Have you ever been hit by a patient?

[sWolfie]

As a CNA, I've been hit, pinched, kicked....ran over by the wheel chair...but the major one was getting bit while trying to bath a resident. I too ended up getting stitches and shots.

Sad thing is, the family members don't want to hear about their loved one that way and the common phrase is "Not my mother, or father". They don't want to face the fact that they are confused.

Yeti is right tho "The good with the bad"

Peace!!

"S"

[fiestynurse]

That's strange you should say that, prmenrs,

because I was just thinking about the time when I was 8 months pregnant with my second child and a cocaine addicted mom threatened to punch me in the stomach because I told her she could not see her baby in the NICU! The baby was withdrawing from cocaine and Child Protective Services had put the baby in Police Custody, with no contact with mother. I had to run to the nurse's station and call security. She just went crazy!

[ June 04, 2001: Message edited by: feistynurse ]

[iamme457]

And the world wonders why there is a nursing shortage.

I have been pinched, bitten, scratched, kicked, slapped and punched many times. Most often by confused patients. ICU, Trauma and neuro patients are all a bit crazy sometime during their stay with us.

I get offended when family members behave in the same manner. I use security and the local police to deal with them.

I think the best experience I had during my training was with a crisis intervention team. These are the people that talk people down from jumping off buildings or bridges, get them to put down the gun they are holding to their head or keep them from harming another person. Empathize, that is the key..get into their mind, feel and see what they see.

If we only had the time to do that with our patients every day, maybe the problems wouldnt escalate like they do.

[ikimiwi]

I will never forget the time I spent 2 hours locked in a med room, while a very violent man, who was awaiting transferr in am to psyc hosp. I haad told the nurses aid not to untie his restraints, she did and then left the building( she later told them she got scared) I was sitting at the desk when he came up behind me and grabbed me around the neck...... I got in the med room aand slammed the door.........he stayed in the nurses station, banging on the door, couldnt get away....for some unknown reason the aid called the police 2 hours later........thats how I got out. It was a small psyc nursing home. Later the nurse doumstairs said she was wondering why i didnt come down for a break! also punched in face and glasses broken in nursing school.chased by a pyscotic man, should have taken the punch in nursing school as a sign of things to come!!!needless to say , I dont do well with psyc pts.....I think my red hair sets them off..lol

[ikimiwi]

I will never forget the time I spent 2 hours locked in a med room, while a very violent man, who was awaiting transferr in am to psyc hosp. I haad told the nurses aid not to untie his restraints, she did and then left the building( she later told them she got scared) I was sitting at the desk when he came up behind me and grabbed me around the neck...... I got in the med room aand slammed the door.........he stayed in the nurses station, banging on the door, couldnt get away....for some unknown reason the aid called the police 2 hours later........thats how I got out. It was a small psyc nursing home. Later the nurse doumstairs said she was wondering why i didnt come down for a break! also punched in face and glasses broken in nursing school.chased by a pyscotic man, should have taken the punch in nursing school as a sign of things to come!!!needless to say , I dont do well with psyc pts.....I think my red hair sets them off..lol

[Chuckie]

I

[CashewLPN, LPN]

well... I too have been hit, pinched, bitten, spit on, you name it...

the worst (by far) a patient threw an entire water pitcher on me... Very full and very cold... sad thing was, I was going to answer the bell of the neighbor, and it wasnt even my room...

the worst I've ever seen though, was a nurses aide that was bitten by a confused patient with 3 teeth... needed something like 17 stitches...

And, I've seen people speed up pumps...sending family member into CHF, then blaming the nurse because of it...

oh well... the good with the bad I suppose.

--Barbara

[prmenrs, RN]

Well, feistynurse, you're right, I had momentarily forgotten about the parents--most of them are pretty harmless, but the exceptions are certainly memorable!!!

Then, of course, there's the big newborn you should've burped about a half ounce ago, and his lovely power puke--make sure you aim it for the floor, not your brand new scrub pants! And that incredibly tiny kid who's been saving his first really big dump for the moment you lift his legs to change him--nice seedy yellow, all over the monitor, the incubator, all those cute stuffed animals at the foot of his bed and, if you're especially lucky, the attending's shoes! And the look on the Dad's face as he oh so carefully washes that little bottom--and Jr. cheerfully sprinkles him.

I'll still take a premie over an adult any day!!! At least the messes are smaller.

[ June 06, 2001: Message edited by: prmenrs ]

[ June 06, 2001: Message edited by: prmenrs ]