Nurses, have you been been spit on, pushed, scratched and verbally or assaulted?

Nurses Relations

Published

  1. Nurses, have you been been spit on, pushed, scratched and verbally assaulted?

    • 1211
      Yes
    • 178
      No

1,389 members have participated

Unfortunately, it is quite common in the nursing profession to have had been assaulted one way or another by a patient at some point in your career.

For some reason, it is tolerated in the nursing profession and is just accepted as "part of the job"? Police do not tolerate this type of abuse, nor do most professions, why is it tolerated in the nursing profession?

Do to recent stories of fatal violence in hospitals, I wanted to poll all of you AN'ers and see what kind of percentage of nurses from all specialties have had to deal with violence in some fashion.

I think we all would like to see policies change to have a safer work environments, please share this poll with your nursing friends, Facebook etc.... Thanks

Related News:

Please take a second and answer our poll, then if you wish, please share your stories of your experiences.

Specializes in Womens Healthcare, Peds.
i think a lot of the abuse visited upon nurses by alert and oriented patients and by visitors depends somewhat upon where you're practicing. when i worked in a small community hospital in the midwest, patients and visitors were, for the most part, pleasant, cooperative and grateful. (i did get into the middle of two violent episodes there, but one was between police and a perp who ran into our building to get away from them, and the other was between a beaten woman and the husband who was trying to finish the job.)

it seems as though everyone carries a gun everywhere in montana -- ok, that's a sterotype, i know, but when you walk into the liquor store and see a guy with a six shooter on his hip . . . . the man shooting the rifle through the windows of the icu was only trying to kill his wife, not the rest of the hospital staff. although the guy who shot my friend in the posterior was trying to shoot the nurse.

in a large, inner city hospital many of the patients and the visitors are from the ghetto. people use guns and violence to resolve "business problems" and one of the most dangerous people around is "that dude" who "up and shot them" when they were only minding their business on a street corner. it's all too common to see police detectives interviewing witnesses, victims, suspects, etc. in and around the sicu and the or waiting room. the one time i was in the er there, it seemed that there were more city police than nursing staff around, and more than one of the patients was in custody. it's a different kind of violence when your patients and your visitors are from that sort of an environment. verbal abuse and threats are commonplace, and knives and guns aren't uncommon.

most of the violent episodes i've witnessed or been involved with -- the ones that involve visitors or alert and oriented patients anyway -- are because someone is dissatisfied with some aspect of the care they or their loved one have received. in almost every case, the care has been appropriate if not exemplary and the patient or family had unreasonable expectations. the most recent case -- where armed family members wanted to "get" the resident who drew blood cultures on the patient because "he assaulted our sister"-- the family had expectations that we were going to save a young woman who had been in and out of hospitals for years because she absolutely failed to comply with any aspect of her treatment plan. after fingerpainting poop all over her open abdominal incisions -- "because you bit###s didn't get your lazy a$$es in here when i wanted you" the woman had a massive wound infection, sepsis and multi system organ failure. she was dying. the family announced that "you'd save her if she weren't black." both expectations -- that we give lesser care based on race, and that we can save someone who refuses to cooperate in any way -- were erroneous.

the nurses who say they've never experienced violence or abuse at work due to their superior skills at calming and defusing situations may be partially right. but i'll bet they're just pretty darned lucky as well.

so true. i met a nurse who worked in inner city n.y. one time, she told me the straw that broke the camels back for her was when she got her nose broken. a coworker of hers had gotten stabbed by a patient who she was giving a shot to, he grabbed the syringe and stabbed her with it, he had hiv and she got it too. i cannot imagine working like that and i am glad she got out. my kudos to all of you. you are so right about this, my husband is an inner city cop, he takes alot of patients to the e.r., he says they treat the nurses awful sometimes. i work in an office. i made them start locking the door to our patient entrance and told them anyone could come up in here with a gun, walk thru that door and kill us all without blinking an eye.

"spit on, pushed, scratched and verbally assaulted"

Over the course of my 20 years all of the above plus, punched in the sternum so hard it knocked the wind out of me because I thought the up ad lib, (previous to admission living on his own) man could finish his own face shave.

Kicked in the face when I approached a pt lying in bed, bit (with and without dentures in), grabbed by the arm and dragged down the hallway and into a stairwell (while 8 months pregnant), ninja attacked by an old fart with his walking cane swinging it around like a battle sword, NG tube whipped, hair pulled, slapped, pinched - oh the pinching from little old ladies and their nasty fingernails, threatened by pt's and their charming intelligent families, on and on and on.

Many oriented x1 or x2 but most of them x3

I couldn't handle ward nursing one more day - so I got out 6 years ago and haven't looked back.

Hello everyone. I am brand new to this site - just tonight. I came looking for information on what I can/can't, should/shouldn't do in a situation that happened to me today at work. I am a LPNII and work in a small rural hospital in the Cardiac Rehab department - alone. I have been nursing for 15 years. Today is the first time (I remember) a patient assaulting me and I am floored. I've been hit by patients before and threatened but usually they were not of their own mind. In this case, this guy knew full well what he was doing and that what he did was wrong. I have fibromyalgia - he poked me HARD with his finger repeatedly on my back upper left shoulder - right on one of the 'tender spots'. This happened at almost 9 am. It is now almost 11 pm and I am having terrible pain running down my left arm into my hands and fingertips. My administrator is aware of the incident and am 99% sure he will do nothing about it. What are my options. No one- ever- should lay a violent hand on another human being -- and I absolutely do not feel that I should have to tolerate it. Yet, I will have to go back to work on Monday and deal with this patient again and fear the possibility of being attacked again. What can I do?

Specializes in Hospice / Psych / RNAC.
Hello everyone. I am brand new to this site - just tonight. I came looking for information on what I can/can't, should/shouldn't do in a situation that happened to me today at work. I am a LPNII and work in a small rural hospital in the Cardiac Rehab department - alone. I have been nursing for 15 years. Today is the first time (I remember) a patient assaulting me and I am floored. I've been hit by patients before and threatened but usually they were not of their own mind. In this case, this guy knew full well what he was doing and that what he did was wrong. I have fibromyalgia - he poked me HARD with his finger repeatedly on my back upper left shoulder - right on one of the 'tender spots'. This happened at almost 9 am. It is now almost 11 pm and I am having terrible pain running down my left arm into my hands and fingertips. My administrator is aware of the incident and am 99% sure he will do nothing about it. What are my options. No one- ever- should lay a violent hand on another human being -- and I absolutely do not feel that I should have to tolerate it. Yet, I will have to go back to work on Monday and deal with this patient again and fear the possibility of being attacked again. What can I do?

I do hope you filled out an incident report; if not insist when you go back. As your boss he should have had your back but he didn't so there are measures you can take or so I think in your state. Where I am the police would have been called and the matter taken from there. You can also call the police and make a report of the incident. Let your boss know you will not tolerate this behaviour.

I know it's very easy for me to sit hear and advise you on this matter; I'm not the one having to go back to such an environment. Do what you need to do to keep yourself whole. If you fear reprisal from the manager I don't know what to tell you except that the more eyes on this matter the better. Meaning; involve another nurse so that someone else knows what's going on. There are laws set up to protect you but if you do not avail yourself of them then they're no use to you.

Also if you are in pain and the patient did harm go to your doc and get documentation as such. Or go the the ER and make a report I think either one will be able also to guide you in what your options are but you need documentation that there is an injury or an injury or condition was aggravated by this man's cruelty.

Specializes in LTC, Camp Nurse, Private Duty Nursing.

I've worked longterm care for years so all the above has happened. (No broken bones, sexual assult or serious injury thank god). A few years ago, we had a resident's husband harrass the staff and interfer with his wifes cares. One afternoon, as I was transfering his wife to the toilet on the rehab unit (she was a stand by assist), he started yelling at me to hold her. I tried to explain to him that she was fine but he kept yelling at me and told me he was going to report me. By then I had enough of his harrassment and told him I would report him first. I went to the administrator and complained that he was harrassing all the staff and it needed to stop. (We have our rights too) The administrator was going to call the state ombudsman, but sad to say, the resident past away.

Specializes in Telemetry.

Now that aid is considered a felon. Physically assaulting a healthcare professional is a felony.

I cant even begin to tell you how many times I've been kicked, scratched, bit, cussed out, etc.

One that stands out however, is one guy who had arrested and successfully resusitated. He was out of the post code fog, weaned from the vent (trached) AAOx3.

Docs would not medicate him effectively even though they knew that all of us was getting our butts kicked. I closed the door, and told him in no uncertain terms (he he), that if he so much as laid a finger on me, I would file charges on him and the law would be waiting on him at discharge. Never touched me again.

Wow, 87%? Absolutely pathetic. I don't think I will be able to look at myself in the mirror if I don't get out of this miserable field. I feel for the people who don't have options/time, or have a family to support..but the other ones...well...

This doesn't happen every day. (Thank God!) The last part of your statement "but the other ones...well..." is a bit offensive to me as it sounds like the rest of us who work as nurses are looking for it or deserve what we get. I personally like what I do (most of the time) and in the area I work sometimes this is part and parcel of the job. Most of the time the patients have medical/surgical reasons that they act out.

The ones that are awake, alert and oriented x 3 are the ones that need to get the heck out. I've actually known a doctor to d/c a nasty patient that was causing problems.

I think your idea to get out "of this miserable field" is a good one.

Good luck

I am a baby RN of four months, and I voted "no" in this poll -- and the next day, I got socked pretty good! I laugh a little but it hurt! The pt was 94 and confused and she could pack quite a punch. If she were younger and coherent, I definitely would've pressed charges. As it were, I just rubbed my boo-boo and gave her prn ativan...

Specializes in LTC, Psych, M/S.

I've dealt w/ abusive patients and for the most part can roll w/the punches.......the abuse that is the hardest to get over came from a nurse manager in the way of a threatening phone call.

tyvin, thank you for the time you took to respond.

Yes, I did tell both of my immediate supervisors at the time it occured, the administrator and I discussed it, and I later talked to our risk manager. I also filled out an incident report.

Initially the Risk Manager seemed to "get it" that the issue was my ability to work in a safe environement. Today all I heard about was concern as to if this patient is going to (choose) to return -- not one single word about the fact that this guy commited a crime against me.

I am going to "sit" on this a few more days (only because that is the "process" for complaints in the policy) and if I don't get some real responses and real answers - I feel I have no other choice than to contact an attorney.

Specializes in emergency.

A friend of mine was triaging a pt when out of nowhere the pt hauled off and slapped my buddy in the face. She was told by administration that she couldn't press charges because "it would look bad". meanwhile the same pt threw and broke a dynamap and charges were pressed that time....explain that one

+ Add a Comment