A few days ago I was slugged twice , once over the eye, once on my jaw by a male patient. This patient is a frequent admit,most staff know him well. He has a habit of doing just what he wants, roaming into other patients rooms,etc. This time he had disappeared in the back hall and had entered another patients room. I asked the patient to come with me as he was not in his room. Usually this is all that is needed. He was naked, as well, but then this is something that this patient does. NO I DO NOT WORK ON A PSYCH WARD! Yet the best thing would have been to have a lock on this patient's room and just watch him with a camera.
What I want to know now, is what are MY RIGHTS? Am I allowed to file police charges against this patient? I will be losing money and due to our workers comp law, the first 40 hrs comes out of my vacation pay. Which means I will not get a vacation that I have planned. This patient is not crazy. He is just known to be mean and to abuse women. I have been a nurse for over 30 yrs. Lucky to not have been attacked during that time I guess. My tech arrived in time to witness the assult, and the patients family witnessed it as well.
Due to some mess up with HR, I was not able to get the CT that the doctor wanted . This will be done tomorrow. He is looking for fractures.
So please just advice on what my legal options are. I know that my employer will not do anything to the attacker. Nor will anything be done to protect the staff in the future. ( such as lock down on this patients room, and a 24 hr male caretaker ).
