A patient has been charged with multiple counts of felony assault in the stabbing of three nurses at Ellis Hospital in Schenectady, N.Y., with medical scissors, and nurses are asking the facility to re-examine its security policies, according to The Daily Gazette.
The 27-year-old patient is accused of stabbing two registered nurses and one student nurse Feb. 27, a court filing obtained by the Gazette shows. The nurses suffered wounds to their ears, neck and upper back. Staff members managed to subdue the patient until police arrived, according to the filing.
The patient has been charged with five counts of second-degree assault and one count of third-degree criminal possession of a weapon, all felonies. He was also charged with three misdemeanor counts of second-degree menacing.
After the incident, nurses at the hospital are demanding that it address their safety concerns.
"Nurses shouldn't have to fear for their well-being while tending to their patients' needs," said Denise D'Avella, RN, a critical care nurse at Ellis Hospital, in a statement issued through the New York State Nurses Association, a union representing 42,000 frontline nurses.
Ms. D'Avella said security officers at the hospital do not do enough to stop violence at the hospital and are instead more concerned with parking issues and the presence of union representatives.
The hospital's nurses are in contract negotiations, and the New York State Nurses Association said that several nurses have raised safety complaints at meetings with management.
Ellis Hospital said in a statement, obtained by the Gazette, that the nurses and the hospital's security team "performed admirably in an extremely difficult situation."
"It is unfortunate that [New York State Nurses Association] would issue a press release exploiting the incident as a bargaining tool in our contract negotiations rather than giving their members the credit they deserve for their professionalism and excellence in patient care," the hospital stated.