GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — They've been hit, had their hair pulled and even had bodily fluids thrown at them. Hundreds and hundreds of local healthcare workers have been assaulted during the pandemic.
West Michigan's largest hospital system is reporting a rise in the number of attacks on nurses, doctors and support staff.
"I've just always said 'I'm human too, and I'm not your punching bag," Orthopedic Nurse Vanessa Johnson says.
It's a conversation she's had to have with patients too many times while on the job at Blodgett Hospital.
"Most of the stuff that I've seen, since COVID (began), has been more like verbal aggression and verbal abuse," Johnson says. "But (that's) not to say that I haven't been hit or had bodily fluids kind of thrown at me."
Spectrum Health saw more than 650 assaults on its workers in 2021. That's 100 more than in 2020 and nearly double compared to pre-pandemic numbers.
"Those could be verbal, those could be physical, those could be sexual," Chief Operating Officer Brian Brasser says. "What we see through the reporting and responses would be unwanted touching, where it's just absolutely inappropriate, grabbing and pulling hair."
Administrators know their nurses, doctors and support staff might be dealing with a lot more.
"We know that this is traditionally and historically under-reported," Brasser says.
In the last few months, Spectrum Health rolled out safety badges, which can track employees and discreetly call security. Johnson hasn't used hers yet, and she hopes that decreasing COVID-19 case numbers, plus the hospital's BeKind campaign, means people will think about the healthcare workers behind the mask.
"And even if your opinions differ from ours, or you don't you see eye to eye with what's going on in healthcare right now, you know, we're still humans," she says. "I'm someone's wife. I'm someone's daughter. I deserve to be treated like that."
Violence against healthcare workers isn't just happening in COVID-19 units at Spectrum Health, but Johnson says that tension often rises with both patients and family members when it comes to COVID-related policies at the hospital.
Hospital administrators are stressing that charges will be filed when necessary, which has happened a few times last year.
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