever give me his location and when he finally did I was there in a second. Even though it was at the end of the incident I was still there.

Our switchboard operators received 75 phone calls from people driving home from work. The calls reports ranged from dead bodies on the side of the road to a security officer beating a patient on the road. The 911 operators said they received several calls stating that a security officer was beating someone up and the security officer is dead in the median. The situation never got that far and never should have, but it did and I hope he learns from this.

Flashlight 1

Certified Instructor

This week my hospital sent me to Baltimore to become a Crisis Prevention and Intervention instructor. The course was for 4 days in a decent hotel in the middle of a ghetto. I used map quest to get directions which turned out to be a bad idea, I almost ended up in New York. Now nothing against New York, it is just my hospital spent a lot of money for me to be there and I think they will become slightly peeved if I didn’t show. When I finally arrived I walked into a very familiar setting. The hotel security was arguing with the front desk about whose’ job was what.

After the hotel manager and security director broke up the argument I got my room key and went back to my vehicle to get my bags. The reason I didn’t bring them in the first place because I wasn’t sure if map quest gave me the right hotel. So as I dodge drunks asking for money I got to my room, locked the door, and hid my valuables in my safe.

The next day it was time to head down for free chow which was great and then over to the conference room for registration. While we started introducing ourselves the conference next door was roaring throughout the area. There was a diversity conference going on and all the speakers were comedians. The only thing that separated us and them was a thin patrician covered in carpet. This went on for 3 of the 4 days and my ears hurt from listening to our instructors scream.

Now I do not know if any of you have taken CPI most in hospitals have, but there is a part in the training where you have to get physical. They not only teach different holds, but ways to escort adults and kids. Well after that the people there just for basic certifications took their tests and left. Now it was time for us not only learn how to teach the moves, we had to know how to do it in real time. Well I have been doing security for a while and in the past taken the CPI course, but for everyone else in the instructor course this will be there first time. They paired me up with 2 six foot 8 three hundred pound guys. They threw my butt around for 2 days and at the end my back and ankles hurt like hell. I was bounced off walls, tossed to the ground, and stepped on a few times. One of the instructors was this tiny little nimble thing and when people said, “That doesn’t work” she would show them. She smacked a couple guys in their happy zone and dropped the big guys who thought they were invincible.

The last day we had to teach a portion in front of everyone. I speak in front of people all the time and deal with high stress situations daily, but I was still nervous. Not only did we have to teach we had to take a long test. When it came time for me to teach I shocked everyone. I am younger than 23 years old and was the youngest in my class so for me to know me stuff shocked and impressed the class and the instructors. I passed the teaching portion and all that was left was this test.

When it came time to take it all the information came rushing back into my head. The test was extremely easy and after that I got my instructor pin, teaching binder, and a first class kit.I look forward to teaching my first class when I get back. I have my own style and I hope I don’t bore the class to death. After I teach my first class I will surely write about and post it for all to read.

Flashlight 1

Can’t take it anymore, Good Bye

When I arrived at work the other day I received some interesting news. When I entered the room my supervisor had asked me if I knew a certain psych patient. The patient he was asking me about did not seem to belong on a psych ward. Granted the patient did mention that he was having suicidal thoughts, but had shown no signs of a mental illness. Well anyways the patient did his mandatory 72 hours and was discharged in the morning. My supervisor informed me that the patient set up his appointments for our day treatment program then went home and ate the gun.

The patient came on a Friday night and missed the doctor. So he sat around, talked with myself, the RN, and the other patients. When he checked in he said he had suicidal thoughts because his mother was sick and he had problems with his sister. What confused me with his death was that he made plans for the future (day treatment), he was changing jobs (he had money, just worked for fun), and had a huge support system (very large family and several friends).

When I went up to our psych ward, myself and two other RNs’ who worked with the patient discussed possible reasons. I think when he arrived home something triggered the suicidal thoughts i.e. dying mother, fighting with sister. The RNs’ think he did it because he received no real treatment. Because he came in on a Friday and the doctor doesn’t come in until Monday, he pretty much sat around watching television and sitting in group. The patient pretty much went through our psych assembly system.
The patient was a good man and everyone spoke very highly of him. I am not talking about a guy who was a jerk and in death he became nostalgic. He was genuinely a good person who was very social and a positive thinker. I believe sometime on the weekend he made peace with suicide and that was why he was so nice to everyone. It’s too bad the patient did not get the chance to receive the treatment he needed.

I did not have time to feel bad though, I received a call to get to our ER registration. A fight was about to break out over ugly shoes. Stupid people keep me busy enough so I do not have to deal with death in the hospital. I guess when I get old and retire I feel for these people then. For now though I have become comfortably numb.

Flashlight 1

If you’re Crazy and you know It II

My partner and I were standing outside assisting with a medical evac by helicopter. The patient needed angioplasty so the security department secures the landing pad keeping bystanders away from the chopper and escort in and out of the hospital. So as we finish and the bird flies off my partner and I step into the emergency room. As we enter we here the emergency director yelling for someone to call security. We run down to the room and before I opened the curtain a smell hit me like a punch to the nose and I knew then this was going to be bad.

There was a 30 year old heavy set female half naked lying in the bed yelling profanities like the girl from the exorcist, actually she kind of looked like her only fat and older. The director and nurse were trying to use soft restraints (thanks JCAHO) on this very strong woman, who needed hard leather restraints. Needless to say these two were not having too much success. So my partner grabbed an arm, the ER director grabbed an arm, the one nurse started tying her up, and I grabbed these two mammoth ham hocks. I then discovered what the smell was; she had been on her period and had not changed anything down there. So as the RN finishes the last tie down I go and help the director put back on the oxygen mask. The patient kept using her tongue to push the mask off her face, so we decided to tape her up. As I held the mask on the left arm came loose and guess what, she decided to grab a hold of, that’s right Mr. Happy. I pulled away in time, but as I did her nails got caught on my trousers and ripped her fake nails off. We re-tied these wimpy soft restraints back to the bed and went back to the office to fill out some paper work.

20 minutes later we were called back to the emergency room. When we arrived she had slid herself to the bottom of the bed. I snatched our clinical coordinator as he walked by because at this point I needed someone to pay. The doctor decided on a posey vest, but the problem was we needed to untie her hands, put the vest on, zip up the vest, and tie everything back to the bed. So we got into position, this time I took an arm and made my partner take a leg. We un-tied her arms and she started kicking and yelling. This time though her aunt and mother had stepped into the room. We tried to be careful at all times not to hurt patients, but when family is looking over your shoulder you try to play nice. The aunt picked up on this and said, “I am going to take a walk, you guys do what you have to.” So I put my arm against her face pushing her fat cheeks between her teeth so she would stop biting and we got her tied back down.

When we were done I looked over to my partner and he was pale as a ghost. He held his breath as long as he could and when it was time to breath he took a big whiff and he was sick. We escorted the staff with the patient tied to the bed up to one of the wards. The whole time the patient was calling use racial slurs and pointing out our physical abnormality i.e. I am fat, my partner is tall, but with profanity mixed in. My partner stepped out for some fresh air and I went back to reports.

The next day I went on my usual patrol and when I passed the room I met with her aunt. The aunt stated that she does remember anything at all. She just woke up extremely sore in all places. They thanked us and apologized which was not necessary. To do this job you need to have thick skin. We all realize when people come in a hospital they are not themselves. They don’t want to be there and may even be terrified. So we take the insults and just do our job and sometimes people realize we are there to help.

Flashlight 1

Handcuff Training

There was uproar in the security department ever since the knife incident which you can read on my blog (Fake Florence Nightingale + Fake Gangster = Disaster). The concern expressed by everyone was that we had no way of protecting ourselves or even ways of detaining someone. We pretty much walk around with a radio, gloves, and a bar code swipe (so they can track where we have been). We have been running around with an empty duty belt. So the department decided to give us training so we can get our certificates so we can carry handcuffs and pepper spray.

We first started with handcuff training; our old supervisor was the instructor. We watched a training film from the 80’s and read through a book. The old supervisor then showed us how to handcuff someone with hinged handcuffs. My personal favorite is the chained handcuffs, easier to put on someone. After the demonstration it was our turn to practice on each other. Everyone picked a partner and a style of handcuff they wanted the department to order for them. Everyone picked up the hinged handcuffs because that is what the instructor used; also they are more expensive of the two so the other officers want the department to pay for those ones. I picked the chained because that is what I have used for years.

So my partner started on me first and the first cuff went on with no problem. He then slaps the second one on me and after a second I loose feeling in my left hand. After it turned purple he took it off and it went back to its normal color. So now it was my turn to practice on him. Now I remind you there are two different types of cuffs we are using so there are two different ways of putting on the cuffs and everyone is using one style and I am using the chained style. So when I started to put on the cuff my instructor says I am doing it wrong and to do it the way he showed me, so I did. I put on the first cuff, no problem. It is when I applied the second I realized the cuff was not going to reach his other hand, so I pulled. He let out a scream and a few curse words and I said well quit fighting me and there will be no pain. He said he was not fighting me and that I was twisting his wrist. So the instructor came over and said I was doing everything right until he noticed I had a different type of cuff.

I went back to applying the cuff the way I normally do and everything worked out. We all got our certificates and now will be able to detain people legally. I can’t wait until we start our pepper spray training. Our director will be the instructor and part of the training requires us to get sprayed in the face. I am sure I will have a fun story for you when that happens.

Flashlight 1

Too Little To Late

I have to explain how security works since there has been so much in the news lately. When something terrible happens then news stations always say we need to re-evaluate security. I am going tell you how security works; you can only deter the average person from committing a crime. If someone wants to hurt someone it is going to happen, security and police can only really deter people that care. An example would be people speeding on the highways. You know there are police out there looking so you slow down, but some keep speeding with no care for their and others safety.

Security officers are bonded to the rules and regulations of their company. The Virginia Tech shooting was a tragedy, but could have had yielded less victims if the rules were different. After the first shootings at the dorm the campus should have been shut down, but the director did not want to do it. So the shooter returns and kills 30 more people and now its securities fault. Then I read that someone killed a hostage and their self at NASA and they are blaming security.

Here is the problem in most facilities; they have so much square footage they need covered including access control, but they under staff and misuse the security personnel they have. Our CEO at my hospital hates to see fire trucks out front because it just looks bad. So one day I went out for my patrol and the local fire department needed to have their PPD read and they decided to drive the fire truck to the hospital (they can park where they want). The last time we had a fire truck out front the CEO chewed out my partner in front of everyone. So I see this fire truck in front of the ER and start telling this guy to move it to the side of our building and he refuses. The whole time I am out arguing with this idiot who doesn’t want to walk the extra 15 feet a C.N.A got jumped by 3 people. The CEO is stubborn as hell, but does not want to get sued so he finally has relaxed his personal rule on fire trucks, but it was to little to late for the C.N.A. Oh yea did I mention it was still some how our fault, I was only doing as I was told by our CEO. The sad truth is facilities will always wait for some kind of tragedy to happen for them to realize they are misusing security or change policy.

Flashlight 1

Fake Florence Nightingale + Fake Gangster = Disaster

Well my partner and I had a little excitement this week. My partner and I were called by a ward secretary because nurses were failing to calm down an agitated patient. Upon arrival I hear someone cursing like a sailor and threatening violence upon anyone who stops him from leaving. We ran to the room because the patient sounded like he was becoming more vulgar only to be stopped an RN. The room had maybe 4 C.N.A.s and 2 R.Ns and a new floor manager. The floor manager tells us, “The patient really doesn’t like people in uniform, so just stay out of the room,” and she stands in the door way refusing to move. The next thing I hear is his RN yelling put the pole down!” Once again staff refuses to move for us to enter and take down the violent patient. One of the C.N.As grab the pole (the piece that holds the IV on the bed) and brings it out to us. After 45 minutes the R.N is able to hit the patient with drugs and knock him out, temporarily.

Thoroughly pissed off my partner and I went back to our office to document what exactly went on. A few hours later we are informed there is an agitated patient threatening violence on staff once again on the same floor. When we arrive this time the patient is standing in the ward’s tiny waiting area with a tube hooked to his chest and connected to what my partner called “his lunch box.” The reason the patient was upset was because he wanted to go out and smoke, but the doctor would not sign orders to allow him to smoke. The patient had a collapsed lung and for him to leave the floor he would have to discharge himself and his “lunch box” would have to be disconnected. Within a minute his lung would deflate and in minutes he would die. So needless to say he could not leave or discharge himself because it would cause almost certain death.

The patient’s R.N was sitting in a chair telling the patient the hospital’s policies and telling him what would happen if he went out to smoke. The R.N then started asking questions about the patient’s personal life which made him realize he had nothing to loose. He had a new born baby, but wished her gone, his family disowned him because he was an asshole who tried to harm others, and last he was broke because no one wanted to hire him also for the same reasons his family disowned him. Basically this was a punk kid who thought he was a suburb thug. Every attempt by us to take control of the situation was thwarted by the R.N who was only making the situation worse. 40 minutes had gone by and this kid was still ranting and raving about how he was a thug and how “he was gonna straight bust us upside our heads yo,” the whole time he is swinging his “lunch box.” Our clinical coordinator the whole time was trying to contact the doctor who was unreachable.

My partner finally tired of listening to this white guy using the N word after every other word interrupted the nurse and told the kid his options. The patient stood there for a minute, made a phone call to his baby momma leaving a voice mail threatening her and his baby. After that the patient headed back to his room and stayed there for a few minutes. It seemed like the situation was over and the staff started discussing putting Vanilla Ice in restraints when he walked out of his room fully dressed. My partner, myself, the dumb ass R.N, and the clinical coordinator followed the patient to the elevators. When the doors opened I stepped in front of the door and informed him that he could not leave. The patient reaches into his pocket and pulls out a knife, waves it in front of mine and the clinical coordinator’s face. As my partner and I step forward to beat the crap out of him, the R.N decides to play patient advocate and stands in between him and us. The clinical coordinator reaches for his phone and calls 911. Within seconds we hear the sounds of sirens and a load roar coming up the stairs. I look over at the stair case to find a K-9 and 6 guns in my face. I yell the knife is in the right pocket and push myself and the clinical coordinator flush against the wall, my partner a black man from Chicago was in the corner hiding from Cujo the K-9. The police started ordering the patient to put his hands up and instead the patient reaches for his pocket and that’s were it goes bad. When the patient reached for his pocket the deputy released the dog at the same time a state trooper was kneeling down to shoot. The dog turns his head and does what he is trained to do, bite and rip. The state trooper’s arm is being torn up by the dog, the patient cursing at the police. The dog lets go and looks right at the kid and all the gangster in the boy suddenly disappears. I pulled the state trooper over to the nurse’s station and asked if someone in the audience could take care of his wounds. The whole time I could hear the kid crying like an infant as he is cuffed. The patient stayed until the “lunch box” could be safely removed and he was taken into custody by the state.

My supervisor had a meeting with our department head, our vice president, and their boss about the situation. They discussed that when security is called everyone is to get out of the way. We are called because talking has failed especially in this situation where this 23 year old kid had already threatened staff. No one in the hospital has a right to risk our safety including R.Ns. You have to go to college to be a doctor or a nurse so you would think they would be smarter than the un-educated. I have started college course and I have figured out why these people seem ignorant at times. It turns out that no college in the United States at least teaches common sense.

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Be On The Look Out: GOD

It seems that with almost every unexplainable action, an act of a person that boggles the mind, to the committer there is one simple explanation. It turns out that God tells them to do it or at least some where in their religious doctrine the action is allowed. Ever since I started working security on the streets to present day in a hospital when I question a suspect’s or patient’s motives they answer God told them to do it. I see it a lot on psych wards and amongst drug users. They are afraid to take responsibility for their actions i.e. pulling a fire alarm because God said a fire was immanent when they did it really for attention. Religion manipulation does play a role in criminal activities. People steal for financial gain to provide for their families even though all religions make stealing a sin, but if they use the money for food religions say it is a sin to have hunger. Religions justify killing but not murder, so if a person feels the killing just then they will not be punished by God.

I have found when dealing with a problematic or suicidal patient having a broad knowledge of all religions can help defuse potential dangerous situation. To understand people’s motives you have to know religion whether or not you believe.

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Security Tip

Think security and not style, I am talking about your identification badge. When working I notice that no one person wears their identification badge in the same place and 90% of the time it is not visible. It makes it harder on security to ID non- employees. Now I know because staff wears different uniforms or the badge may get in the way, but make sure it is visible at all time. This little tip will help security ID who belongs and who does not.

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Just when you think you have seen it all

As I arrived into work I see that the emergency room waiting area is full. I clocked in and put my gear on and the officers I was relieving were giving me the run down of the day’s activities. “Not a thing going on, the ER is just full and you have one down in the cooler” (body in the morgue). A few minutes into the shift my partner and I were ask to assist a male out of his vehicle. He had some kind of stomach virus and had not eaten in days. As we bring the person in we are suddenly thrown to the wolves by registration staff. The full waiting area has now turned to a lynch mob because they are tired of waiting and they are sicker than the person who was just taken back to a bed.

The whole time this is going on there is a female in her mid 40’s just sitting in a chair in front of a nurse almost catatonic. Instead of calling a psych tech or another nurse the registration person points her out to me. The women seem to snap out of her hypnotic state, starts whispering and crying and run out of the waiting area. Normally people in our area love to join a mob so I thought it was weird she ran off, so me being me I followed. On a side note the last time I followed an upset women outside her husband nearly ran me over after he beat her. Anyways she had parked outside our ambulance entrance and when she drove off she hit the curb, swerved and slammed her brakes at a stop sign beside the hospital. I jumped into our broken death trap of a jeep and followed her over, I stopped and walked to her window and that’s where the fun started.

The women would speak almost as if there was no problem, except she kept saying, “If I said there was a cat there, would you agree with me?” I told her, well Miss I am not going to lie, the only critter around is the bird chirping away behind me. Then she dropped her head and started to cry and whisper, “I want to end it all, I want to end it all.” The she reaches over to a gym bag and I yelled get your hand away from that bag. As I reach for my radio she started to head into traffic. I would put my radio back and she would stop. I could not get her to park the vehicle nor could I get her to step out. After a while she seemed to have to personalities, but what was weird it seemed each personality had its own mental problem. Now I spoke with our wonderful psych nurse and counselor and they think she is just border line, but there is a 1 in a million chance this is happening.
After about three hours of standing, at times in the rain trying to convince both personalities not to kill themselves I was able to calm her down long enough to radio for police assistance. In the process of talking with her one of the personalities told me her husband abuses her. Now it is not my job to judge the truthfulness of this statement, but just the same I was going to leave that up to the deputies. They were able to get her to admit herself to our psych ward where the nurse and councilor will find out if we have a border line or a 1 in a million phenomenon. Either way it was a first for me to try to convince two personalities not to commit suicide, my brain is fried!



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Hot Nurses and Their Stalkers

All work places have them, extremely attractive people whether they are male or female. Because of what is known as the Florence Nightingale effect, patients falling in love with their nurses, even the old trashy books from the 50’s and 60’s involving doctors having their way with nurses. The porn industry has created a fixation on sexy nurses from these things which has created a mass lust for hot nurses.

The other day I had a nurse who seemed slightly upset; I told her I would help her because my partner and I were fighting two mental patients. After the doctor wrote orders for me to put both patients into seclusion I asked her to meet me in the office. The nurse informed me that someone had been following her to work and vandalizing her and another nurse’s vehicle. She said she thought it may be a former employee who was fired for unknown reasons, even to security. He always wanted to date her and the other nurse, but he was always turned down. Frankly this was an extremely weird individual who said off color remarks and no that is not why he was fired.

The person had painted “GAY PRIDE” with a big rainbow on all the windows on both vehicles. The person she suspected had in the past shown up at the hospital and pushed in her rear view mirrors. The other nurse’s brother had past away not to long ago and the suspect would call her in the middle of the night and tell her, “your brother always hated you and he is probably glad he is dead”. At this point I had heard enough and decided to call this sick SOB.

When I called he must of saw the caller I.D and said the nurses name and apologized. Then I said in my deep voice, this is not her, this is hospital security and you and I now have a problem. He gulped loudly over the phone the suspect now knowing who he is talking to. In the past I had a fist fight with someone much bigger than me in the emergency room in front of the suspect. I broke the guy’s neck and he needed M.R.I.s and several x-rays, he touched a nurse. I told him that if he arrived at the hospital for any other reason then to be seen that I would not bother calling the police and he will have to deal with me. He apologized several times and promised to not show up again.

Both the nurses are very attractive people and are constantly harassed by staff. The problem is that they do not want to cause a problem so they say nothing until it is too late. The suspect had always been obsessed with these two and because they never handle it right away the obsession festered. Now they have a possible psychopath stalker after them. I just ask for any staff member male or female to report sexual harassment no matter what even if others consider you un-attractive. People always say there is someone out there for everyone; hopefully the one out there for you doesn’t try to kill you. Report all harassment before it is too late.

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Please Compromise Security, We’re Rich

There are two ladies who come in for rehabilitation geriatric services. Everyday at 1620 they walk into the hospital entering through the front lobby to have dinner in our cafeteria. They spend about $1.13 each on chow, sit and bad mouth the staff. The reason people put up with them is because they are filthy rich.

Our hospital is in the middle of renovations which has blocked off certain short cuts. People now have to make a some what long walk to get to our elevators and head down to the café. There used to be straight shot from the front lobby to the elevators. We have placed motorized scooters to help the handicap and geriatric people get around this inconvenience.

Well the other day my director was called and asked a weird question. Our quality management department, which is next to the café, called and wanted to know if we could unlock all basement doors at 1620 and lock them when called? The doors are set to only open with a key card and can be exited in an emergency. My director not only told them no, but he was planning on having all erroneous doors removed to control access to the hospital. Quality management informed my director that there were two elderly ladies tired of walking around and wanted the basement doors unlocked so they could enter and exit at ease. They did not want to use the motorized scooters because of their pride. Once again my director responded with a firm no!

The most important thing in our hospital is customer service. Although I agree people need to be treated with respect especially in a hospital setting, but where do you draw the line. Do we risk everyone’s personal security by hindering access control so we don’t hurt the pride of two geriatric patients? If the security department is to leave the entire basement open then who is to say that someone else enters with the intent to cause harm? Frankly they can go buy their little scoops of veggies somewhere else because I will not risk staff and patient’s safety because of two old ladies pride.

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Liberty For the Criminals and Justice For None

A while back my partner and I had a dangerous situation on hand. My partner and I were in our office finishing up paperwork for some earlier incidents when our registration called about an intoxicated person. My partner arrived and found an intoxicated male in early 40s yelling at his wife. The subject was cursing and ranting about hitting a car. According to my partner he escorted the subject outside and informed him if he did not leave the police would be called. He thought the incident was over and we went back to paperwork.

A few minutes later I hear the someone out in registration arguing. Sure enough it was the same suspect back arguing with his wife and staff. He wanted to go back in the emergency room to see his step daughter and his wife refused to allow him. I told them that they needed to take their conversation outside. Of course I received a barrage of insults and then him and his wife went outside. I had a feeling something was wrong so I called my partner and followed the couple outside.

The women was walking to her mini van completely ignoring the drunk guy insults completely. When she arrived at the door that is when he snapped and grabbed his wife by the throat. With one hand he choked her and with the other hand started to hit her. I ran up twisted his arm and bounced him off the concrete. I checked to see if she was ok and my partner ran after the man. He jumped into his cherry 1969 chevelle with over 700 horse power (wife informed us later on the cars specs). As we chased he put his car in drive and almost ran my partner and I over, us jumping out of the way at the last moment. My partner took off on foot and I jumped in the security vehicle while radioing for the police. He took off our property so we could not follow. I turned on the police scanner to hear that it turned into a high speed chase. The drunk ended up recking the car and getting his ass whooped by the police when he tried to assault the deputies.

My partner and I received summons to be whiteness in the case. The day before court he pleaded out. I checked his past arrest records and this man had over 10 DUI, 3 felony domestic assaults one beating his previous wife, and several speeding tickets. So I was thinking they will throw the book at this guy especially since he tried to run my partner and I down. Well I called back and got the results. The SOB got off with no jail time and $1000. dollars in fines. Because your spouse can not be forced to testify she backed out at the last minute and dropped the charges. The high speed chase turned into fines and well there is no proof that he tried to run us over. She doesn't want to testify and she was our only witness. We almost get killed trying to protect this women's life and all this guy got was $1000. in fines. The county made a few bucks because it would cost way to much to keep him in jail.

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Baby Kidnapped and Lets Blame Secuirty

I am sure you have all heard by now about the baby stolen from Lubbock, Texas hospital. If not here is a little reminder for you all that live under a rock, this is from NBC news. 21 year old Rayshaun Parson was arrested and accused of kidnapping the 3 day old infant. Police said the woman in this surveillance video is Parsons, who posed as a medical worker, claimed she was taking the baby for tests, and walked out with the infant hidden in her purse.
The news of late has decided to blame the incident on the security department which is wrong! First off security officers can not be everywhere at one time nor can they check in every person who enters. The problem in most health care facilities is that no one thinks security is their job. The report says, “The women posed as a medical worker”, she dressed in scrubs. Also ask any real RN or CNA they know who works in their department, yes even the new ones. The women claimed she was taking the baby for tests. Who the hell accepts that answer that was complete laziness on the nurses’ part? Any tests on the baby would have been done in that department and if the baby was to be transferred the baby’s RN would have assisted in the transfer. Here is an example of what should have been said;

Nurse: Excuse me, can I help you?

Impersonator: Oh, I am here to pick up this baby to take for some test.

Nurse: Ok, hold on one moment while I call that baby’s nurse. I haven’t seen you around before,

what department do you work in?

Impersonator: I am just a tech, I work all over the hospital.

Nurse: I can’t see your ID badge and I didn’t catch your name, what was it?

Impersonator: Oh, my name is “blank” and I left my badge at home.

By now the baby’s nurse should have arrived and furthered questioned the women about what

tests are to be performed. With in a few moments an intelligent RN would have figured out this woman was a fraud and called the police or at least call a code pink. I know what people are thinking, that it is easy to point this out after the incident. This is in no way true, I have worked around RNs and I know they would never accept I am here for tests; give me the baby as an answer. The nursery dropped the ball, but instead of admitting fault they will let everyone blame security. The security department puts cameras up for these reasons. If those lazy security officers never up those cameras, one can only wonder where that baby would be. Probably dead and in the dumpster or sold on the black market. When something goes right security never has anything to do with it, but a staff member screws up its securities’ fault. I am very happy to hear that the baby was found, but the hospital needs to review it's policy on handing out sick infants to anyone that asks.

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