D1 is not a med students; she’s PGY4 and will graduate from residency in 2 weeks. D1 had been an AEMT before med school and had handled combative patients. So she’s not surprised by the violence, but she is rather disgusted by commonplaceness of the assaults against medical personnel. It’s at the point that most medical staff never even bother reporting assaults because nothing ever gets done about it. Also the perception is–at least among physicians & nurses–is the number and severity of assaults against medical personnel has increased sharply over the past 5 years.
But I do agree that pre-meds need to spend more time working on the wards instead of working in a research lab.