US hospitals outfitting nurses with panic buttons to prevent assaults

Violence against healthcare workers from patients and families has increased during the pandemic

In 2019, Laura Paul, a registered nurse, was seeing a sedated patient in the intensive care unit at Cox Medical Center Branson in south-west Missouri when he went from out cold to swinging in a matter of seconds," she said.

Paul, a house supervisor who moves among different units of the hospital, tried to dodge the patient's attack and screamed for help.