Nurses at Seattle Children’s Hospital are sounding the alarm over what they’re describing as a “constant state of fear” within the Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine Unit.
According to the Washington State Nurses Association, police have been called to the unit twice over the last two weeks over violent incidents involving patients. In one of those incidents in early November, patients “turned over carts, used a pole to swing at people, broke windows, and held a nurse in a chokehold,” the WSNA said in a news release.
“Almost simultaneously in a different part of the unit, a nurse was isolated with another patient and was choked, struck in the head 16 times, and nearly lost consciousness,” nurses described.
