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Connecticut nurse’s murder sparks urgent call for improved safety measures in health care

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  • The homicide of Connecticut nurse Joyce Grayson throughout a house go to in October has sparked considerations about violence in opposition to well being care employees.
  • Grayson, a 63-year-old nurse and mom of 6, was murdered whereas offering treatment to a person with a violent previous in a midway home for intercourse offenders.
  • The suspect, Michael Reese, a convicted rapist, was taken into custody on expenses of violating probation, larceny and drug paraphernalia use.

The killing of a Connecticut nurse making a home name in October was a nightmare come true for an trade gripped by the concern of violence.

Already stressed by staffing shortages and mounting caseloads, heath care employees are more and more worrying about the potential of a affected person changing into violent – a state of affairs that’s too widespread and on the rise nationwide.

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Joyce Grayson, a 63-year-old mom of six, went right into a midway home for intercourse offenders in late October, to present treatment to a person with a violent previous. She did not make it out alive.

Joyce Grayson

Joyce Grayson, a visiting nurse, was killed in a midway home for intercourse offenders in Willimantic, Conn. on Oct. 28, 2023. The dying of the 63-year-old mom of six is sparking renewed calls to higher shield well being care employees from a wave of violent assaults throughout the nation. (Kyle Ellsworth by way of AP)

Police discovered her physique within the basement and have named her affected person as the primary suspect in her killing.

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Grayson’s dying has her friends and lawmakers renewing their yearslong pleas for higher protections for house well being care employees, together with sending them out with escorts and offering extra details about their sufferers. The calls come throughout an period of accelerating violence in opposition to medical professionals typically.

“I used to enter some fairly dangerous neighborhoods,” stated Tracy Wodatch, a visiting nurse and chief government of the Connecticut Affiliation of Healthcare at Dwelling. She stated she used to name the police and get an officer to escort her when she felt unsafe. However, due to funds and staffing points, that is not an choice, she stated.

Grayson, who had been a nurse for over 36 years together with the final 10 as a visiting nurse, was discovered lifeless Oct. 28 within the Willimantic midway home. She didn’t return from a go to to affected person Michael Reese, a convicted rapist. No expenses have been filed within the killing but.

“It’s all nurses are excited about proper now, even the hospital nurses as a result of they’ve had so many shut calls,” stated Connecticut state Sen. Martha Marx, a visiting nurse and New London Democrat who is looking for adjustments in each state and federal legal guidelines.

Marx stated she was as soon as despatched to a house and didn’t discover out till she talked to purchasers there that it was a residence for intercourse offenders. Typically, if a nurse asks for a chaperone, the company will merely reassign the work to a different worker who gained’t “make waves,” she stated.

Grayson’s dying happened 11 months after one other visiting nurse, Douglas Brant, was shot to dying throughout a house go to in Spokane, Washington — a killing that additionally drew requires security reforms, together with federal requirements on stopping office violence.

Whereas killings are uncommon, nursing trade teams say non-fatal violence in opposition to well being care employees shouldn’t be. From 2011 to 2018, the speed of non-fatal violence in opposition to well being care employees elevated greater than 60%, in response to the newest evaluation by the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.

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In actual fact, the variety of non-fatal accidents from office violence involving well being care employees has been greater than that of different industries for years, in response to the bureau.

In a survey launched in late 2022 by the Nationwide Nurses United, the most important union of registered nurses within the U.S., 41% of hospital nurses reported a rise in latest office violence incidents, up from 30% in September 2021.

“I knew a house well being aide who received punched within the abdomen,” stated Ha Do Byon, a former visiting nurse and now a nursing professor on the College of Virginia, who has been finding out violence in opposition to house well being care employees. “Many extra nurses received bitten, kicked, or slapped by their sufferers or members of the family within the sufferers’ properties. Some have been attacked by vicious canines or have been known as names or sworn at. Notably, the vast majority of these employees have been feminine.”

Byon stated particular statistics on visiting nurses has been missing and he has been engaged on enhancing the information.

“There’s no method house well being employees needs to be despatched into any individual’s house or condo by themselves,” stated U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney, a Democrat who represents the congressional district the place Grayson was killed. “You need to have techniques and instruments to cut back the danger.”

Courtney has been pushing laws since 2019 that will arrange federal rules requiring well being care and social service employers to develop and implement complete office violence prevention plans. Whereas a number of states require such prevention plans, there isn’t any federal legislation, trade teams say.

He says the issue highlighted by Grayson’s case is not only about security, but additionally about attracting and retaining well being care employees, lots of whom really feel the job is simply too harmful.

“It’s truthfully an enormous issue when it comes to the burnout that employers are so involved about, ” Courtney stated.

Marx needs to see legal guidelines requiring safety escorts for nurses in some circumstances, and for police to offer caregivers frequently up to date lists of addresses the place violent crime has occurred. She additionally stated sufferers’ charts needs to be flagged to alert nurses about previous incidents of violence, in the event that they’re registered intercourse offenders and different data.

Grayson was a nurse for the Connecticut Division of Psychological Well being and Dependancy Companies for 26 years earlier than serving as a visiting nurse for over a decade, in response to her household. She additionally was a beloved foster mother or father, taking in practically three dozen kids and being honored with the state’s Foster Guardian of the 12 months award in 2017.

What precisely Grayson knew about Reese and the midway home in Willimantic is one in all many unanswered questions within the case.

Her employer, Elara Caring, stated Grayson had Reese’s medical file earlier than she went there, however it declined to say what data was within the file, citing medical privateness legal guidelines.

Elara, which gives house look after greater than 60,000 sufferers in 17 states, says it’s reviewing its security protocols and speaking to staff about what extra is required. Scott Powers, chairman and chief government, stated firm employees have been shocked and grieving over Grayson’s dying.

The corporate stated it had safeguards in place when Grayson was killed. This contains working with states to make sure sufferers, together with ex-cons, are deemed secure by state officers to be cared for locally and coaching for workers to organize them for such purchasers. It declined to enter deeper particulars about its safety protocols, citing the investigation into Grayson’s dying.

Police nonetheless have not stated how Grayson died, and the health worker’s workplace stated post-mortem outcomes stay pending. Willimantic’s police chief, Paul Hussey, known as the killing one of many worst circumstances he has seen in his 27 years in legislation enforcement.

Reese, who was on probation after serving greater than 14 years in jail for stabbing and sexually assaulting a lady in 2006 in New Haven, was taken into police custody whereas leaving the midway home on the day Grayson was killed. He was launched from jail in late 2020 and was despatched again to detention two occasions for violating probation, state information present.

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Authorities stated he had a few of Grayson’s belongings, together with bank cards, and was charged with violating probation, larceny and utilizing drug paraphernalia. He’s detained on $1 million bail. A public defender listed in courtroom information as representing Reese didn’t return emails looking for remark.

Grayson’s household is devastated and is looking for solutions to an array of questions, together with if there have been failures of oversight by the state Division of Correction, state probation officers and the corporate that runs the midway home. Additionally they need to know whether or not Elara Caring adequately protected her, in response to their lawyer, Kelly Reardon, who stated a lawsuit is deliberate.

“They have been extraordinarily involved that it was preventable,” Reardon stated. “They actually felt from the get-go that there have been failings within the system that led to this and so they need that to be investigated.”

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