The Salt Lake City and Sand (Utah) police departments partnered with the Utah Nurses Association Thursday to announce a new policy to clarify how nurses and law enforcement officers should interact, according to the Salt Lake Tribune.
The policy comes after a highly-publicized altercation between a nurse at Salt Lake City-based University of Utah Hospital and a Salt Lake City police officer in July. After refusing the officer's request to draw blood from an unconscious patient, the nurse was arrested and dragged out of the hospital.
The new policy insists police officers check in with the nurse in charge and hospital security guards when they arrive at the emergency room. Additionally, police must obtain permission for supervisors if they need to see patients in a different area of the hospital.
"[This policy] gives nurses a little reassurance that they now have a strict plan, and, with that plan, the intent is that nurses will not leave the hospital in handcuffs," Aimee McClean, BSN, president of the UNA, told the Salt Lake Tribune.