Hospital carry

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General forum is too crazy to post on right now, so I'll try here.
Wife's a nurse, wants to carry mostly because she leaves work at around midnight and the parking lot is in the back forty. Problem is ,what does she do when she gets to the unit? She doesn't have a locker and shes worried about having to take a patient to MRI with her gun on her.
A locked case in her purse isn't really cutting it, as it wouldn't be under her direct control, though I doubt someone would walk away with it.
I hate being home waiting for her, she has pepper spray but damn, what a crappy option.
Trying to think of some options.
 
If she goes to an MRI suite, my response would be "no way". When they tell you not to carry shit in there, they mean it. Those magnets will suck a gun right out of your holster.

-Mike
 
That's affirmative on drgrant; those magnets will even FIRE a Colt Series 80 with the safetu engaged. Seems to me that she needs to register a serious complaint about where the **** she's supposed to keep her purse while she's working. No need to mention firearms.
 
The story you've heard about the police officer's pistol flying throught the air and discharging in the MRI suite occurred only because he'd taken it into the suite while he was there to get an MRI.
(On the way to the changing room, he'd asked the technologist what to do with his firearm; she told him to keep it with him, and then they both forgot about it. She would have intended to keep it out of the range of the machine, but forgot. He thought it was okay, because she'd said to bring it with him. He laid it on a convenient surface, adjacent to the machine. The technologist didn't notice, and didn't remember to ask about it.)
 
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It's not a teaching hospital is it? If there are medical, nursing or allied health students, then I'd be concerned the hospital would be considered a "gun free zone." Someone please correct me if I'm wrong about this.
 
Most hospitals have a very strict no weapons policy and like DoctorBossman said, she may be prohibited from carrying on the State and/or Federal level as well. How about Pepper Spray? Probably would still be just as prohibited, but if she ever ran into an issue I would think most Police/Managers would be a whole lot more understanding of a female working the nightshift carrying mace vs a female working nightshift carrying 6 hollow points.
 
The MRI machine is ALWAYS on - i.e., the magnetic field is always active, 24/7, even when not scanning a patient. If a patient is so sick that a nurse has to travel with them, the nurse most definitely will need to go into the scanner room with the patient. She should not be carrying concealed to an MRI unit. This is what actually happened to the cop - http://www.ajronline.org/content/178/5/1092.full and this is what a 1.5T magnet can do - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plvIEf7JsKo.
 
She can request that security escort her to her vehicle if she does not feel safe. Kinda lame I know but the Hospital I worked at had employee parking way out in the boonies and had shuttle buses and security escorts.. If they won't it should be a union grievance.
 
The MRI is not on, except when it is.

The story you've heard about the police officer's pistol flying throught the air and discharging in the MRI suite occurred only because he'd taken it into the suite while he was there to get an MRI.
(On the way to the changing room, he'd asked the technologist what to do with his firearm; she told him to keep it with him, and then they both forgot about it. She would have intended to keep it out of the range of the machine, but forgot. He thought it was okay, because she'd said to bring it with him. He laid it on a convenient surface, adjacent to the machine. The technologist didn't notice, and didn't remember to ask about it.) The reason that precautions against (most) metals is taken is so that they are not inadvertantly left behind - and remain - within the MRI suite when the MRI is turned on.

If your wife is not (herself) getting an MRI, she won't be staying within the suite when the machine is turned on, and, if she is carrying in deep concealment - as she would have to to carry within a hospital anyway - she won't be accidentally forgetting her pistol behind in the MRI suite.

THIS IS VERY BAD INFORMATION!!!!

AN MRI MAGNET IS ALWAYS ON!

The magnetic field is never quenched and when it is, such as in an emergency or for service, it can take days to bring it back up.

Do not take chances near an MRI, people can easily be killed.
 
The MRI is not on, except when it is.

Sorry, you're 110% wrong. The MAGNET IS ALWAYS ON. It's retarded to believe otherwise. I know because we have non medical MRI machines at work, and you don't just turn them off with a switch.

-Mike
 
Most hospitals have a no firearms policy in place for all employees, whether on duty or not. She should consult her employee handbook or hospital firearms policy on the hospital intranet. There may be a gray area where the parking lot is concerned though. Whatever she decides, don't ask any management any policy questions, the sheep alarm will be set off.

She should ask for a locker to store her pocketbook in, whether it is close by or not. Things are stolen by employees, patients, family members, and other non employee healthcare workers all of the time. I know of a few employees who store their firearms inside in a locked locker and at shift end, holster up. This could save their life when leaving but at the same time, their job is history if they are called in on the violation.

She should definitely ask for a security escort if she is concerned or walk out with her other coworkers. She can carry pepper spray (again, consult policy), as many do, with her keys in her other hand when leaving. Hospitals are not as safe as one may think they are and your guard should never be let down no matter what time of day it is. The ER and the general patient floors are not just filled with harmless elderly people.
 
Yeah MRI are all ways on.
The nurse messed up and let me keep my belt on. 10-15 mins I had to stop my back was killing me . She came over and the belt Buckle was lifting my back off the table arcing my back. She told me I must be really sick that I didn't notice it sooner.
 
The MRI machine is ALWAYS on - i.e., the magnetic field is always active, 24/7, even when not scanning a patient. If a patient is so sick that a nurse has to travel with them, the nurse most definitely will need to go into the scanner room with the patient. She should not be carrying concealed to an MRI unit. This is what actually happened to the cop - http://www.ajronline.org/content/178/5/1092.full and this is what a 1.5T magnet can do - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plvIEf7JsKo.
I think I still have the Milt Sparks holster that Bill Bartell sold me 30 years ago. It is indeed a small world.

As to nurses carrying - their license is the livlihood, so the possibile non-judicial sanctions are severe.
 
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Unless she can get a locker, it's a no go. As stated, MRI's DO NOT shut off. They drop in power, but to bring them down, you need to drain tens of thousands of dollars sub-zero refrigerant from it.

I got ran through an MRI with staples in my knee. No one ever told me I had them, my knee was wrapped from a procedure, and no one thought checking was a good idea. Bad day.
 
My wife's in a similar boat although her dilemma tends the be the opposite as it's dark when she's arriving and light when she leaves. She'll typically coordinate with a coworker or two to walk in. Although pepper spray is considered a weapon and is against hospital policy, most all of them carry it or a similar substance. They come in nice pleasing colors now that don't alert management unless they have a hair across their ass and are looking for the shape.

Security will escort people out if asked, but most of them are either geriatric or pushing 300 pounds and failed at mall cop employment.

Fitz
 
Our hospital doesnt even let off duty LEOs carry firearms into the hospital ...
Hospital security should always be willing to escort you to your car, otherwise that is something worth filing a complaint over.
 
Thanks for the replies.
Definitely doesn't matter if the MRI is always on or not, she has to go in the unit itself alot w/very sick pt's.
Waiting for security to escort her out is an option but not always possible/long wait. Union grievance, lol! (She works per diem 16+/- hours/week, didn't work for almost a year after our third son. 700$ check just went out for back dues. Yeah, they care.)
I don't think the hospital has a policy on CCW, trying to get more info on that. I think she could care less if they gave her a hard time anyway.
Shes going to have to score a locker, thats really the only feasible way to do it.
I've gained a whole new appreciation of what women go through daily this past decade of marriage. I get very confused by women who speak in favor of gun control.
 
It's not a teaching hospital is it? If there are medical, nursing or allied health students, then I'd be concerned the hospital would be considered a "gun free zone." Someone please correct me if I'm wrong about this.

Absolutly key here. If it's got a .edu anywhere, the hospital has the choice of declaring itself an "educational institution". I have the same issue where I work. It's a non-profit, but since there *are* students there, I can't carry. (All I can do is leave it locked up in the car. )
 
I was under the impression (from the Mass Law threads) that a teaching hospital is, at worst, a grey area at this point and there is not case law to back it up one way or another.

Second, why did the cop's gun discharge just because it hit the MRI machine hard? Is it because it was a piece of crap 1911 variant? #stirringthepot
 
It sucks that we have to go through all the BS to get a license, then once we do, we have to spend the rest of the time making sure we know ALL the ways they can take it away from us. One mistake and poof, bye bye license hello criminal charges, attorneys fee's etc....Especially in MASS where the laws are so f*kd up here they'll make your head spin!
 
It sucks that we have to go through all the BS to get a license, then once we do, we have to spend the rest of the time making sure we know ALL the ways they can take it away from us. One mistake and poof, bye bye license hello criminal charges,

...like some twisted game of Simon Says, but with real life consequences.

I tell people who don't get it, imagine if the punishment for doing 56 MPH was you lose your license. FOREVER. Do a Hollywood at an intersection? FELONY - year in jail.
 
General forum is too crazy to post on right now, so I'll try here.
Wife's a nurse, wants to carry mostly because she leaves work at around midnight and the parking lot is in the back forty. Problem is ,what does she do when she gets to the unit? She doesn't have a locker and shes worried about having to take a patient to MRI with her gun on her.
A locked case in her purse isn't really cutting it, as it wouldn't be under her direct control, though I doubt someone would walk away with it.
I hate being home waiting for her, she has pepper spray but damn, what a crappy option.
Trying to think of some options.

How hard would it be for her to get a locker? The hospital my wife works in provides lockers for all nurses, she just needs to provide the padlock.
 
I was under the impression (from the Mass Law threads) that a teaching hospital is, at worst, a grey area at this point and there is not case law to back it up one way or another.

Second, why did the cop's gun discharge just because it hit the MRI machine hard? Is it because it was a piece of crap 1911 variant? #stirringthepot

Pre Series-80 or Schwarz Safety (different system) 1911s use an intertial firing ping that is not affirmative locked in place when the trigger isn't pulled. Such guns can go off when dropped onto a hard surface or when whacked with an MRI machine. I believe the Bartell paper indicates that the gun actually went off with the safety applied.

And no, it was not a "piece of crap" - just older technology.
 
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