There was a shot, then Malone, a police officer assigned to Roosevelt Island in New York City, and the doctor who was tending to his grandmother poked their heads out the door of the room...Lupienski was also wounded in the leg when the gun discharged as hospital staffers struggled to subdue him. [More]OK, then.
[Via MPR]
I used to work hospital security and when round and round with administration about the tools we were allowed to carry in order to protect staff, patients and visitors.
ReplyDeleteThey always seemed to feel that 'a hospital is a healing place and we don't equip our staff with weapons'. My counter of 'you use poison to kill cancer, it's not the tool/drug it's how and when it's used fell on deaf ears.
Also on deaf ears was the argument that they were only providing the illusion of safety and security when their policies hamstringed their security staff.
Such illusion was vividly visible last month when the security staff up in Seattle wasn't allowed to intervene in an assault due to policies that limited their usefulness.
Having been a nurse in an ER, I can tell you that the staff is extremely vulnerable. Many of the people brought in by police are very, very dangerous and the police are seldom really willing or able to control them enough to alleviate that danger.
ReplyDeleteNot that I'd want to be carrying a gun in my scrubs, actually... too many retention issues. But hospital security should certainly be armed and maintain a serious presence in most emergency rooms.