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from the in-soviet-russia-you-pay-nurse dept.
NPR reports a nurse in Utah who was arrested on July 26th in Utah has reached a $500,000 settlement with the city and hospital system. Nurse Alex Wubbels was arrested by Detective Jeff Payne for refusing to take a blood sample from a patient without the patient's consent or a warrant. When she tried to present the detective with the hospital policy on the subject, the Detective announced she was under arrest and took her away in handcuffs. The Detective has since been fired after it was initially reported that he was "counseled."
At the beginning of the [body camera] video, she is seen calmly reading the officer the hospital's policy not to allow blood to be drawn without a warrant or the patient's consent, unless the patient is under arrest. "This is something you guys agreed to with this hospital," she explains. Then the officer lunges at Wubbels, forces her outside and handcuffs her as she screams that she has done nothing wrong. The footage drew widespread outrage when it was released by the nurse and her attorney. It became part of a broader conversation about police use of force.
The Washington Post reported, "Wubbels said she will donate some of the proceeds to a fund that will help people obtain body camera footage and provide free legal aid for open records requests. She is also planning to use the money to raise awareness about workplace violence against nurses." Alex Wubbels, in a guest blog post at the American Nurses Association, describes the campaign as #EndNurseAbuse. Workplace violence against nurses is not something covered that often outside the profession, and yet something every ER worker knows about. Usually, though, it isn't the police who are the perpetrators.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 02 2017, @08:02AM (4 children)
According to the Washington Post the city and the university both agreed to pay the nurse $250.000. I can understand that the city, as employer of the police officer, pays damages to the nurse. But the university is her employer, and as far as I can see they did nothing wrong and could not have prevented a policeman from misbehaving. Why on earth do they pay damages?
(Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday November 02 2017, @08:14AM
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/11/01/561337106/utah-nurse-arrested-for-doing-her-job-reaches-500-000-settlement [npr.org]
I don't know how involved the hospital's security guards were, but this might help you answer your question.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 3, Informative) by khallow on Thursday November 02 2017, @12:59PM
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 02 2017, @04:41PM
, while the cop arrested the nurse and slammed her up against the wall. They were specifically hired and put in place to protect hospital staff, and failed to do so, simply because the perpetrator was a cop.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Thursday November 02 2017, @05:25PM
> Why on earth do they pay damages?
Because she had a lawyer, and hospitals have excessive piles of money.
The previous responses tell you why she would have ground to unleash the lawyer on the high-bank-account target, so settling quickly for a quarter million isn't a bad deal.