They've Got Game
Ballpark RNs slide in to rescue players and baseball fans when injuries occur

By Rebecca Ray
June 21, 2004

As a nursing student in Dubuque, Iowa, Ruth Allen, RN, would slip out the window and sneak past the nuns to attend Chicago White Sox games. Fortunately, those days are long gone. For the past 25 years, she has combined her passions for nursing and baseball by working in California as a nurse at Oakland A’s games.

A handful of nurses across the United States work part time at what they call their “fun jobs” — major league baseball games. During each home game, these nurses tend to fans whose ailments range from minor scrapes to broken limbs to cardiac arrest. Once in a while, some of the nurses, such as those who work for the San Diego Padres, even treat the players.

“You never know what’s going to walk through the door,” said Isabelle White, RN, who, like Allen, is a nursing supervisor for the A’s.

For the A’s and Padres nurses, the most common injuries are falls and abrasions, and the most common treatments are Band-Aids and ice packs. But the nurses also have treated more serious — even life-threatening — injuries.

Allen recalls a man who came to the A’s nurses station without assistance and said he was having a heart attack. >>

He died after he was transported to the hospital. However, his family told the nurses he was a devoted baseball fan who would have wanted it that way.

Padres nurse Mary Meadows-Pitt, RN, remembers a fan who lost an eye when he was hit with a foul ball. The impact ruptured the man’s eyeball.

But despite such freak occurrences, the medical professionals at the Padres games have a “very good” patient save rate, Meadows-Pitt said, because they can respond to problems right away. The A’s nurses see only about two heart attacks per season, Allen said, because the fans are outside breathing plenty of oxygen.

On and off the field

During a game, the A’s typically have one or two first-aid stations at the 45,177-capacity Network Associates Coliseum, depending on the size of the crowd. One nursing supervisor is at each station, as well as a paramedic and an emergency medical technician who work for American Medical Response, which is contracted with the A’s organization. A medic and an EMT also are stationed on the field to tend to umpire, coach, and player injuries.

A dispatcher radioes the nurses when an emergency arises. The nurses, in turn, tell AMR and dispatch a medic and EMT, who are the first on the scene.

The medic and EMT then decide whether to bring the patient to the nurse, who treats the patient and decides whether he or she should be taken to the hospital.

The Padres’ system is more extensive, with three first-aid stations and five nurses at each game at the 42,000-capacity Petco Park. Two EMTs, who are contracted with San Diego Medical Services, one physician, and one nurse are at each station. Additionally, a charge nurse receives calls and dispatches the EMT crews, and a nurse is stationed in the dugout.

Meadows-Pitt says the first-aid stations are like emergency rooms, with their crash carts and drugs. The teams of medical professionals can literally care for a patient as they do in the hospital until the ambulance arrives, she said.

The most exciting job is the dugout nurse, according to Meadows-Pitt. During an emergency, the team physician and trainers are usually first on the field. If necessary, the dugout nurse brings full life-support equipment.

The nurse treats the more serious injuries, such as respiratory and cardiac arrest, while a physician tends to the more common sports injuries like pulled muscles.

Meadows-Pitt describes the dugout position as being “the prime spot to watch the game” because you’re near the players. However, Padres nurse Linda Rosenberg, RN, manager of the prehospital department at Sharp Memorial Hospital in San Diego, says she prefers the charge nurse role because it allows her to roam the stadium, and she enjoys triaging and coordinating medical personnel.

The nurses have been able to use their positions to educate the community, too. White and Allen have counseled A’s fans about their blood pressure, diabetes, eating habits, and medications, and have even made referrals for drug and alcohol problems.

Padres fans who do not have insurance have asked the nurses for medical advice. “You do a lot of education, and I like doing that,” Rosenberg said. “It’s a positive for nursing, and it’s a really fun way to bring nursing into the public.”

Meadows-Pitt joked, “It’s probably the only place where you can get free medical care.”

Three nurses work for the A’s and 17 work for the Padres. The Padres nurses typically work two to eight games a month and are paid per game during the 88 home games during spring training and the regular season.

Unlike other teams, where nurses work under physicians who are contracted with the organization, the A’s and Padres nurses are hired directly by their respective organizations. White, who has been a nurse since 1964, says the increased independence is what nurses want at that point in their careers.

Word of mouth

Many nurses hear about ballpark nursing positions through word of mouth. Janie Taylor, RN, BSN, MSMA, nurse coordinator/managing EMS for the Padres, heard about her job from a coworker, while the A’s and Padres hired Allen and Meadows-Pitt, respectively, after they filled in for friends.

Just about every ballpark nurse has emergency department experience. Taylor is director of emergency trauma and ambulatory services at Sharp Memorial and Meadows-Pitt is base hospital nurse coordinator for the ED at Grossmont Hospital in La Mesa, Calif.

The Padres organization requires that its nurses be mobile intensive care nurse-certified by San Diego County.

White works in the intensive care unit at Children’s Hospital Oakland, while Allen also has ED and ICU experience. Both nurses are certified in basic life support and pediatric advanced life support.

Meadows-Pitt says she doesn’t believe anyone is a ballpark nurse for the money. As an A’s nurse, Allen makes less than half of what she earns as a psychiatric administrative nurse for Alameda County Medical Center. However, the pay is “definitely competitive,” she said, especially since nurses’ salaries have increased in recent years.

But ballpark nursing brings more than monetary rewards. Padres nurses can request 40 free Padres tickets a season, while A’s nurses can request two free tickets for each game.

Allen also has met A’s players and received several autographed baseballs.

But perhaps the biggest reward is the appreciation from the fans, who often come back and thank the nurses for their treatment. White and Allen have developed personal relationships with several A’s fans. Allen even has a “fan club” of about 100 who know her personally.

One fan Allen knows is a man who sits up in one of the higher sections of the Coliseum and recently had a biopsy. He never thought he’d be able to see a game in person again, but he’s been back to the ballpark several times. For him, Allen says, baseball was better medicine than taking a pill any day.

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