Exposure to body fluids but not allowed to go to ED for over 4 hours

[ScrippsRN]

I was assaulted and spit in the face/eyes by a patient last night, but couldn't leave the floor to go to the ED, because there was no one to cover my patients. Finally, after asking my charge nurse/supervisor 3 times, I was allowed to go to the ED 4 1/2 hours after the event. The ED staff was mortified and said that I should have been sent down no later then 2 hours after the exposure. I plan on writing an occurrence report, but am concerned that I will be retaliated against for exposing the fact that the nursing supervisor and house supervisor either don't know or don't care about exposure procedures. What's the best way of going about reporting this?

[lycro310]

I understand your concern about retaliation however you have to look out for you.Your health comes first. Write down everything that occured that way you have a time line. If your supervisers do attempt to retaliate, you'll have what you need to defend yourself to their superiors. In every facilitiy I've worked in, there have been proceduers put into place to protect the employee form retaliation. i'm sorry that this has happened to you and I wish you the best of luck!

[canned_bread]

I would write a statement of what occurred and send it to the DON, as well as to the OHS department. This is especially important if the tests show positive to something and compensation becomes an issue. We shouldn't be afraid to do what is right.

It could also save someone else down the track.

[Morainey, BSN, RN]

OMG... how sad Maybe report to the DON?

[llg, PhD, RN]

Fill out 2 incident reports -- one on the original exposure and a 2nd one on the failure of management to provide proper carefor you afterwards.

You also might want to talk with an attorney.