1. Do you think Nurse Wubbels acted appropriately by refusing to draw the patient's blood? Explain your reasoning.

2.Why did both Salt Lake City and the hospital contribute to the settlement in this case?

3. The article states: "Lt. James Tracy, a police supervisor who ordered the arrest of the nurse, was demoted to officer and also is appealing. He said he suggested Payne consider handcuffing the nurse and that his superiors had never informed him of the hospital's blood-draw policy, according to appeal documents." Do you think Lt. Tracy's demotion was fair? State your reasoning.

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The nurse was forcefully detained in July by a police officer who has since been fired. The arrest was captured on body camera video and went viral.

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A Utah nurse who was forcefully detained by a police officer in July settled with the University of Utah and Salt Lake City on Tuesday for a total of $500,000.

The rough arrest of the nurse, who had refused the officer's request to draw a sedated patient's blood as part of a police investigation, was captured on body camera video and viewed widely online.

[Video: Arrest of University Hospital nurse Alex Wubbels Watch on YouTube. ]

The tense incident led officials at the hospital run by University of Utah Health to bar police officers from patient-care areas ; the police officer involved, Detective Jeff L. Payne, was eventually fired from his job with the police department and from a part-time job he held as a paramedic.

No charges were filed against the nurse, Alex Wubbels, who said at a news conference on Tuesday that she was "grateful" for the outcome of what she called an "emotional situation."

"This landed in my lap; this is not something I sought out," Ms. Wubbels said, noting that she returned to work about two weeks after the incident. "I'm incredibly humbled at the change that has already happened."

A lawyer for Ms. Wubbels, Karra Porter, declined to explain why she and her client had agreed to settle for $500,000, specifically, or say whether they had sought more money.

"There will be no legal lawsuit," Ms. Porter said at the news conference. "This part of this is over."

A spokesman for the Salt Lake City mayor's office did not reply to an email seeking comment late Wednesday. But the spokesman, Matthew Rojas, told The Deseret News that the city and the university had agreed to split the cost of the settlement and pay $250,000 each.

A spokeswoman for University of Utah Health, Suzanne Winchester, said in a brief telephone interview that she also believed the costs of the settlement had been split "50-50."

"We continue to support Alex Wubbels who is an outstanding nurse and we commend her for putting her patient first," she said in a statement. "This incident has prompted us to modify procedures and retrain staff regarding how law enforcement agencies interface with the university's health care system. Our hope is that the implementation of these new procedures will ensure a situation like this doesn't happen again."

The patient involved, William Gray, died two months after the confrontation between the officer and the nurse. He had not been suspected of wrongdoing; a driver fleeing the police had crashed into Mr. Gray's truck, severely injuring Mr. Gray and killing himself.

At the Tuesday news conference, Ms. Wubbels said she would donate a portion of the settlement money to a new campaign that will help Utah residents obtain body camera footage of any encounter that involves them, free of charge. Ms. Porter said her law firm, Christensen & Jensen, would also provide free legal services to aid the effort.

"This is a small step that we can provide," Ms. Wubbels said. "In this day and age, if a police force doesn't have body cameras, that should be shocking. We all deserve to know the truth. And the truth comes when you see the actual, raw footage and that's what happened in my case."

"These things happen all the time," she added, "and it's not enough to tell your story anymore."

Source URL: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/02/us/utah-nurse-settlement.html?partner=bloomberg

Credit: MATT STEVENS

Word count: 566

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