A patient spit in my face

[ItsThatJenGirl]

I'm relatively new to my PCA/CNA position. I work on a cardiac floor and generally enjoy it. Yesterday I was pulled to 1:1 obs for a patient. As I was changing the patients brief, he/she spit in my face. My mouth was closed, thankfully.

Now, being spit on sucks big time, but the part that bothered me the most was the response from the nurse. When I told her what happened, she said "yeah, he/she does that". She didn't warn me beforehand, she didn't ask if I needed time to clean up, she didn't really seem to give a crap. I get that she's busy, everyone is. But damn. A little empathy would have gone a long way in making me more comfortable - especially since I had several more hours of sitting to do.

Just venting I guess.

[goyavo]

Out in the real world, spitting on someone is called assault. If you spit on a cop, it is a second degree felony that can get you up to ten years prison time. Why should it be different in a hospital? Document it and call the police.

[Possum_RN]

Oh, I know how bad that sucks! I've been a CNA for 4 years, and just took my NCLEX (wish me luck!) - I truly believe that being a CNA will make me a stronger nurse just for this reason: many nurses just have this attitude that it's a CNA's job to 'deal with' body fluids, and they don't bother to give report to us at all. And certainly, the majority of nurses I've worked with are wonderful, and this griping does not apply to them at all - but cases like this really stick with you!

You said you're relatively new - I hope this does not discourage you in the least! Try to remember all the great examples of teamwork you see as well, to inspire you to be the kind of heath care worker you want to be - and use these unfortunate cases of communication breakdown to inspire you as well.

If you work with his nurse's patients again, maybe politely ask her, "I'm taking care of patient X, Y, and Z of yours....is there anything I should know about them?". I've done this - some 'difficult' nurses and I developed a rapport, and it made things easier. Others just always brushed me off and it didn't do any good - but at least I knew I tried and did my best to improve communication!