Hospital Security

When you work security at a small hospital, your duties vary. Often job training comes to you on the spot. You have to be ready to adjust to the needs of patients, doctors, nurses, and visitors. The word security seems far removed at times from the job description.

Frequently, those working as protectors find themselves glorified babysitters. When intoxicated individuals find their way into the ER, their condition is not always a crisis situation, and often there are more critical issues facing staff. That is when security is summoned to keep those patients under control until doctors are available. When trying to reason with a drunk, more than security abilities are obviously needed.

Occasionally a nurse calls for help to deal with family members of a patient who have become loud or obnoxious. Doctors generally depend on security to be available to help with individual restraint situations. Visitors expect safety in hallways and parking lots. Another aspect of security is meeting emergency helicopters on the rooftop and assisting when needed with their arrivals and departures. Locking doors and checking stairways are routine for those who are often paid less than they are worth.

Perhaps the unique thing one small Midwestern hospital's security staff learned was how to contend with Emily. She was never seen, but her activities were famous. Televisions mysteriously came on in empty rooms; equipment was rearranged, and footsteps could be heard when no one was around.

Emily was a lady who had died at the hospital. It seems that when her body was taken away by the undertaker, her spirit refused to follow. I suppose she had taken a liking to something or someone at the hospital.

In the days and months that followed, when the television strangely came on while housekeeping was cleaning an empty room, they turned off the TV, admonished Emily, and told her to leave the TV alone. She was obedient … until next time. She was never mean, and she never hurt anyone; she only liked to keep the employees guessing and on their toes.

One new security guard found out firsthand about Emily one night as he was checking an empty office building belonging to the hospital. He was making his rounds, when he heard noises above him on the second floor of the vacant building. He had heard of Emily, but hadn't yet met her personally, and he didn't wait around to be formally introduced. He hastened back to the hospital's main building, all the while wondering what exactly his role as a security guard entailed when it came to spectral visitors.

Yes, it is true, when you work security in a small town hospital you just never know what your duties are going to entail or with whom you are going to have to deal!

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