Processing Patient Pain
Monday afternoon, the Colorado Springs City Council made some decisions in an informal meeting about Memorial Hospital’s future. Members agreed that on Tuesday they will formally discuss accepting or denying the task force recommendation to let the University Of Colorado Hospital lease Memorial Hospital. Members will also discuss negotiations with U.C.H. about the deal. Ultimately you still have to vote on the proposal in the future once the deal is set in stone.
District Attorney Dan May is concerned about one little known component of the proposal that hasn’t been firmly ironed out, yet. It’s the Forensic Nurses unit at Memorial Hospital These are ten registered nurses with specialized training to deal with certain victims of violent crime. That includes survivors of domestic violence, child abuse, elder abuse and human trafficking. The Memorial Hospital Forensic Nurses Unit is the only full time, in hospital team like this in Southern Colorado.
These specialized nurses help process evidence. Dan May told me, “It’s important to have trained specialists who know how to deal with the victims, collect evidence and know how to testify in court.”
Forensic Nurse Kim Nash says, “Sometimes when you go through the legal proceedings, you get re-victimized if this person is not feeling understood. We know this is the first step in the process, but we want to have them have a healthy step in the right direction.”
May summed up the worth of this forensic nurse team by saying, “If the victim of a rape goes to a hospital and gets mistreated, they may not want to cooperate with us through out the rest of the system. I may not be able to convict the rapist.”
I called reps with the University of Colorado Hospital to get a firm commitment about the Forensic Unit’s future. All a spokesperson would tell me is “We plan to continue this program at Memorial Hospital as a service to the Colorado Springs Community.” I will keep monitoring this unit as Memorial’s lease continues to go through the system and if it gets approved.
