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| No. 40 | 
Oct 30, 2009, 11:14 PM
 Re: Customer Violence
Do male nurses get attacked as much as female nurses?
 | | Advertisement Sponsored Links | | | | No. 41 |
Oct 31, 2009, 09:03 AM
Re: Customer Violence Originally Posted by eriksoln  U R better than me. I guess maybe people just assume it cause I am a male nurse...........a LARGE male nurse.
Anyone lays a hand on me, I perform a "laying of the hands" of my own, and not the clerical kind........license be damned..........I can do something else.
Same goes with verbal or emotional abuse. Don't start with me unless you are very confident you can finish. Having a mouth that cashes checks the body can't cash is a dangerous habit.
I know, it's a childish approach, but...........I don't tend to get abused. Thats my goal, and mission accomplished.
There are several male nurses at my facility who have been corraled to put abusive patients in their place.
One memorable incident was a few years ago. There was a middle-aged male patient who was groping nurses, pulling their shirts out so he could look down them, etc. You wonder how sick he really was if he could do that. Anyway, they decided to assign all male nurses to him, which was even worse because he made disgusting assumptions about their sexuality. 
So, they called 6'7", 400 pound Tom from the oncology floor, who walked into the room, introduced himself, and said, "We don't harass the nurses in this hospital." He never acted inappropriately towards a nurse, male or female, again for the duration of his stay.
| | No. 42 |
Oct 31, 2009, 10:04 AM
Re: Customer Violence Originally Posted by ♪♫ in my ♥ They most certainly ARE CUSTOMERS... as well as patients. I've had many more encounters with acute care hospitals than anybody I know... with myself as the patient, with my kid as the patient, with each my dying parents as the patients. We were customers.
Customers have a choice as to where they procure the services that they're receiving. I don't know about your area but in these parts there are several hospitals offering the same sets of services. A hospital that forgets that their patients are also their customers is a hospital who is going to lose business... and staff who contribute to that are shooting themselves in the foot.
That said, customers are no more entitled to abuse or assault staff in a hospital than they are anywhere else.
As to your comment "customers actually pay for things".... I have news for you: I PAY out-of-pocket nearly $10,000 per year for my insurance... and the employee benefit (in lieu of wages... so that's MY money, too) is another $8,000 per year. To that you can add the 10% deductible and the substantial co-pays. Believe me, I PAY FOR THE SERVICE that I receive. Many millions of us do.
I am a patient... AND I am a customer.
Again, being a customer does not confer the right to behave like an @$$ and certainly not to be assaultive - assault and battery should be prosecuted as such. However, hospitals and their staffs do need to recognize that their patients are also their customers.
Let me get this straight. You pay the deduction from your paycheck + deductables & copays + $8000? You need to start shopping around for better insurance.
I still say we cannot and should not cater to patients as if they are at a spa. What would be alot better for the "customers" is if the hospitals competed against each other price wise. Example: Get your CABG done here at Hospital Wonderful and get 30% off.
Instead they try to act like they do something super special that no other hospital can do and pressure us to treat them like royalty. Its bunk. This consumer mentality has gone too far and does not belong in health care. Everyone is so entitled these days. What everyone (including nurses) deserves is to be treated with respect, weather they are paying for healthcare or not. RESPECT Nothing more, nothing less.
| | No. 43 |
Oct 31, 2009, 10:38 AM
Re: Customer Violence
Hmm....If you are ill, you are a customer to the extent that you are paying for a service. Ok, I get that. However, that does NOT entitle anyone to abuse staff in any way, shape, or form. Healthcare is not a pleasant thing to go and 'purchase', it is scary and painful at times, so that makes it a 'hard sell', I think. Couple that with people who are not in control of a situation, and you have a set up for abuse from both sides.
People feel so entitled to complain about everything, even if they don't know anything about why it works the way it does. Healthcare 'customers' need to realize that there is inherent discomfort in being a patient. You are going to be tired, ill, and feeling generally cruddy when you're in a hospital, otherwise you wouldn't be there....and the most you are 'entitled' to is respect and professional, competent care. (which does NOT include hot tea, fluffy pillows, and catering to whims) And staff is 'entitled' to respect and a violence/abuse-free workplace. Any fault to follow those basic 'entitlements' should be dealt with quickly and decisively, whether it's patient or staff who break the rules.
| | No. 46 |
Oct 31, 2009, 05:38 PM
Re: Customer Violence Originally Posted by meluhn Let me get this straight. You pay the deduction from your paycheck + deductables & copays + $8000? You need to start shopping around for better insurance.
Yes, we pay many, many thousands of dollars per year for the combination of our premiums and our deductibles. You're quite presumptuous to think that I'm stupid enough not to have shopped around. That, however, is not the point.
The point is that nerdtonurse's assertion that patients are not customers because "customers actually pay for things" is patently absurd.
Of course, customers in any setting have no right to be abusive. Assault and/or battery are misdemeanor or felony offenses - regardless of what the hospital (or any other business) thinks about it and irrespective of whether the perpetrator is a patient, customer, boss, coworker, subordinate, parent, child, sibling, whatever.
Violence is violence and it's not to be tolerated.
To the subtopic of this thread, though: Hospitals are businesses and must be mindful of what their patrons want or else those patrons will simply go somewhere else... census goes down and nurses don't work.
The latter point, however, has nothing to do with the original topic of workplace violence.
| | No. 47 |
Oct 31, 2009, 06:29 PM
Re: Customer Violence
Without particularly emphasising it , good nurses have always provided good customer service , but their emphasis was and always should be good nursing / clinical care .
The overemphasis placed by hospital administrations upon " customers " rather than patients , changes the expectations patients have of their hospital stay , rather than being a partner in their recovery , they tend to become a customer who worries about the quality of the bed sheets , china and the apearence of the lobby etc..
I am not against customer service per se . but the expectation it breeds which alows the patient to fel they can complain about a service , not provided to their satisfaction which will be displayed in some cases , in a violent , non acceptable manner .
So getting back to the OP 's query , the policy on violence should be zero tolerance , but should be applied with a recognition of the patients cognitive state .
| | No. 48 |
Nov 01, 2009, 05:27 AM
Re: Customer Violence
Reading these posts I can't believe some of these ATTITUDES. Patients ARE customers. If they aren't paying, someone is. If they don't qualify for Medicaid or Medicare then your hospital qualifies for some sort of grant money for indigent. Patients pay your paycheck. So you have to grin and bear it to a certain extent and not pop off. Suck it up, eat some **** and be respectful, whether you think you are superior or not.
As for violence and abuse, this is another level from someone just being a smartass or having a bad day. This is not tolerated and any idiot should know how to handle this situation.
I am interested in the initial question this poster submitted. Why the need for a specific policy? Would you not handle all threats of violence the same, regardless of who they come from? Does your hospital not have a forensic policy to start with? This forum is not the place to ask about another hospital's policy, because all you will get is what you got. Fussin'!
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