Editorial: Bad nurses give good medical workers a bad name

Medical professionals have occupied an interesting place in society in recent years.

The covid-19 pandemic put them squarely on the front line, where they found themselves between patients and death. The National Institutes of Health and the World Health Organization point to thousands of nursing staff and other health care workers who died while caring for covid victims.

They have been revered for that, with people in many cities applauding them at a distance during shift changes.

Then there are the people who target these same workers with physical abuse. Some are big and loud, such as the February shooting at UPMC Memorial in York, where seven were shot and two died, including a police officer and the gunman. Three hospital employees were among the injured; a doctor, a nurse and a custodian.

Other violent altercations get less attention, as they can be one-on-one physical interactions with agitated patients or family members.

Our medical workers shouldn’t have to be martyrs or targets. We just need them to safely, reliably, knowledgeably do their jobs and keep us healthy.

What we do not need is hospital employees who humiliate the people who come to them for help.

A viral video from California has blown up over the past week. It showed employees of Sansum Clinic in Santa Barbara mocking their patients. To be clear, the patients were not in the videos. The employees were making fun of the soiled tissue paper on exam tables.

The tissue paper was doing its job. This is a women’s clinic. The process of an internal exam can be messy. But it is also deeply personal and vulnerable, and women can avoid regular visits because of fear and embarrassment. This ugly attempt at humor makes that worse.

Within days, Sutter Health of Sacramento, which owns the clinic, fired the employees. On social media, they drew a line, saying “this unacceptable behavior is an outright violation of our policies, shows a lack of respect for our patients and will not be tolerated.”

Good.

Two Westmoreland Hospital nurses have been sentenced to jail time for their videos and photos taken of patients nude or partially clothed and shared in a group text chat. Peter Castellano, 37, of Pittsburgh’s Fineview neighborhood, and Melissa Tompkins, 36, of Baldwin, will spend 30 days to a year behind bars for misdemeanor abuse of a care-dependent person. Their pleas saw felony charges for intercepted communications dismissed.

Assistant District Attorney Katie Ranker called the behavior “acts of cruelty,” and she was right.

Independence Health System, like Sutter Health, fired the offending employees. Prosecutors defended the victims with a plea agreement that ensured some jail time, which might have been avoided at trial.

There is an ugly side to all of this that no doubt will resonate with others when they enter a doctor’s office.

How will those who have seen that video or read the Westmoreland story feel the next time a medical worker asks them to disrobe or do one of the many humiliating things that can be part of a physical exam? Will people skip checkups? Will they suffer in silence? Will people die?

Perhaps more important than the days Castellano and Tompkins will spend in jail is the suspension of their nursing licenses. It doesn’t just protect patients. It also protects colleagues because it is unfair to good, respectful medical workers to be associated with such heartlessness.