The 14-year-old patient’s hair-raising threat to an emergency room nurse at a Naples hospital sent staff running to the nurse’s aid.
“I’m going to slay you and I won’t even feel bad about it,” the teenage girl screamed. “I’m going to …. kill you bitch.”
Two nurses and a technician grabbed the teen’s flailing arms and legs she weaponized with her rage. The team at NCH North Hospital resorted to restraining the 95-pound patient. They sedated her, an industry practice when patients get out of control.
Moments earlier the teen had grabbed a nurse’s glasses, kicked her in the chest and neck, bit her in the arm.
The violent outburst in March 2022, which ended with two injured nurses and the teen’s arrest, is just one case of verbal and physical attacks that happen regularly at hospitals nationwide.
Two nurses are assaulted every hour, roughly 57 a day or 1,739 a month, according to an analysis of second quarter 2022 national data by the healthcare consulting firm, Press Ganey .
Nurses, physicians and support staff face staying in an increasingly volatile work environment or changing career paths, while hospital leaders grapple with improving safety and preventing worker shortages from worsening. All impacts patient care, experts say.