Rochelle Christopher and Earlene Wilkinson make up the team responsible for security at King Edward VII Memorial Hospital (KEMH) and their no nonsense attitude is renowned amongst staff and patients alike.

The security department is responsible for the safety of over 2,000 employees and patients at KEMH, as well as co-ordinating security programmes at the Mid Atlantic Wellness Institute.

Ms Christopher started her career 23 years ago as a registered nurse at KEMH and has held various managerial positions.

She enjoys the daily challenges, describing herself as a go-getter who always knew she wanted to work in a health care setting.

?After leaving nursing, I moved into the quality and risk management department and that involved dealing with risk issues for the hospital,? she explains.

She took over her current position as mitigation and safety manager almost a year ago.

Ms Christopher agrees that this position is sometimes thought of as male-orientated, but sees no reason why women can?t handle any situation as well, if not better than a man.

Ms Wilkinson, brought on board a year ago to deal with security, fire and car park issues, agrees.

?Women are more considerate than men and we deal with different issues in a completely different way,? she chuckles.

?That?s important when you work in a hospital environment because we deal with death and serious injuries and I offer a shoulder to many people.?

The health environment is new to Ms Wilkinson, who before taking up her current position, spent nine years working in security at Bermuda International Airport.

She says she enjoys working in her field: ?It?s becoming more of a challenge because of the change in our society. I deal with a lot more severe and different cases than I did at the airport.?

Ms Christopher adds, ?You have to be sensitive to people, but you also have to be strong. You don?t want people to think of you as the weaker sex.?

Both women agree that there has been only one incident in which they both found themselves concerned for their own safety.

Ms Wilkinson describes the situation.

?One afternoon this man came to lodge a complaint about security. He was all over the place and talking about everything but the issue.

?He was getting very agitated and upset and we realised that it was just the two of us in the office with him and if he did decide to fly off the handle, well there wouldn?t be much we could do.?

Ms Christopher continues how important it was to shift gears and convinced the man to leave and return once he had calmed down.

She points out that it is important for them to be on their toes 24/7: ?The escalation of violence in Bermuda, especially amongst the youth, poses a considerable risk factor to the hospital.?

But she adds that so far there has never been an incident at the hospital in which a staff member has been threatened.