Assault against nurses

I disagree with your first sentence. I think that when people are in the hospital, there are very much out of their element and the stress of being there along with being ill or injured makes them more likely them to act out in ways they would NEVER act out in other situations. For lack of a better word, they "forget" that the people helping them are humans and that, especially if they are competent, they are to be held accountable for their actions. I think a "reminder" that assaulting healthcare workers is illegal would help.

In general I don't think it's appropriate to put someone in jail for symptoms of a medical condition. It's important to understand "DT's", specifically that the "D" stands for delirium, since that is a defining symptom of this condition. Your suggestion that we should just explain to the patient that assaulting staff is illegal assumes some degree of rational thinking on the part of a patient in DT's, which typically just doesn't exist in that state.

In one hospital where I worked they had a code for psychiatric emergencies - a patient getting violent or in danger of qualified to call a code psychiatric emergency. The idea is to get the power to the bedside because it automatically triggered a psych CNS, security, pharmacy and the nursing supervisor to appear. It also triggered an immediate review of the patient condition and medication. The psych CNS would work with the resident or psychiatrist in creating a plan to prevent further events.

It had a lot of advantages with security coming up asap.

I have seen wheelchair fly in the hallways, nurses getting bitten and punched, patient spitting and so on and forth.

Perhaps your institution can implement something similar?

Getting the extra support and making the hospital aware of what is going on was helpful. I can not count the times security had to hold down a patient so I could administer a chemical restraint im.

In addition, Crisis Prevention Training is helpful to teach staff to recognize situation that are escalating earlier and how to act and diffuse.

I have also found that when a patient is in withdrawal or severe delirium it is best to medicate on the early side and not to wait until everything is escalated.

I would NEVER advocate pressing charges against a dementia patient who thinks we are invading his house and sticking him! I'm talking about policies and procedures for those who are either completely competent and assault healthcare workers.

In your OP, you specifically referenced a patient in DTs, and went on to insinuate that the nurses should have pressed charges. People in DTs are NOT "completely competent."

While I competely agree that alcoholism and addiction are, at least to some extent, an illness that is difficult for many patients to manage, isn't part of recovery to accept responsibility for what you've done as a result of that addiction? While my heart goes out to people with this particular struggle, I can't help but see some differences between this and the 95-year-old dementia patient.

When they are in DTs, they are not using alcohol; they are in a physical crisis during which they have little to no control over how they react. While I believe policies should be in place to minimize harm to caregivers in this situation, I think it would be completely inappropriate to ask them to take accountability for any acts that occurred while in DTs.