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!]
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Nurses have faced far more abuse from patients that are not on the list. Give me a break. Seriously, it is like the world has lost critical thinking skills.
I am on a do not donate plasma list because of this discrimination. Also, a female who screened me for a mental health program program back in 2005 made a false claim against me that was later used against me.
I have taken calls from others who were denied services because of registry status.
So no, I don’t trust this proposal one damned bit.
Email to [email protected]: (today 8/7/22)
Hello:
Your reporter Mye Owens recently reported that the Tennessee legislature was considering a proposal to require registered sex offenders to declare their status at the front desk during a patient intake at a hospital. Your reporter presented inuendo and opinion rather than fact. Please help your staff to become aquainted with actual facts about sexual offending. This will help in the fight to stop sexual harm through evidence-based policy. This story only served to add to the public hysteria with misinformation that can only hinder this cause! It was irresponsible.
Perhaps your station is unaware of the true statistics on sex offending in America.
It is estimated that between 90 and 95 percent of sex offenses in the US each year are perpetrated by persons who have no background or history of sexual offending; hence, they have never been on a sex offender registry. Screening for registrants will do little or nothing about the problem of workplace sexual harrassment by inpatients.
In fact, according to recent studies by the United States Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Statistics, those who have committed a sex offense have the lowest recidivism rates of any other type of crime except for murder. The recidivism rate for sexual offending is in the low single digits!
Unfortunately, requiring a patient to disclose his or her registrant status would do very little to stop sexual harrassment in hospitals (or anywhere, for that matter) and, perhaps, subject that patient to a lower quality of care. A very tiny percentage of sex offenders reoffend. Most sex crime in the US is committed by non-registrants.
As journalists, shouldn’t you dig for the facts rather than present misinformation? Your voice should be one of calm and reason!
Thank you
Above is a great letter to WKRN!
What is a Sex Offender Identification Card? These people have NO idea what they are talking about and if you try to educate them, they dont want to listen. Maybe if they tell the lies long enough and loud enough and to enough individuals, there will be some truth that develops? Ugh.. Just Ugh.
I was already a victim of that here in Florida at a well known hospital chain. Somehow they had a notation in my chart that I was on the sex offender registry. One particular nurse tried to do something to me I cannot type on here without getting the post taken down.
I reported her after “Fighting back” on her attack on me physically due to her gross and inhumane “incident” that if I had not stopped, I would most likely died.
NOTHING was done to her other that a new nurse being assigned to me. I reported her to the hospital, the state, the county, a lawyer, and even the lawyer said since she “Denied” all of it, nothing could be done. I even offered for both of us to take a polygraph and the lawyer later said she refused. I didn’t take one after that since the lawyer said I would have to pay (Which was fine with me) but would not hold up in court unless she took one and failed it.
AND, unbelievable she was a supervisor. One of the nurses I told about it said that supervisor was only made a supervisor after filing complaints against HER supervisors.
After that, I told my parents, I would rather die that be admitted to a hospital again. Imagine all the things that could be done to us if someone read that in our charts? Taint our food, give us “Too” much meds in our IV’s for a sleep that lasts forever. And all of it will be covered up, denied, marked as an accident etc.
Every law or rule that passes like this makes it more and more impossible to get back into society.
I dumb and lame is that, of course it will change the way the person (s) is taken care of, who the heck are they trying to kid. Plus Tennessee is part of the 6th circuit so like here in Michigan wouldn’t that be unconstitutional because of the 6th circuits ruling, not that their ruling has done Michigan any good so far. Our ACLU had to file a 4th lawsuit.