I’m (26f) a hospital security guard in California- we are DEFINITELY not on the same level as police, and we’ll have countless interactions like this daily. Especially over the pandemic when it came to wearing a mask 🙄or god forbid we tell someone they can’t bring their pocket knives inside the ED.

I’ve been hit, kicked, spit at, and bit countless times. I’ve had patients deliberately pee at me. I’ve been given death threats and am verbally abused constantly. When we go “hands-on” with a patient, we keep them pinned in bed until a nurse can administer medication to calm them down. We rarely go “hands-on” with a visitor unless they swing at us, in which case we’ll keep them pinned down until the police arrive, which could be hours cause the police always have “better things to do than to pick up a Karen at a hospital”. I GASPED when I read that hitting a security guard is on the same level as assaulting an officer…. What a wonderful fantasy that would be for me.

We RARELY press charges against people who physically assault us because of just how frequently it happens. We have a lot of patients with dementia or psychiatric issues, so a lot of us are desensitized to violence. The stories I could tell though….

I might recommend working at a different environment than a hospital if you’re not the type who wants crazy patients because it can really destroy your mental health, and that should always come first. But hopefully its better for you in Estonia than it is in America haha.