Enraged (venting)

Specialties Emergency

Published

OK, I know y'all can relate...

Tonight I received a 23yoM, out drinking and driving, hitting parked cars. He already has 2 felony DUI's on his records.

He fought with fire department on scene (no head injury - he was just a drunk jerk), EMS on scene, police on scene; en route was kicking my medics and the police. He arrives and is still screaming and trying to swing while handcuffed to the cart.

I *tried* my very best to remain calm and therapeutic, but could only tolerate so much of the, "I refuse, you can't touch me, I'm suing you because my dad's a lawyer, and you can't let them take me to jail because I want to go home," while he attempts to swing, swears, and spits. He made mistake number one at that point by grabbing at my hand and squeezing until my hand popped (I filed charge number one at this point).

He smelled so strongly of ETOH it made the eyes water, and of course, he ended up in CT scan.

He fought and carried on over there, getting tazed several times. I ran over and medicated with Haldol and Ativan, but it was like spitting in the wind. Head blocks were gone, c-collar askew, and un-even on the LSB.

For a few minutes he chilled out and I once again explained everything. The CT tech needed his arms above his head, so I explained that I would remain at his side to care for him, and help him hold his arms. He said, "Whatever." (Meanwhile my tech and 5 policemen were on the other side of the glass watching).

I put on the lead, and was helping him hold his arms, and he screamed, "Let go of me you 'effin B*tch!" He then pulled an arm free and punched my chest (mistake number two, and charge number two filed) and face (mistake number three, and charge number three filed).

I lost my cool at that point and completely lost it. I'm ashamed to admit that without thinking, and in order to get away, I punched him very hard and quick 3 times in the chest so he would let go of my other arm (and it worked).

The police were all over him like a cheap suit. I told him that we were done playing the easy way, and he would now be going down the hard road, and told him I was taking him back to the ER to paralyze and intubate him.

He cried all the way back.

I'm just irritated that such a young man is wasting his life an potential and doesn't even care (he could have killed someone!). I'm furious that he thought he had to right to assault me. And I'm even more enraged that I lost my cool and responded the way I did.

Any tips for calming down?

You lost your cool w/ a drunk selfish jerk who has no regard for anyone's life, even those who are trying to take care of his sorry @#%. You put up w/ way more than I would have. The doc should have tubed him a long time before it got to that. Why is it that we have to put up with this abuse and assault just because we are nurses? Don't admit to punching him; you pushed him away in self-defense. Try not to beat yourself up; there is only so much anyone can take. The fact that you feel bad about it speaks volumes about the type of caring person you are.

Specializes in Internal Medicine Unit.

To the OP: I am so sorry that you found yourself in this situation. :o You say that you lost your cool, but I say that you kept it. You did what you had to do to protect yourself and to make the pt let go of you. End of story. You did not beat, torture, mutilate...out of anger.;) You did the right thing. Talk to a lawyer to find out how to put it in the right legal perspective. Seek counseling to deal with your feelings. Don't continue to be a victim.

I was raised in martial arts. Dad, 2 uncles and 2 aunts are instructors. I was taught real world techniques and well as traditional arts for competition. I was also given a value system for using what I knew in the real world...defend others, defend self, and defend country. I also took self defense classes in college for my physical edu. hours. That said...if I'm being assaulted, I'm not going to be thinking about my license. AND if I am successful and have my health when it's over, they can have my license if they want it...after a fight of course.

Specializes in Med/surg, ER/ED,rehab ,nursing home.

Talk about safety. Our place of employment has put our medicine scanners and computers in the patient rooms. We are supposed to do our charting at bedside,too. Some of these have been placed in such a way that I would have to crawl over family members and could easily be trapped in the room. Just recently I felt lucky that I had the bed between me and a "walkie Talkie" patient. He lunged at me, then laughed. Of course my department head gave lip service to "we want you to stay safe and not get hurt"...so now what to do. I know what I will be doing. At least in regards to charting. We are too short staffed to stay in patient rooms. Try phoning the desk at 12:20 AM ....it may get answered after 20 rings. That is because all of us are in patient rooms. No unit secretary after 11 PM.

We have 28 patient maximum including 4 camera rooms for "confused" patients and one airborne isolation room. This leads to an average of 6-7 patients a piece. SO YOU CAN SEE WE WILL NOT BE OUT AT THE DESK.

I asked why this decision was not made with our input. The answer was that (for 2 years) we had negative comments about the current method, so Corperate ( note that word) made this decision...of course none of them work at bedside. I am glad that most of the time we are reasonably safe on a med surg floor. But we get the ETOH and other drug abuse pts as well. I am glad you filed charges. Now just how much will your place of employment back you up? You did say his "daddy" was a lawyer. Take care.

Specializes in Med/Surg.
OK, I know y'all can relate...

I lost my cool at that point and completely lost it. I'm ashamed to admit that without thinking, and in order to get away, I punched him very hard and quick 3 times in the chest so he would let go of my other arm (and it worked).

The police were all over him like a cheap suit. I told him that we were done playing the easy way, and he would now be going down the hard road, and told him I was taking him back to the ER to paralyze and intubate him.

He cried all the way back.

Any tips for calming down?

1. he's a p****.

2. you're human.

3. you had witnesses.

4. he was a drunk a***** nothing more nothing less.

i know it's hard, but take a few deep breaths, a nice hot bath, and talk to someone you trust about the incident

OP, I hope you are alright .... after being assaulted by a patient I had to take time off to consider my career choices. As already stated, we get into nursing to make a living and to make a difference - being physically violated can make us reconsider what we are doing and what we will do in future.

I've pressed charges, and have encouraged other nurses to do the same. but we have never had to appear in court - some never made it that far, some were blocked by my former employers, some just pled out. Yeah, I worked in a violent city's ER. Through all of this we slowly worked out new policies that protected our staff, patients and visitors. Quite time consuming, but totally worth it.

Our DA now understand the problem and is working with local healthcare providers - nurses have died at the hands of patients and visitors in the US. Not a lot ... but even one is too many.

(Here's a link to one small article I found online: Nurse's death prompts call for protection Nursing - Find Articles)

I wonder how HIPPA would affect our ability to press charges against violent patients? Would we then get into 'trouble' for talking about them on a public record?

And may we all stay safe in our violent world .....:smilecoffeecup:

Specializes in ER, ICU, L&D, OR.

Golfing always calms me down

Specializes in Internal Medicine Unit.

Our DA now understand the problem and is working with local healthcare providers - nurses have died at the hands of patients and visitors in the US. Not a lot ... but even one is too many.

(Here's a link to one small article I found online: Nurse's death prompts call for protection Nursing - Find Articles)

:uhoh3: Funny how we never see things like this in the national news. As opposed to nurses that kill their patients...

Specializes in Utilization Management.
:uhoh3: Funny how we never see things like this in the national news. As opposed to nurses that kill their patients...

You know, that's very true. Almost like it'd give the facility a bad name, so it's OK to sweep it under the rug.

these are hard times for those of us in the trenches....we deal with violent patients ,violent and mean families and a board of nursing that holds nurses to a nonreality based standard.....we work hard everyday in the most extreme situations..... and violence in the workplace should never be tolerated....my husband was one of the male ER nurses charged with patient abuse for his handeling of a violent and combative patient during restraint placement...we have been thru hell and back...it cost us 30,000 to prove it was not patient abuse....when will we take a stand that in the comission of a felony whatever happens to a violent individual is their own fault.....or the patient out of control, the nurse needs to be free to use whatever force necessary to control the situation they find themsleves in... without the fear of the BON filing charges....what nurse goes to work to be involved with a situation like the one the OP was in? and God please tell me why we have to defend ourselves against what another nurse believes they saw.....we can be our own worse enemy... how about walk a mile in the others shoes instead of judging so harshly....to the OP, my prayers are with you....we have been in your place....my prayer for you is that the people around you will do the right thing........laura

Specializes in ED-CEN/PACU/Flight.

Thank you for all the responses! I greatly appreciate it! I have been reading them, but have held off on replying in order to ingest the replies.

I was sore for a week, but other than that I was just fine. I was calmed down by the next morning. However, I would like to respond to a couple of comments.

I am not in trouble in any way, shape, or form. My co-workers (including management) support me in filing charges. In fact, before I could even say that I was going to file charges, several people told me I should.

I did not THREATEN the patient with paralyzing and intubation. I had already explained (ad naseum) the need to remain still (even though he was stinking drunk and I knew it would make no difference), and that for his SAFETY what would happen if need be. It was his choice to go ballistic after many attempts to "educate" and "reorient", and if I didn't phrase my comment perfectly after he punched me, then too damn bad.

As far as an incomplete assessment is concerned; I tried (in vain) to argue with the doctor that he needed sedation and intubation from the get-to. If the doctor doesn't want to do RSI, then I can't exactly take that matter into my own hands, now can I...

And as far as A & B on the patient goes; Whatever... I may sound rude and flippant, and that is not my intention, but I will be damned if I am going to stand there and continue to be beat on (and possibly killed for all I know) while waiting for help (even if they're only 5-10 steps away). If I wanted that kind of abuse, I would have stayed married.

I only hit him hard enough (and long enough) in order to be released. Yes, I was enraged and scared, but I didn't hit him out of anger for being drunk and daring to touch me. Self-defense pure and simple. I didn't continue to hit him after being released, and I never tazed him, it was the policemen that were tazing him.

If that makes me a bad nurse, so be it. Just because I became an RN does NOT mean that I gave up my civil rights. And as far as I'm concerned, once the patient crosses certain boundaries (such as punching their nurse), then they deserve to go to jail.

Specializes in Emergency & Trauma/Adult ICU.

Glad to hear from you, OP! :)

Take care, and keep on keepin' on ...

Specializes in MICU/SICU.

You're going to be stronger, as a woman, for this. I responded earlier to your post. Just wanted to say thanks for being strong - I'm only a nursing student, but you are inspiring both as a nurse and a fellow-fem. You take care, now!

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