BURRILLVILLE – The United Nurses and Allied Professionals, a union representing more than 5,500 nurses and health professionals across Rhode Island, and UNAP Local 5019, which represents nurses and health professionals at Eleanor Slater Hospital, are calling on the state of Rhode Island to provide significantly stronger safety measures in the Zambarano Unit of Eleanor Slater Hospital. On Friday, Nov. 15, a nurse was violently attacked at the Burrillville-based hospital and suffered multiple abrasions, scratches and bite marks, according to UNAP.
“The state of Rhode Island can not continue putting nurses and other health care workers in the Zambarano Unit in harm’s way,” said UNAP Local 5019 President Karen Raposa. “We have repeatedly asked state officials to provide more protection for our health care workers who are treating this patient, and it’s fallen on deaf ears.”
“We are once again calling on the state to immediately provide the Zambarano Unit with psychiatric attendants who are trained to assist mentally or emotionally disturbed patients,” said Raposa. “These mental health workers can provide one on one care for any patient who is deemed to be a safety risk to our medical staff, and ensure the nurses who provide this care are safe and protected from violence. We are also calling for clear and accessible reporting procedures for staff, which we currently do not have, to document and report violent incidents in our health care facilities.”
UNAP President Lynn Blais noted that the organization has worked for years pushing legislation and hospital policies that keep nurses and health care workers safe, including the 2021 Workplace Violence Act.
“There is still a lot more work to be done, as witnessed by numerous recent assaults on nurses and health care workers in our hospitals,” said Blais. “In instances where we treat patients suffering from severe mental illness, especially those with a history of violence, we must have a stronger security presence in areas where these patients are treated.”
“There must be significantly stronger enforcement of our laws and recognition that there will be harsh penalties for those who commit acts of violence against nurses and other health care workers,” Blais added. “These are felony violations of our laws and should be charged as such. We can’t let those who assault health care workers off the hook so easily, as we have seen in the past. No one should have to fear for their safety when they go to work, and our union will continue advocating for stricter policies and laws that make our hospitals safer for nurses and other health care workers.”
The nurse involved in Friday’s incident is reportedly recovering at home, and the attack is under investigation.
UNAP has filed a grievance with Eleanor Slater Hospital.
DT why do you post your ignorant comments about the ESH staff?
This article is just another example of the increasing number of violent attacks on health care workers. There is a need for nurses and others to be protected in the workplace.
No comments were written about the staff. I just commented that the state could save significant costs by closing the hospital and distributing the patients elsewhere. All the information is based on the conclusions of qualified consultants detailed reports. The only reason the facility stays open is the politicians want the union vote and don’t want to hear the complaints from the union if the hospital was closed. If this was a business Zambarano would have closed years ago. Please note that the federal reimbursement rates for hospital care does not even come close to funding the facility.
But the thing is, where are these patients to go? There is a shortage of reg nursing homes spaces…In my experience, the mentally ill, inc the deviants, are being diverted to nursing homes due to shortages of housing for the mentally ill…..and heavily medicated to stay under control. So your relatives may well be living with one or, adjacent room to one….no joke. And due to HIPAA regs you will never know. Truth be told…
Many hospital have many empty beds and can easily handle the amount of patients and will actual help these hospitals recover more fixed costs. The consultants who recommend the closure thought of all the rules and patient care and recommend a fully functional executable plan. The plan also stated that the level of potential care would increase if outsourced.
DT…I have to ask you to please research those facts you stated…..that many hospitals have empty beds to accommodate the long term geriatric or disabled, mentally ill….and have the funds to house them.
Many units are closing, many are at capacity, many cannot take on more due to staff shortages…..to name a few.
Ok SuzaQ I can see that you are one of those union employees at Zambarano earning overtime that cannot be possible worked and costing RI taxpayers millions of dollars. If you look at the RI transparency portal the overtime is ridiculous. The former consultant who ran the Zambarano facility a few years ago admitted that the overtime was ridiculous but was told by politicians not to fix or address the issue. Second the administrator also told me the level of care is not up to standards. I personally visited the facility a few years ago and the staff was non existent but when you looked at the payroll records many people were paid but no one was actually working. So, I actually wrote down 10 names of people who had offices in the facility not present on that day and cross referenced the names to payroll and 8 out 10 of the employees actually were paid for time they did not work. Now to address your issue that hospitals don’t have empty beds, many RI hospitals did report they had empty beds and could handle the patients when the study was done but if RI had capacity issues, studies showed that Massachusetts and Connecticut minutes away from Zambarano had capacity. The hospital is poorly run, the most expensive in the US, and has a poor level care so there is no other decision than to close this facility. 3 consultants reports all concluded the same facts along with the ridiculous costs in every area of the facility. The former Governor also agreed that closing the facility was the right decision but did not want to spend the political capital to debate the union. Why do you think the patient count has gone down over the last 5 years. The only thing this facility is good for is to film a horror film. This facility is union greed in its purist form. Do a google search for Zambarano closure study and read that this is the right decision for patients and taxpayers. Sorry but the union is causing the closure of the hospital just like most of the mills in RI.
Quick Google search says otherwise. I would like to see where it says it’s the most expensive, as when I looked it up it said something about a hospital in PA. As someone who’s had to experience people getting treated in hallways as rooms were double booked, and barely any room for other beds to move around the people in the hallways, they were definitely understaffed and overworked. There was already a national nurse shortage pre covid, now in post covid times, it’s worse. The reason there’s so much OT is because there’s no one to take the shifts, it’s just simple math at this point.
No no no…..I am a retired nurse that saw exactly what you are talking about to some degree, and much more which I have outlined….we are on the same page on much. There is a lot of waste and it is costing us all.
So in your mind, because you were personally unable to locate someone at the Zambarano facility, that means they weren’t working. Real empirical evidence there. If I were them, I’d have made myself scarce as well.
Bathroom breaks? Not anymore under DT rule. Actually providing a service to someone? Not under DT rule. All hospital jobs must only be made from their office according to DT.
DT went to one hospital…..scarcely a true experience. I worked in it. Many capacities. And many rural units are closing for lack of funding, lack staff and supplies. Medicare, Medicaid and Tricare /military health care, are all limiting payout. And they cannot balance bill the patient, against the law and program participation, to do so. So many units and nursing homes are poorly reimbursed. Thus a vicious cycle of operational nightmares. Yet we can throw money overseas….and not take care of our own, which rattles me. But that’s for another day….
The doctor can also prescribe injections to keep this patient calm, under control, meanwhile, as they often do for mentally ill persons residing in nursing homes, unfortunately, when space is limited. I used to handle such patients with an assistant, brought to our office, on a monthly rotation, and in the prison system.
So if the state continues to do nothing, the nurse gets harmed so severely as to retire medically, then the state pays out the medical pension. Does that make sense in a world of continued nurse shortages?
And the state gives grants to help with the further-heightened nursing shortage in order to recruit nursing students.
In prisons and jails, you have assistance of a guard with regular inmates. But when you are up close and personal, even with the help of a nearby assistant, it takes mere seconds for a successful attack. Showing respect goes a long way too, prevention.
The nurse union asking for an assistant is nice, but not a 100% cure-all to the problem at hand…..the medical person has to stay alert to the simple warning signs, to de-escalate, wear protective clothing, and know self-defense methods. The union should make sure all that is followed too by the employer/employee….but….
Some employers are not as stringent as they should be in regular safety methods, teachings, medical records. And face it, medical personnel can get too laid-back in day to day rushed care, so as not to be so observant. While a challenge, nursing is rewarding. The camaraderie of nursing is the best.
There are many newer regulations for chemically restraining someone, and the caregivers rights are towards the bottom of the food chain.
I disagree that “medical personnel can get too laid-back”. Under staffing leads to overwhelming responsibility and inconsistent observation. No nurse or CNA
that I worked with was laid-back, in fact, they were more likely to be focused on the details and upset that the quality of care was not hitting the mark.
I am happy you worked with constantly observant co-workers but surveys indicate a hurried and understaffed environment often leads to poor care and poor performance. And my experience over 40 yrs, showed a nonchalant attitude many times. Burnout….working double shifts….is real and is written about as to what nursing is experiencing.
Inconsistent observation you mentioned…..is a form of laid back behavior……from the 100% …..that I noted. So we do agree…..
I would close down the Zambarano facility and outsource/transfer the small amount (under 100) of patients to other local facilities and save millions in annual operating costs. We could also save the ridiculous $108 million that Dan “never saw a dollar he does not like to spend” Mckee wants to spend to remodel a facility that is only good for a tear down or to film a horror movie. Also note that several studies have been done by experienced consultants in the last 10 years that all concluded that facility should be closed. The consultants also concluded that this is probably one of the most expensive state hospitals in the country. This facility is all about union votes and greed and has zero concern for the taxpayers of RI. If the politicians in RI actually cared about the taxpayers, doing the right thing financially the could actually lower the budget and taxes, instead of the lazy, high cost, zero quality union vote.
I wonder if the DA will charge this patient. I highly doubt it