Nashville Nurses Want Law To Identify Patients Who Are Registered Sex Offenders
The Tennessee Conservative [By Jason Vaughn] –
Nashville nurses are working to push a new bill that would help provide additional protections against registered sex offenders.
One of those nurses, Ciearria, spoke with News 2 on the condition that her place of employment would not be revealed. She stated that sexual harassment from patients is a consistent problem.
“We face anything from any gross sexual comments, people have been threatened, and unfortunately, they have been trapped in a room where the patient has been a wall between the door and the nurse themselves, so it’s scary,” Ciearria said.
She says the comments of a sexual nature are the most frequently encountered issue.
She explained, “comments, sexual comments, and people who come in and they are able to do things for themselves…and not anything basic, but regarding to any sexual parts and stuff like that.”
Ciearria is now working with a group of nurses to try and get the state to put a new bill on the books that would help change all of that. The new legislation would require sex offenders to notify hospitals of their status by requiring that they show their offender identification card.
“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,” said Carissa Kohne, one of the bill’s co-authors.
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Ciearria noted that the bill would not change the level of care a patient receives. They would not have to wait any longer for services and would not be denied services.
“It would allow us to plan how we do patient care, not that it would change the care itself any, but we would be able to maybe go in with another nurse, let the charge nurse know hey I’m going in this room, and let them know when we are leaving,” stated Ciearria.
According to Kohne, incidents such as a 2020 assault on a nurse at Vanderbilt University Medical Center show how important it is to provide this extra layer of protection. The nurse in that incident told law enforcement officials that she was adjusting her 46-year-old patient’s pillow and the patient grabbed her breast. When she told him to stop, he repeated the behavior. The patient, identified as Earl Buckley, had previously made a sexual comment to the nurse when she was changing his bedding.
“I think it’s terrible that we don’t already have something in place in order to help nurses, and in order to help physicians…there have been so many stories about patients and providers getting assaulted by patients just because their sex offender status wasn’t revealed,” said Kohne.
Data from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children shows that Tennessee ranks sixth in the nation for highest rate of offenders. The state has 434 registered sex offenders for every 100,000 residents.
The group hopes that the bill will be ready for presentation during the next state legislative session.
About the Author: Jason Vaughn, Media Coordinator for The Tennessee Conservative ~ Jason previously worked for a legacy publishing company based in Crossville, TN in a variety of roles through his career. Most recently, he served as Deputy Director for their flagship publication. Prior, he was a freelance journalist writing articles that appeared in the Herald Citizen, the Crossville Chronicle and The Oracle among others. He graduated from Tennessee Technological University with a Bachelor’s in English-Journalism, with minors in Broadcast Journalism and History. Contact Jason at news@TennesseeConservativeNews.com
This 100% needs to be written and passed into Law!
Appears to be someone simply trying to make a name for themselves by writing a bill. This is what politics has become. The only thing that needs to happen here is to educate the admission staff. I’ll leave it at that.
Appears to be someone simply trying to make a name for themselves by writing a bill. This is what politics has become. The only thing that needs to happen here is to educate the admission staff. I’ll leave it at that.