Maureen Holder is describing the July 13, 2012 punch
by a patient that, 20 years into her career as an ER nurse,
changed her entire life. While waiting for a CT scan, Hold-
er's patient, a professional boxer with possible head trauma,
needed a urinal. Radiology staff was delayed, security was
busy handling a different patient, and her facility, St. Fran-
cis Memorial Hospital in San Francisco, had made staffing
cuts the previous year, leaving her alone without the tech
who might otherwise have been by her side.
Concerned with making her patient more comfortable,
she quickly ran across the hall for the urinal. When she
returned, her patient was off the gurney, with his back
turned, falling. Holder reached out to help catch him, and
with all the force of a pro boxer, he turned around and
swung.
"I thought I had ruptured my eyeball," she said. Holder
turned out to have an orbital floor fracture underneath her
eye, a nasal fracture, fractures in her cheek, a concussion,
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N A T I O N A L N U R S E W W W . N A T I O N A L N U R S E S U N I T E D . O R G J A N U A R Y | F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 5
Better
Safe
Than Sorry
"You know the sound
a bowling ball makes,
when it strikes the pins?
That crash happened
inside my head."
As violence against RNs skyrockets, nurses
demand employers take responsibility for
creating safe workplaces. BY KA R I J O N E S
