Anyone NEVER been hit/hurt working psych?

[kingvonnBSN2017]

Good morning nurses!

I am new grad working in psych, about 2 months in and I love it. It's a big passion of mine. I speak to a lot of the nurses on the unit and pretty much all of them say they have been hit, punched, choked, spat on...etc.

Anyone here that works psych that has never been hit or spat on working on their unit? Just curious. Thank you!

[hppygr8ful, ASN, RN, EMT-I]

11 hours ago, penelopelp said:

I may have just been extra sensitive. I’m not used to being questioned by management like that—it felt like an interrogation. Staff were assaulted that day by another patient, and I probably was just feeling very stressed from the whole event. It’s hard when I see staff getting assaulted but management just keeps on allowing additional dangerous patients to be added to the milieu. It makes me feel like we are cannon fodder. 

Got that, Last year we had a major occurance on our unit (I won't go into detail) and the DON called me to her office to ask: "How does this happen on your unit!) I replied "It didn't happen on my shift!" After that we were able to discus the issue and look at solutions to prevent it happening again.

As to staff being assaulted; have you had training in eith MAB or CPI. I don't like CPI for the acute setting but annual MAB training with lots of practice senarios has really improved the safety and staff confidence on our unit.

Hppy

[ErinDel, ASN, BSN, RN]

58 minutes ago, hppygr8ful said:

You look up the number and call them. I would not recomend doing this while a work.

 

Thank you for the information. I appreciate it.

[penelopelp]

2 hours ago, hppygr8ful said:

As to staff being assaulted; have you had training in eith MAB or CPI. I don't like CPI for the acute setting but annual MAB training with lots of practice senarios has really improved the safety and staff confidence on our unit.

Hppy

We have our own training. It’s similar to CPI which I did at a previous facility. The biggest issue is that they keep sending was assaultive patients to a unit that is already hot. We are already staffed up because of this, but they really need to staff us up even more. The other day I worked and we had much more staff than usual and the shift went extremely well. The next shift we were staffed lower and, not shockingly, we had a rough shift. These troubled adolescents need a lot of attention. If they can get it, they do much better. We are all out in the milieu—not behind the desks, so that is not the issue. We just need more of us.

 

[KatStat, BSN, MSN, RN]

This is a great topic, and I love reading the answers in this thread! 

I've worked psych for about a year, plus I have ~6 years experience in med-surg, NICU, mother-baby, and home health.  

I've only been swung on / thrown things at on the med-surg unit, not on the psych unit! I was swung on by a patient going through DTs in med-surg, had poop thrown at me by a woman who was in post-op delirium, and was cornered in a room by a patient's abusive husband - all in med-surg.  I've never had a psych patient attack me, though I have been the first responder when a patient attacked a coworker. I'm only willing to work on a psych unit that has good teamwork, because that's your best hope when patients get agitated.