In early November, a nurse working in the post-partum unit of the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center was brutally assaulted while on the job. The nurse had heard a commotion in the hallway and stepped out of the break room to find that one of the patient’s visitors was causing a disruption and had an infant dangling in his arm. The nurse naturally attempted to intervene for the sake of the baby’s safety when the man then grabbed the nurse and dragged her 60 feet by her shirt collar down the hallway; strangling her. Only after this did security arrive at the scene and was then able to subdue the man. However, despite the fact this man had just viciously attacked one of the hospital’s staff, this man was then escorted to the emergency department to be assessed afterwards and when cleared by the ED was then escorted to his car. Not arrested for the assault, not taken into custody for the strangulation of a nurse, but let go.
In direct contrast to how the assailant was treated, the nurse who had just been strangled was NOT offered to be escorted to the ED afterwards, and the unit management who was present for the events didn’t even so much as inquire about the nurse’s well-being after the assault. It was not until the union leadership of the Ohio Nurses Association stepped in that the nurse was even given paid administrative leave after the trauma she had to go through, and the ONA was not even informed by the hospital. ONA didn’t hear about the events until the nurse herself reached out after the fact. The entire situation showed a gross display of negligence of the well-being of their staff by the hospital at every step of the way. Instead of doing the right thing after these set of failures, the hospital administration then chose to downplay the severity of the events to the media. In interviews, they described the events to the news agencies as “the nurse being pulled by her collar down the hall”. Not as the 60-foot dragging and strangulation that it was. Strangulation is one of the most violent things that can be done to another human being – capable of causing lasting physiological and psychological harm, or even death, in a matter of seconds.
The nurse who was assaulted felt that she had to justify her truth after the hospital’s press statement downplaying the events was released. She said, “I didn’t make this up… this was horrific and I thought I was going to die. I thought he was going to take my badge and escape with me and kill me. I thought… this is how they’re going to have to tell my daughter I wasn’t coming home… that her mom had been killed by a violent person at work.”
The union later organized a rally outside the hospital, where attendees wore ribbons commemorating the victims of violence, and demanded action from the hospital. The list of demands being implementation of a “code violet” and protocol to handle violent situations, increases to security and presence of security at high risk areas of the hospital, and for the Chief Administrative Officer, Elizabeth Seely, to resign for the abhorrent response to the situation. A union leader and board member of ONA, Lukas Killian, expressed, “ I have seen violent incidents occurring against staff, including myself, in this hospital far too often and every time we have to beg and plead the hospital to do something about it. Enough is enough, we are done tolerating prioritizing profit over nurses safety!”
To add fuel to the already roaring fire; less than a week after the rally, the nurse who was assaulted was denied mental healthcare services to deal with the trauma she had experienced at her own place of work.
What is happening at OSU Wexner Medical Center is commonplace at all hospitals, and more broadly, is reflective of what is happening at work sites across all of America. Working people are expected to take abuse, work with fewer resources, and see less and less return for the fruits of their labor. They cannot trust their employers to have their backs, and are all too often gaslit, undermined, and silenced for speaking out. Who knows what may have happened if the union was not around to step in on behalf of this nurse and make the demands for change. In a time where the political climate is more hostile than ever and outside far-right groups and think tanks, like the Freedom Foundation, are assaulting unions and labor rights across the country, situations like this prove that we are best able to fight for change and defend ourselves from injustices when working people come together and do it collectively. When we organize our workplaces and our communities, we are able to make the lift to implement change and stand up to the bosses, millionaire executives, and corporate entities that want to keep us down and silence us.
Feature image: Ohio Nurses Association at No Kings protest in Chicago. Credit: Liberation photo
