Complaints vs Safety of the Nursing Staff

Specialties Emergency

Published

Hello All,

Wondering.....

Over the many years of patient care I have..... I am seeing more and more verbal and physical abuse of the nursing staff by patients and families in the ED....I am also seeing more and more of management siding on the side of the patient and NOT on the side of the nursing staff.

Just curious if it was me....or is this becoming a trend?

Me

:confused:

This all sounds crazy. I am going to school right now to go into a field where I am going to be harrassed then blamed for it? I love the ER but right now in my class I am the only one with ED in as my goal partially because everyone else thinks it is crazy in there. How can Admin act like this? I have a feeling it is only going to get worse and I'm not even in Nursing school yet. Am I getting a BSN to be abused....?

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Specializes in ER, HH, CTICU, corrections, cardiology, hospice.

So, if a family member wants fentanyl we just have to give it to them?What if they refuse to be seen? Are they still a customer and ipso facto always right? I think not. I worked in the ER and rarely had any trouble, but I'm 6'1" 250lbs and look like I BBQ human heads for lunch(too heavy a meal for dinner):D. I'm really just a big ***** cat, but they didn't know that:D. The customer is not always right, and never will be. Nurses stand up for yourselves now. BTW they are patients not clients or customers and family members are not even that.

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but I'm 6'1" 250lbs and look like I BBQ human heads for lunch (too heavy a meal for dinner):D.

:lol2: :rotfl: :roll :D :clown: AWESOME!!!

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Specializes in Trauma, Teaching.
Am I getting a BSN to be abused....?

Why no, you can be abused as a tech, a secretary, an aide, an LPN, an ADN RN, a BSN, a faculty member, the housekeeper, the registration clerk, the social worker, the evening supervisor, the dietary delivery kid, the paramedic, the security guard, the police officer, .... :lol2:

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We had an incident at a local teaching hospital in my area. Pregnant ER nurse attacked and beaten unconscious by psych patient. Local paper had a field day with it and only talked about the "poor, sick" kid because he is the son of a local politician. Went on and on about the once bright future of the attacker. Not much said about the nurse and her unborn baby.

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Specializes in Trauma, Teaching.

We had a police officer bring in a fellow for medical clearance before going to jail, the guy was chatting up the officer, cooperative, not even cuffed behind the back anymore because he'd been behaving himeself. He was in one of the hall beds, because as usual we were overflowing. When it was time to leave, he popped up, slammed the cop in the mouth so hard he (the cop) bit all the way through his upper lip. BAM, got taken down by about 7 staff along with the officer, kept fighting, tried to bite one of my male nurses (and pt is known HepC). During the fight, some idiot surgeon in on a consult, walks out from behind the curtain, stands there looking down at the major struggle going on and tells us we should move this to a room because it was bad for public relations. :uhoh3: :madface: (why isn't there a "donkey" icon?)

Uh, if I had any rooms, do you think he would have been in the hall in the first place?:monkeydance:

Cop got sewn up, my colleague had to go to grand jury to testify about the HepC and assault on health care worker stuff etc.

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Specializes in med-surg.

Scenario: Patient

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Specializes in med-surg.
So, if a family member wants fentanyl we just have to give it to them?What if they refuse to be seen? Are they still a customer and ipso facto always right? I think not. I worked in the ER and rarely had any trouble, but I'm 6'1" 250lbs and look like I BBQ human heads for lunch(too heavy a meal for dinner):D. I'm really just a big ***** cat, but they didn't know that:D. The customer is not always right, and never will be. Nurses stand up for yourselves now. BTW they are patients not clients or customers and family members are not even that.

In OUR facility, anyone who enters the hospital is a "customer" and deserves to be treated as such.....:uhoh3:

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Specializes in Emergency and ICU.

20 YEARS in the ER and yes the abuse is enabled and worse than when I started including in ICU units and 6 states that I have traveled to.

The customer is always right.

One nursing medical rider for worklplace assault states that Texas is excluded. One state has injury to a healthcare provider/Doctor, I believe is serious crime with adjusted sentencing.

Thanks for the post and had to respond.

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