Re: New nurse here...slapped today by patient. Originally Posted by lvnnow 
From day one in school, I was taught that it is not about me but about the patient. Sometimes they pee on you, sometimes they throw-up on you and sometimes they slap you. I am suprised at how many relies to her post are focused on how wrong the patient was and how the nurse should retaliate. Am I the only person to consider that the patient has some type of mental impairment? The patient is 77 years old and slapped the nurse because she thought they were "playing with her?" HELLO!!??
I'm wondering if she might have messed up electrolytes and I want to know more about her steroid psychosis. these are real physical problems and I am kind of surprised that almost no one here has asked anything about her most recent labs, her meds, and so on. This has been focused almost totally on the nurse, who gave a shocking but incomplete picture.
Not that we shouldn't want our colleague treated better. We all should be treated like the important people we are. But we need to recall that this was a hospitalized patient and that she was there because of illness, presumably, and because we need to know (I do) if her illness adversely affected her behavior. And where was the preceptor and what did Management say and what did the OP decide to do?
I'm glad she at least felt badly - about having done it, most
e likely. The husband I would have ignored his remark, possibly, as he ws probably overwhelmed, although not necessarily.
Again - I care about the nurse but want to hear the end of the story and get the whole picture.
I think the first instinct for me would be to ask her why she slapped me and delve past her really strange answer. She did not have her right mind about her, I think. Presumably, the procedure and its necessity for it had been made clear to her. I wish the OP would come back and give us the last installment. 
Nursing News