"If I find out she had to take care of him, I will see to it that you get written up and sent to the DoNs office."
"Your assertiveness training does not prepare you to work in this setting."
On this site I have seen discussions about trade-offs. Some people seem to think that when you are assigned to a group of patients, they are all, "your resonsibility," so that if you are feeling threatened by one and ask to trade them they interpret this to be childish and unfair. Most times, the others don't even feel threatened by the same patient so this is completely fair to everyone involved.
There used to be a patient on my group who was sexually assaultive and I would get someone to help me with him and one day I was yelled at by the charge nurse who said, "There is no reason for more than one person to be in here!" There was another patient who was screaming at me and calling me obscene names and most of the others thought this man was nice, and would take him off my group. There were other people on the staff who would try to force me to work with him when they knew he had been abusing me. One girl even started lecturing at me like I was a screwed up ten-year-old and I absolutely did not want to argue with her. Not only did it make me nervous, but they should have thought about the rights and feelings of that patient, who they all liked more than I did.
Forcing anyone on someone who is abusing them or a threat to them is immoral and in some cases even illegal. This is why some people get restraining orders and why some abusers go to jail. If you think you should try to get a co-worker used to a patient they are afraid of, this shoud be done with extreme tact. In some cases, you should go in the room with them to show them how you work with them. I think if you can work with just anyone, this is a gift you have and you should not look down at people who haven't got it. It might be different working in an emergency setting, but not in regular settings.
