Nurse manhandled by doctor

[Scrubby]

Hey guys remember how I was dreading coming to work on Monday? I'm starting to wish I'd called in! Sorry this is a long post!

I've seen doctors verbally abuse nurses, seen them throw tantrums and swear at everyone. Have never seen anyone get physical on a nurse until today.

Well today I could not believe the disgusting behaviour of one doctor.

We had patient who had surgery with a very difficult airway who haemorrhaged. It was awful, patient thrashing around, only two of us nurses and a nursing student who were trying to keep him from falling out of the bed. Nurse rushing around trying to bet airway stuff etc. Patient lost control of bowels, bladder very messy, situation. Then it got worse.

The other nurse was next to the doctor trying to staunch bleeding from wound and keep patients arms from thrashing. I was at the end of the bed trying to manage the legs, nursing student next to me. Both of us saw to the whole thing.

The doctor just lost the plot completely. He manhandled the nurse (dare I say assault!), grabbed her right arm and started yanking it towards him (we have no idea what he actually wanted from her something to do with airway assistance probably, no verbal communication here) in a violent manner. He nearly had her off her feet, really pulling her in towards in hard by her wrist with both his arms. It's had to describe this but his whole body was sort of involved with yanking her towards him . The look on his face was pretty scarey, nursing student said he looked as though 'he wanted to eat her alive', I 100% believe the man just lost his temper completely and took it out on her because he looked so incredibly angry.

The nurse (victim) handled it well at the time, didn't yell at him (I probably would have) but when the crisis was over she was really in a state. Could not stand, had to sit with her head down. She had to go home early which I encouraged her to do.

I told her I witnessed the entire incident, that whatever she wanted to do about it I will verify because I saw the whole thing. She reported it to our CNC. CNC's response to this abuse was pretty much 'heat of the moment', 'patient comes first'. You need to speak with the doctor about it yourself'.'Just monitor your wrist and if it's injured we'll take it up further. No mention of incident reports, documenting this assault.

Ok so it was a crisis. THERE IS NO EXCUSE FOR PHYSICAL INTIMIDATION! How on earth are we to focus appropriately in this situation if doctors are going to manhandle us, potentially cause us injury and give us all post traumatic stress disorder? How is this good for the patient?I was so angry all day I too left early to see a staff counsellor because I could just not cope with any more crap today at work. I needed to let it all out instead of taking it home and having my workplace problems affect my relationship like it's been doing of late.

Before I left I filed a report on the whole thing. Instead of an incident report I filled out a risk register report. The reason being is that our CNC deals with all the incident reports and I don't want anyone no matter what their status handling this if they think 'it's ok, heat of the moment'. I strongly believe his behavior put every nurse in that room at risk because he was just out of control and it put the patient at risk because we weren't fully focused on the patient.

If this doctor had of apologised afterwards it wouldn't have changed me reporting him, but it would have made a huge difference to how we all felt the rest of the day.

And what a great experience for the poor nursing student. Afterwards she asked me is this is acceptable and everyday practice!

Anyway feel better now for a vent. Anyone else have some similar experiences out there?

[I love my cat!]

What a sad situation.

My advice to you:

File a report with the hospital for yourself. Workman's Comp. doesn't just cover physical injuries. It also covers emotional ones as well.

The fact that it has affected your sleep, you attitude and so on and so forth, warrants a report.

In the near future, you may witness abuse or you may be the subject of it. Having something filed w/ EH only strengthens your case and shows that the hospital is allowing abusive behavior to continue.

[canoehead, BSN, RN]

I'm assuming the hospital was backing up the doc during the meeting. Convienent loss of memory there too.

I kind of knew how it was going to turn out, but I still hoped for something more (for once). Been there, done that, etc, etc.

Good work on standing up and making sure TPTB couldn't just pretend not to see. Maybe someday soon we'll have a poster tell us about how management called the cops and the assaulter was hauled out by the scruff of the neck.

[morte, LPN, LVN]

BS, "doesnt remember", my orifice

[finn11707]

Better than it could have been .. but not nearly as good as it should have been. The recommendations of I Love My Cat are what I would also recommend. Follow up with your own report to administration with a re cap of all the details of the incident, the formal meeting and outcome, why it unacceptable (violation of work place safety standards, violence in the workplace unacceptability, etc) and why you as the employee expect more from your peers and your employer. Cite all resulting symptoms in yourself. Encourage the nurse who received the assult to do the same. Pose a powerful question at the end..."when a emergency occurs the next time, will you understand if the doctor shoves and hits us?" I'd consider a leak to the press personally. Surely there is a Medical Board you can formally report to on his license? Chin up.

[rph3664]

What a sad situation.

My advice to you:

File a report with the hospital for yourself. Workman's Comp. doesn't just cover physical injuries. It also covers emotional ones as well.

The fact that it has affected your sleep, you attitude and so on and so forth, warrants a report.

In the near future, you may witness abuse or you may be the subject of it. Having something filed w/ EH only strengthens your case and shows that the hospital is allowing abusive behavior to continue.

These people are in Australia; things may be very different there regarding worker's compensation.

[TakeTwoAspirin, MSN, RN, APRN]

Hmmm, so he doesn't remember doing anything wrong but he apologizes anyway.

Sounds to me like one of those passive-aggressive apologies like, "I'm not sorry for what I did, but I am sorry that you reacted badly to it!"

I hate that crap. In your own good time, I think you should start looking around for alternate employment.

[Batman24]

I hope the nurse had her wrist looked at after he hit her in the event she needs to collect WC. She needs to be seen again.

I love the line, "There's no time to be nice in an emergency." Someone should tell him there's never a need to assault someone else in one either. That's an abuser's mentality.

I'm not shocked he forgot. Maybe he does it so much it blends with his other assaults. If it ever happens again you call the police and press charges. Period. Hang in there, sweetie.

[Scrubby]

If I'm in the same situation with him then I would not be standing anywhere near him. I'd just call for backup straight away.

And if any doctor assaults me in an emergency I know my hospital is incapable of dealing with it seriously. I will call the police because it's my right to do so.

[Valerie Salva, BSN, RN]

If I'm in the same situation with him then I would not be standing anywhere near him. I'd just call for backup straight away.

And if any doctor assaults me in an emergency I know my hospital is incapable of dealing with it seriously. I will call the police because it's my right to do so.

You go, girl!

I am am glad that you are an advocate for yourself, as well as other nurses.

[Scrubby]

Update:

Well the nurse has sustained some sort of injury because her wrist is still sore after a month.

She is claiming workcover but the bad news is management are giving her a hard time. I'm not surprised at all to be honest this is just normal management behavior. They are probably annoyed because they have more paperwork to fill out.

They are saying that they don't know who to believe because he doesn't remember doing it and she is saying that he did it, doesn't seem matter that there were two witnesses who saw it happen.

Now they are telling her that the CNC she initially reported it to is saying a different story than hers that he only slapped the wrist, didn't pull at her. The CNC was not even there I was and what I saw him nearly pulling her off her feet.

Anyway will let you know the final outcome.

This nurse is also going for a permanent postion, she is only on a two year contract with us at the moment. I really do hope that this doesn't affect her getting a job because she is a really good person to work with. They should be thankful to her that she isn't bringing the police into this because I'm sure this would cause them a headache with more paperwork.

[gm12180]

Some doctors let that "God Complex" go to their heads.

[wooh, BSN, RN]

Scrubby, that's just so ridiculous. They don't know who to believe because "he doesn't remember it"???? What a crock.