COLUMBIA – Danielle Jensinger is a travel psychiatric nurse with seven years of experience. On Dec. 15, Jensinger was assaulted by a patient at University Hospital while she was at work and was left with bruising on her head. According to court documents, video camera footage showed the patient running up to Jensinger and grabbing her hair, before slamming her head to the floor several times.
The patient, identified as Cody Douglass, 38, was later charged with third-degree assault on a special victim. He’s being held without bond at the Boone County Jail.
“I remember seeing the floor as he was hitting me,” Jensinger said. “And I was just thinking about my daughter, because I have a 3 year old. And I was just thinking, ‘I don’t want to be here. I just want to be home. Am I going to see her again?’ The whole thing was 30 seconds, but it [felt] like five minutes.”
Jensinger is not alone. According to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, 13.2% of nurses per year experience a physical assault, and 38.8% of nurses per year face non-physical violence, like threats, sexual harassment and verbal abuse.
According to Jensinger, there were “several failures” at University Hospital that might have contributed to her assault.
“In looking back, and talking to some coworkers, this had sort of been the patient’s M.O.,” Jensinger said. “This wasn’t the first time he had been menacingly staring at staff and having to be redirected from the nurses station. So, finding that out after the fact, is frustrating to me because I feel like it could have been avoided had he been properly medicated.”
She acknowledged she’s not a doctor and she can’t prescribe medication, but she said with her years of experience, she’s been able to recognize that some medications work better than others.
“I feel like a number of these incidents that you read about, or hear about, that I talk to people about, can definitely be avoided had the [patients] been properly medicated,” Jensinger said. “So, that to me is a failure in the system.”
Jeinsinger also said the “team nursing approach” utilized in the Missouri Psychiatric Center, where nurses are rotated regularly across units within the ward, prevents her from forming meaningful connections with her patients.
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“You don’t know these patients, you don’t know them like you would if you had a set team of patients that you had been following for the day,” Jensinger said.
When Jensinger returned from her scheduled winter vacation, which occurred after the assault, she said she was not put back on the schedule, despite that she was cleared for work after Jan. 2.
She said she was told this was because of her required medical accommodations post-assault. However, she maintains that the accommodations (frequent breaks every four hours, patient must remain seated at work, and no strenuous pushing or pulling of objects) would have no impact on her job performance.
“I pretty much have a desk job, for the most part,” Jensinger said. “[The accommodations are] not telling me I can’t go on the floor. It’s not telling me not to interact with patients. It’s just telling me no strenuous pushing or pulling, and the [University Hospital] is saying they can’t accommodate that. And I don’t understand it.”
Jensinger said she’s been left in a very difficult situation. While she and her husband had budgeted for their two-week vacation, she was not prepared to go longer than that without pay.
“I’m not getting any of my per diem. I’m not getting paid stipends of any kind, and I’m not able to provide for my family because they’re not allowing me to return to my job,” Jensinger said. “And so I’m in limbo, stuck talking to my recruiter to try and figure out what’s going on, because the hospital didn’t also verbalize or put into any kind of words that they’re canceling my contract. So technically, I’m still under contract, but I’m not able to work. So what am I supposed to do?”
In an email, MU Health Care provided the following response:
“Safety is a top priority at MU Health Care. When incidents such as the one you describe occur, we offer treatment and support and follow our established protocols.
“It’s important to note that the travel nurse identified is not an MU Health Care employee. MU Health Care contracts with a managed service provider to set up agreements with external agencies that provide travel nurses to staff 235 hard-to-fill nursing positions at MU Health Care.”