Security – as I was frequently reminded during my time in the military – is everyone’s business and everyone’s responsibility. A philosophy that holds true in other settings, one of them being the healthcare.
Someone would need to take a lead in implementing this philosophy and, logically, that someone should be the healthcare security manager. That said, he or she must have a true understanding of – and respect for – the other professions within the healthcare environment if such a philosophy is to be effective.
Nurses (and their colleagues in midwifery and health visiting) are the largest profession in healthcare and, alas, the most misunderstood, denigrated and caricatured – as was recently the case when Garry Purdy (chair of the National Association of Healthcare Security), writing in SMT’s July 2002 Letters pages (pp16-17), expressed the naive belief that midwives exist to “dish up egg and bacon breakfasts”.
As someone in Purdy’s position should know, in addition to delivering babies midwives are responsible for the pre- and post-natal care of mother and child. Care that’s based upon evidence and research-based practice.
Midwives also use foetal heart monitors… Question is, who was monitoring CCTV coverage of the Wordsley Hospital Maternity Unit in Stourbridge on the day of the infant abduction that Purdy cites in his letter?
Working in the local community
Another shortcoming of UK healthcare security is that it’s restricted to hospitals and other healthcare sites, when in reality many nurses and midwives work in the local community. A community in which they’re often abused, threatened, assaulted and, in the case of Oxford-based health visitor Caroline Puckett, murdered. In contrast, visiting nurses Stateside in Milwaukee enjoy the benefits of ‘close protection’ from a team of unarmed ‘escorts’.
Having visited these nursing teams at night in downtown areas, it’s clear that this arrangement is effective – both in terms of cost (which is minimal) and improved levels of service. Nurses who don’t have to worry about their safety can do a better job.
The nurse/escort relationship is a good example of how nursing and security staff can work together effectively. I believe that nursing and security are fundamentally similar concepts. Back in 1968, Virginia Henderson defined nursing as: “Helping people, sick or well, in the performance of those activities they would normally perform unaided had they the necessary strength, will or knowledge. It’s also the role of the nurse to enable people to become independent of such assistance.”
Asset, protector and threat
Nursing also fully meets the criteria by which Giovanni Manunta (1999) defines security: “A function of the presence and interaction of asset, protector and threat in a given situation”. Nurses fulfil the role of protector by helping their asset (patient) to address threats from illness, infection and/or disability. They do so in situations ranging from a hospital environment to the local community.
The fundamentally important issue that Garry Purdy et al must address is the relationship between nursing and security. We have much to learn from each other, but the relationship can only flourish in a spirit of mutual respect and co-operation.
If it fails then, ultimately, patient care will suffer and Gary will be left with ‘egg’ on his face. Quite who will want to save his ‘bacon’ remains to be seen.
