AURORA, Colo. — The people who help are getting hurt.
Nurses at the Rocky Mountain Veterans Affairs Hospital in Aurora said they've been kicked, hit, yelled at and spat upon while on the job -- and they demanded hospital leadership do more to protect them at a rally outside the facility Monday.
"They need to amp it up. It's just not enough. We're still getting hurt," said Sharda Fornnarino, the president of the nurses union and a nurse at the VA.
Fornnarino said she has been verbally assaulted by patients, but her colleagues have experienced far worse.
"I’ve had blood spit in my face. I’ve been bit. I’ve been kicked. I’ve been punched. I mean, it just goes on," nurse Tonia Narverud said.
"I have been hit. I've been kicked. I've been spit at," nurse Ricardo Ortega said.
He said patient violence against staff keeps getting worse here and at other hospitals across the state and country.
The Colorado Hospital Association reports a continued increase in violence against hospital staff. In 2021, they reported, assaults hit a record high at 17.7 assaults for every 100 hospital beds.
"Everybody is worried about this epidemic of the healthcare systems becoming more violent and not having the protections that nurses and other staff members need," Ortega said.
At the rally, organized by the National Nurses United union, the group demanded the VA take stronger action to protect its workers, including adding staff and protecting workers who report concerns.
"In health care, this happens all the time," Thomas Talamante, deputy director of VA Eastern Colorado Health Care System, said. "I’m confident in what we’re currently seeing right now and if we see a unit or a sector that is deficient, we will have additional training on that specific section."
He said all hospital units have training plans related to workplace violence, and all staff -- including administrators -- are taught how to deal with difficult patients.
"When nurses expressed recent safety concerns stemming from a specific unit, we developed a safety plan, and that plan is continuously monitored and adjusted as needed," a VA spokesperson said in a statement. "VA’s mission is to provide health care to our nation’s heroes, and that can include delivering care to complex patients."
Talamante said he is confident the hospital is doing all it can to protect staff, but the nurses rallying outside disagree.
"We wouldn't be here if they did everything they could to protect their nurses," Narverud said.
And they said they can't wait any longer.
"It's getting to a head right now," Fornnarino said. "These nurses are fed up."
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