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July 15, 2009

Nurses support bill on assaults

By Stacie N. Galang

BOSTON — Life changed completely for Charlene Richardson the day she was brutally assaulted by a patient she was treating in the emergency room of Beverly Hospital.

"I don't think I'll ever be the same," she said.

Richardson was one of about 40 hospital nurses at the Statehouse yesterday afternoon showing support for a bill that would make assaulting a health care worker on duty a specific crime with its own set of penalties.

Since she was assaulted in March 2003, the registered nurse has spent her time advocating for a law that would support her and other nurses while they help patients.

Richardson hopes an existing law that protects emergency medical technicians against assault from patients would be extended to protect others, including nurses.

"Why can't we have the same thing for nurses?" she asked. "The commonwealth needs to look at that. For six years, I've been asking them to look at that."

Essex County District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett spoke briefly yesterday to the Joint Committee on the Judiciary, which heard testimony on behalf of the bill. He told the panel that nurses can be "spit at, punched and kicked."

"While we rightfully think of law enforcement and firefighting as being high-risk jobs, it is a fact that among those most susceptible to workplace violence are health care professionals," he said in a prepared statement given to the committee.

Blodgett also detailed Richardson's incident in his testimony. Three security guards, another nurse, two emergency room patients and a visitor intervened to pull the drunken and violent attacker off the nurse, the district attorney wrote.

If the bill passes, a person who attacks a health care worker could face jail time up to 2¬½ years, a fine of up to $5,000 or both.

"This is very necessary," said Sen. Fred Berry, D-Peabody, one of the bill's three sponsors in the Senate.

The majority leader said he was confident it would be an "easy pass." The statistics on workplace violence toward health care workers speak volumes, he said.

"I do think nurses are in danger," he said. "I think it's a very hard bill to ignore."

As it is, an assault and battery on a nurse is essentially seen as part of the job and hospitals tend to discourage workers from filing charges, Richardson said.

She had to press charges privately and waited 16 months before her attacker, John Brown, formerly of 100 Washington St., Salem, was convicted. He was sent to jail for 18 months.

"That was the worst for me," Richardson said of her long journey to seek justice.

She has since become an advocate for nurses who have similarly been assaulted while working. A nurse for nearly two decades, Richardson is now associate director of education for the Massachusetts Nurses Association, the state's largest union for registered nurses and health care workers.

Richardson also said the law would help the public. If an ER nurse is away from her duties because of an assault, patients aren't getting care.

After her incident, she would only work in the locked recovery room. She once vowed never to return to the ER.

Working to help others who have been attacked by patients has helped Richardson grow stronger emotionally. Now, she splits her time between the ER and the recovery room.

"Never say never," she said of her return.

Richardson said she would be able to find some semblance of closure about her ordeal once the bill becomes law.

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