Of all professions, how did healthcare providers ever become the occupation that is overwhelmingly the most likely to be assaulted in the workplace? Even in wartime, hospitals are respected as neutral-zones by all but the most ruthless despots.

The normalization of violence in healthcare environments to the point of it becoming an expectation or seen literally as inevitable, has only precipitated it.

Machismo, though increasingly omnipresent, has no real place in the helping professions. Tragically, real strength (i.e., inner) and toughness are too often confused with harshness and apathy. In nursing, the introduction of more male staff and higher-wages over the past few decades helped lead to an adrenalizing of the profession and a drift from its true roots in charity as an avocation that chose you, not that one chose.

It is high time that clear limits be redrawn. All acts of violence (both by clients and staff) are unilaterally unacceptable. Hospitals and clinics are no place for combat. In fact, they are and remain places of healing.

Schoolyard swagger and biting banter should not be rewarded by the professional peer-group (whether passively or actively), but instead left where they belong— in adolescence. The posturing and bullying of those in positions of authority should be reviled for what they are: immature and excessive abuses of power.

Though the system may be failing, the people within it need not. The relationship between patient and "doctor/healer" should not be an adversarial one. They and we are their allies.

We are paid to voluntarily put the other`s needs ahead of our own. And the primary reason that we are paid is to provide care-- not for the ones we like and/or approve of-- but for the most difficult patients, who would otherwise probably receive no care at all were it not for the financial incentive.

Our professional existence is predicated on helping, not fighting with people.

Anyone with intentions otherwise, is inarguably in the wrong occupation and should look for more appropriate outlets (e.g., law-enforcement, military, et al). Sadly, many have conducted entire careers believing that their way is the only way and, more distressingly, that they are "good" at their jobs. Even worse yet, they have often served as models for others to follow.

It is imperative that these masks of cynicism be torn off unfailingly until those beneath are revealed in all of their inadequacy: for not having cared enough to develop their interpersonal-skills and philosophical framework more fully and fittingly to the larger task at hand: providing aid to others in need.

What animals can teach us about peace, love, and understanding

How we don`t need to win ever battle (...and probably aren`t even at war to begin with)

Stopping Crises Before They Happen

Man`s Man: How to "Kick Ass" without kicking ass

Sexual Stealing: Knowing "No" Means No (rape prevention)

Undepressing: How to make friends with a f*\%ed-up world

Mental: Meditations on a life spent in the loony-bin

Peacemaker: How not to lose your s#&+ ...no matter what!