Nurses Face Physical Assault from Patients

submitted by /u/papi4445 [link] [comments]

“Hi everyone! I’m looking for advice for what happened and if this was handled correctly. So my patient was disoriented x 4 due to sepsis. He was a very complex pt and we truly don’t know what is causing this change in mentation. He hadn’t slept in days and was very restless despite giving him multiple doses of Ativan and diuladid during my shift. While he was restless, he was never a physical threat. I was assessing his IV site leaning over his bed when he grabbed my stethoscope as hard as he co”

“I’m relatively new to the ED (one year), and I’ve seen the full range of patients by now. Today was the first time I had a patient get physically violent with me, since I can usually deescalate pretty well. This one was in police custody but he was very kind and respectful for our full interaction until it all happened in a split second. I’m not actually injured at all (I’m confident I won’t have issue except a bruise or two). It’s not the physical injury itself, I just feel beyond defeated. I g”

The guy would have been kicked off my floor before he could even blink.

“Yeah, they should have called security on him, and had him removed from the hospital. The fuckwit was given WAY too much grace.”

“I was assaulted at work yesterday by an extremely strong patient with dementia. They have been on our unit for months , with extensive documentation of physically violent behaviours that require 24/7 physical and chemical restraints to keep staff safe. Yesterday, I went into the room with four staff to complete a pad change. The patient was in a PINEL as usual. We were kicked and punched, and the patient managed to grab a bag from the window ledge, which they used to whip me with before throwing”

“Crazy. The violent ones are awful and if someone brandished a weapon I’m running far away until the police sort it out. Sounds like hell to me”

“I’m an ER nurse at level 2 inner city hospital. We all know EMTALA. But WHY can we not ban certain extreme behavioral patients…. Ex Pt AND family are know to bring guns into the hospital and have pulled them on staff more than once. So Paul Blart mall cop at the door and a violence flag??? I know WHY we can’t, this is just a rant because the way HCPs are treated is horrendous. This is a Pandora’s box of issue. Thanks for coming to my ted talk submitted by /u/Tiny_Paper7811 [link] &#3”

“Press charges. At our hospital they can put a flag/alert on the chart and if it is bad enough, the patient has to be escorted to their appointments by campus police. That being said, I usually only see the occasional behaviour flag. We had one patient act out and we had to clear our procedure room pre-op area of all other patients because our patients was acting so badly. He still got his procedure done but was cited two tickets by the police. Had another incident where our patient sent a letter”

“Absolutely press charges. Some people are jaded and just accept this as part of the job. It's not. I had a psych patient grab my butt while I got his vitals. I pressed charges and he went to jail, got probation which he violated, and then spent more time in jail.”

“Over 30 years in ER and never once attacked. Mind you I am male and somewhat imposing BUT I would be pressing charges so fast their head would spin. Why? Because…paper trail. Injuries may show up later related to this, you need a record. They may do it again to someone else, it shows a pattern. And mainly it lets the public know we are not to be fucked with when we are just doing our jobs. What would a cop or fire fighter do? They’d report it.”

“Press charges. It is not part of our job to be assaulted. And yes file a workplace injury report as well.”

“IMO, If assault on a healthcare worker carried the same penalties as assault on a police officer, people would get the idea pretty quickly that you don't do it.”

If they are not insane just raging I would press charges.

“That’s not baptism by fire, that’s bs. That’s like saying it’s okay to be regularly hit by patients.”

Absolutely press charges

“Yea so I'm a new grad and my pt threw me to the ground.... is this what some call baptism by fire? Half of the people are saying I should press charges and half are saying not. How often does this happen? submitted by /u/1wantt0g0h0me [link] [comments]”

“Also call the police and ask them to come to your house to take the report because you have received a blow to the head which broke the skin”

“File police report. Go get psych evaluated. Get FMLA through psychiatrist. Go through ortho for possible PT”

“My patient attacked me last night when I went to hang an antibiotic for him. He had no signs of violent behavior or psychosis before then, but he basically went completely nuts when I started scanning the IV bag for whatever reason that we hadn't assessed yet. I really didn't have an easy way out because both the room door and bathoom were on the other side of the bed. I pulled the call light out of the wall and screamed like hell, but it felt like it took everyone awhile to respond (in”

“I called the police on a patient who threatened to hurt me. He was in my face. Long story short, I filed a report. OX3. My boss was pissed! He said I made the hospital look bad by calling the police. Nobody on my side, except the day doc that came in on days to round. Transferred him out to another facility. God bless him. I did press charges. If confused, that's one thing. But oriented and a A-hole? Never again. I'm so sick of management telling us to "expect" it.”

“This is such bullshit lol I am in pain daily and my health condition causes very painful things to happen and so have never ever even gotten an attitude with the people taking care of me. Granted I don’t ever go in for pain unless it’s something that’s 10/10 that I can’t manage which hasn’t happened yet because I have adequate pain relief at home. Unless this woman has dementia there’s no excuse for treating her nurse this way when she was just trying to do her job. We give way too many people a”

“Next time, when assaulted by a patient and you're asked if you want to press charges, say yes.”

So you’re not a nurse

“Seconded. Why the fuck are we allowing people to assault us?!”

“This. Enough of the behavior sticker charts and time outs. Time to set some examples.”

“File a police report immediately as well as a variance report, and hospital Security. The police report is very important. I would also talk with my manager, tell them (not ask) that you will not be entering this room again and review policies so if they give you bs you know it isn’t outside policy. If you are hit you must file charges- we are no different than law enforcement wing hit. Do not tolerate this ever”

“I've dealt with combative patients as a new grad before but this is the first time a patient was able to knock the glasses off of my face. My pt is a nasty old bedbound lady who kept refusing care unless it's pain medication. I've witnessed her scream and throw food accross the room if she doesnt get her pain meds. Today she ripped the heparin needle from my hands and pushed all the meds out of it before i could pry it from her (luckily needle was capped so she didnt stab herself or”