Hailed as heroes, hospital workers for years have been bitten, hit, kicked – and ignored

Cash-rich hospitals have done little to prevent violence against nurses and other medical staff.

A 24-year-old nurse at Froedtert Hospital in Milwaukee sensed no reason to worry when she went into a patient’s room one morning in August. Staff prepared the young man for discharge, and a co-worker asked her to take his vitals.

She did what she was taught at Edgewood College in Madison, Wisconsin: She asked him to sit on the bed. Instead of complying, she said, the 29-year-old man shoved her against the wall, pinned her there and grabbed her genitals.

When a co-worker came into the room, the man stepped back, and she was able to flee.

The attack was traumatic, she said, and the hospital’s response made it worse.

This story is excerpted from USA Today. The full, original article appears here.
Continue reading this article at USA Today