What's the most dangerous thing that's happened to you while working?

Nurses General Nursing

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Just curious on different experiences where you felt threatened or something happened that was outrageous, something that put you in fear of endangering your health? Etc...

Hoping to hear some stories from the interesting stories of being a nurse.

Specializes in Peri-op/Sub-Acute ANP.

I've been punched and kicked a fair few times, but I'm the most scared when the gang-bangers come in shot or stabbed. You just never know if someone will show up trying to finish the job....

Of course it's also scary, but in a different way, when a patient goes bad. That will get your attention!

Specializes in Medsurg/ICU, Mental Health, Home Health.
The stigma lives.

Being stripped and searched is the least therapeutic thing possible for someone with no self esteem, or who has been brutalized physically and emotionally. Do you strip the guys coming in with physical complaints wearing leather jackets and tattoos too? Do you hold off when the patient is cooperative and nonthreatening?

You may be easing your own mind while doing some serious damage to someone else. Could you rethink this one?

I understand what you are saying; however, ensuring the physical safety of everyone involved is more important to me. Also, if there has been a crime committed, evidence needs to be gathered ASAP.

1 Votes
Specializes in Emergency, Internal Medicine, Sports Med.
Yeah, I don't care who you are. You come in with any psych/substance abuse complaint and the very first thing that's happening is you're stripping down to nothing but a hospital gown and your belongings are going in the locker while psych evaluates you.

Respectfully though, in this post you did not mention anything about crimes being committed or patient/staff in jeopardy. Just because someone is psych does not mean they are automatically a threat.

I would hope patient & staff safety comes first, and I understand evidence preservation is important also. But ultimately I do disagree with your generalized, broad statement.

Wow to those of you who had to deal with firearms and shootings, that's tough.

I've been in forensic psych for 13 years so it's hard to decide which attempted assault was the most scary... I work on an all male unit with some very dangerous clients, so much so the police are afraid to come on the unit unarmed, and I am a small female. Thank God for my large, intimidating, brave and well-trained psych techs or I would've been severely injured by now!!!

Scariest for me, was watching an acutely psychotic patient literally rip his ear off right in front of me... I was horrified... the OD came up to the unit and sutured it back on.... that was 12 years ago- we'd send him to the ER if that happened today.

Some of my coworkers have been disabled permanently by our clients... so it's kind of scary all the time.

I hear what you're saying. But we also have to protect the patient from themselves, and protect staff and other patients. There's a lot to be said for your attitude in how you approach patients when searching them. I like to make sure that the patient is okay with me going through there things. So far I haven't had any problems, and yes, I have pulled a few knives off of mental health patients.

1 Votes
Specializes in Pediatric Private Duty; Camp Nursing.

Once, when I was a brand-new nurse in a LTC facility, they had a pt with end-stage AIDS. I had to give him an IM, which I thought I was ready and prepared for. I pinched his deltoid up a bit to try and get it straight in, but he was so thin and his muscle had wasted away so much, I could feel the needle start to press out by my finger, being on a slight angle. I was able to stop immediately and the needle didn't break through, but whenever I think about it, I still feel as horrified as I did at that moment. {shudder}

Specializes in ER, IICU, PCU, PACU, EMS.

As a nurse: a needle stick, being hit by a confused patient, and waiting to see if a shooting victim's family member was coming back with a gun "to kill" us all because we didn't save the patient.

In EMS: My partner and I were one of the first to respond to the "white powder anthrax" calls after 9/11. We didn't know the nature of the call until we were already in the hot zone. Not fun.

Responded to a call where an angry mob developed around us as we were talking to the patient. They began to chase us, so we ran with the patient into the ambulance and got out of there asap!

A car backed up and hit the ambulance, it hit me and almost crushed me between the car and the MICU.

Drawing the short straw to enter a quarantined aircraft for possible SARS to do assessments so I could report back to the CDC.

Responding to an MVA during an ice storm. The vehicle was situated on the downslope of a bridge and a jackknifed 18 wheeler suddenly appeared over the bridge sliding at a fast rate of speed toward the crashed car. I was in the backseat, holding C-spine of the driver, so I hugged the patient from the backseat and waited for impact.

Jeez! EMS was dangerous....everyone, give a paramedic a hug today! :D

1 Votes
Specializes in Cardiac, Thoracic, Vsg, ENT, GU.

Working on a cardiac surgery floor, we had patients waiting for heart transplants. Often times they were put on

(attached via hoses) a left ventricular device. Had a woman who was waiting for a heart and attached to a VAD.

One morning while attempting to pull the VAD and walk her to her bathroom one of the hoses got caught between

the wheel and the body of the VAD, cutting off the assistance the machine afforded her.

I sat her on a chair and RAN for help because I could not get the hose free. The other nurses saw the look on my face and came running! A younger nurse managed (with a lot of muscle) to free the hose without causing any

other problems. BUT upon entering the room I'd found the patient had PASSED OUT and laying on the floor. I

honestly thought I'd killed her! Another nurse seeing and hearing my distress, pushed her way to the patient and

lifted her to the bed and another got me out of the room. I was hysterical and so ANGRY, not only at myself but at the machine!

Of course EVERYONE, including the heart surgeon came in response to all this ordeal. First thing the doctor said was "I've been waiting for this to happen." Didn't make me feel better in the least......:redbeathe

The stigma lives.

Being stripped and searched is the least therapeutic thing possible for someone with no self esteem, or who has been brutalized physically and emotionally. Do you strip the guys coming in with physical complaints wearing leather jackets and tattoos too? Do you hold off when the patient is cooperative and nonthreatening?

You may be easing your own mind while doing some serious damage to someone else. Could you rethink this one?

While I am all for creating a therapeutic environment, when you come into an inner city ER complaining of HI/SI, your safety and everyone else's comes first. Period. No questions.

Of course the order of my actions will reflect exactly what a patient is telling me and/or what I am assessing. Even for patients that are distraught, when rationalized the vast majority have no problem putting their belongings into a bag and changing into a hospital gown.

1 Votes
Specializes in school nursing, ortho, trauma.
i was sexually assaulted by a patient a few years ago, not sure if that can be classified as dangerous?

of course Celticqueen, that can be classified as dangerous. Even if you didn't have a gun held to your head, it still I would bet took an emotional and perhaps physical toll on you.

Specializes in school nursing, ortho, trauma.

I had a patient swinging his iv pole like a bat. I backed out of the room, closed the door and called security and the police and thankfully didn't get hurt.

Had a family member punch me in the back of the head through a curtain because his girlfriend moaned when we slid her off the stretcher onto the bed.

Had a charming gent strung out of PCP completely lose it, swinging fists, spitting, kicking and stronger than you could ever imagine

In my life as a school nurse I've been bit severely twice - both by tiny little kids. The big kids it's easy to defend from, it's the little ones that end up hurting you...

Specializes in acute care.
Wow to those of you who had to deal with firearms and shootings, that's tough.

I've been in forensic psych for 13 years so it's hard to decide which attempted assault was the most scary... I work on an all male unit with some very dangerous clients, so much so the police are afraid to come on the unit unarmed, and I am a small female. Thank God for my large, intimidating, brave and well-trained psych techs or I would've been severely injured by now!!!

Some of my coworkers have been disabled permanently by our clients... so it's kind of scary all the time.

YIKES. I give you a lot of credit for working in that environment--you're a braver woman than I!

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