"ED experience"

I accompanied my spouse to the emergency department on a weekend night. The Nurses and doctors where amazing and I have no complaints about service. However, I wanted to highlight a lack of safety for both staff and clients within the ED environment. 

Luckily the ED waiting area was not very busy. There was my spouse and I, an older patient with a disability (physical and cognitive) who had been seen and was waiting for their carer to collect them and a middle aged patient who appeared to be under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

The older patient decided to move chairs and was then in direct eye contact of the middle aged patient. The older patient made a comment, that the middle aged patient took offense to and started swearing at them. A verbal argument began and the nurse came out to distract the older patient by taking their Obs. The nurse asked the older patient to move seats so they were not looking at the middle aged patient who seemed quite erratic and distressed at this point.

The nurse stood between them to block each others view, with their back turned to the middle aged patient. The nurse kept looking into the triage station  to get the attention of the second nurse, however they were busy triaging a new couple and hadn't noticed the altercation. It seemed evident the nurse wanted to activate a duress alarm but wanted to stay between the two clients. The nurse eventually moved into the nurses station, activated a code black and returned to position herself between the two and security arrived a couple of minutes later. As a health employee myself, I was shocked that an ED nurse would not carry a mobile duress alarm or that security was not automatically present in an ED on a weekend night.