Patient Safety Comes First

[KateRN1]

I thought I'd share this situation with you all, hope that it can help someone else down the road.

We've all had those patients who are PITAs for some reason or another and we want to deal with them as little as possible. I got a call this afternoon from one of my nurses who was at the door of one of these types. She says, "I've been knocking and I can hear movement inside, I'm starting to get frustrated. Should I just leave a door hanger and go on?" I tell her no. Knock on the door again, loudly, and tell her that you're worried, you can hear her inside, and if she doesn't answer the door, you're going to call 911. If she doesn't answer the door, go to the apartment management office and tell them, see if they'd rather enter the apartment or have rescue break down the door.

She calls me back ten minutes later. Apartment manager opened the door to find the patient on the floor, unable to get up. Apparently she was assaulted a day or two ago and has been there ever since! She called rescue and patient went to the hospital for evaluation.

A word to the wise, even those PITAs can have something bad happen to them that is not their fault. Always err on the side of the patient's safety and do whatever you can to determine the true situation. Nine times out of ten, the patient will be fine, but it's that 10th time that you don't want to regret for the rest of your life.

[caliotter3]

We build attachments even to our PITAs, and it hurts when anyone gets injured or sick.