Tennessee nurses push for new law to add protection from sex offenders
Nurses in Nashville are hoping to put a new bill on the books that would add another layer of protection against registered sex offenders.
The hope is to have legislators take up a bill that would require sex offenders to present their offender identification card once inside the hospital.
“You would go register at the front desk, like any other patient, the only difference is that you would hand them your sexual offender identification card, and let them know,” explained Carissa Kohne, co-writer of the bill.
“It would allow us to plan how we would do patient care, not that it would change the care itself any…” explained Ciearria. [FAC COMMENT: Yeah right!]
Discover more from Florida Action Committee
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
I AM a registered nurse. Part of what we are taught every freaking year in our required skills fair is to NEVER be in a patient room without an escape route. We are taught not to let ANY patient or family member block access to a way out and to push the staff emergency button if they do and will not move. This safety measure is applied as universally as universal precautions are, meaning to every patient or family member we encounter. I really don’t see any need to “flag” those forced to register for a “sex crime” they have been convicted of. The nurse who had the patient blocking her way out should never have been in that position in the first place, and it could have just as easily been a patient angry about any number of things they deemed wrong with their care. The absolute most violent and dangerous people I’ve encountered as an RN are people having psychotic breaks, people in the beginning stages of drug or alcohol withdrawal who are not given the specific medication they want, and parents whose children have just been pronounced dead. I’ve had patients grab parts of my body before, and absolutely do not tolerate it. None of them have been registrants. Once warned if they do it again it’s grounds for kicking them out of the hospital as they are not abiding by the terms and conditions. Many electronic medical records allow for a special warning icon to be placed on patients who have a known history of being violent while in the hospital. That icon does more to protect staff than knowing who is required be on a sex offender registry.
Thank you for sharing this
I hope Tennessee legislators have better things to do than listen to this stupid request. I can just see it now. Come in having a heart attack and you have to go show your card at the sign in desk. WOW!!! And for what sensible reason???
I have a friend who was happily remarried to his ex-wife after he got out of prison, 15 years later.. She forgave him and they were happy again, starting a new life together like they were kids again.. The only problem was he had acquired ED and couldn’t perform as well any more.. Thru the VA he had a procedure done where they placed a prosthetic device inside that allowed him to be “REALLY HAPPY” between he and his wife.. Unfortunately the device stopped working, whether there was a malfunction, or something.. He went back to the VA and told them it stopped working.. The doctor refused to return his calls for 5 or 6 months.. Once the doctor did return his call, the doctor said he wasn’t going to replace the prosthetic device, but, if “the man” was having complications, the doctor would remove it.. The man asked why and the doctor said, “One of the nurses saw your ankle monitor during the first surgery, and, after the surgery was over went to the registry and saw you there.. Then she came to me and informed me of your status.. It has been on my mind ever since that you could be using the device to molest a child.. So, when you said the device didn’t work any more, I was relieved.. When you asked to have the device replaced, I decided, after checking the legalities of it, not to replace the device because I don’t want to be held responsible if you were to reoffend and someone found out it was the VA, and me, that put the prosthetic device in you..” The doctor apologized for his decision, but that didn’t help the man and his wife any.. he, and she, were disappointed.. they couldn’t afford the medical cost to have another doctor perform the procedure.. The man became depressed to the point of putting a .45 caliber in his mouth just before his wife walked in.. She stopped him and, finally, convinced the man that she loved him regardless, that she had always loved him, that she would always love him.. He apologized to her and she said it was “all right”.. but he could see in her eyes that she missed the intimacy..
A few years later his wife died of brain cancer, never having had THAT specific kind of loving relationship she wanted to have with the man..
Now the man sits in his recliner, day in and day out, wondering whether he will ever have a loving relationship with a woman.. wondering whether he should get the .45 out of the closet..
This is a true story.. but it reiterates the problem of having medical staff know WHO YOU ARE.. Whether it be this specific problem, or staff not doing their best to keep you alive..
This won’t help now but VA has a policy that sex offenders are not to receive different treatment than any other veteran. I would definitely pursue legal action.
Thanx man.. I’ll let him know.. But, at this juncture, I really don’t think it would help.. He has given up looking for someone to love, to take care of.. So he just sits.. and waits..
The VA is NOT allowed to discriminate. This needs to be reported to the people in charge.
Let me get this straight.
You are having a stroke. So someone starts CPR on you and calls for an ambulance. You arrive at the hospital. As you are entering the door, you say hold it everyone, I’m a sex offender , it says so right here on my drivers license, so everyone stay back , I’m very dangerous.
Or maybe your wife is in labor ,as you are rushing through the hospital door you holler out to the receptionist by the way I’m a sex offender so you better keep your distance.
Or maybe your son breaks his arm , the bone is sticking out . As you rush through the hospital door you yell I’m a sex offender don’t worry about him, I’m a very dangerous person.
With this new law if I don’t do that I will be immediately arrested charged with a felony and fined.
Now it all make sense, right?