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Discussion

Attacked by patient

:crying2::crying2:Has anyone else been physically attacked by their patient? I have been working for four years on the adolescent floor of a behavioral hospital and lately they have increased our patient load, I had 18 girls from ages 12-17 and only one MHT and I was attacked from the back, thrown to the floor and choked before anyone saw. I have a concussion and have been out for over a week, still having very bad headaches, sore muscles and severe nightmares. I am in counseling now and love my job, but am scared now that this might happen again because of poor staffing. Need help and suggestions please, prayers also. Thanks, franmermaid ( peds psych rn in louisiana)

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Oh My!! I hope you are feeling better......I used to work on adolescent unit. I was the only nurse and our pt. load runs from 2-14...

If I had 1-5 pts. I have one MHT with me. If I have high acuity pts or some line of sights, I usually have 2 MHT with me. I more than 9, I akways had 2 techs....I can't imagine that with 18 they would only give you l tech. You need to tell them that, for the safety of your pts. and yourself, you require more techs with such a heavy load.

Was this pt. a line of sight? or was she a new pt? History of violence? If so, then she should have been on LOS. Hope you are healing, God Bless you, I have been in close situations, but always had my techs there to help me out. I really sympathize with you.

  • Experts

How awful. I agree that counseling will help. However , your concerns about safe staffing is very real. If it happened once (poor staffing that is), then it can happen again.

So sorry to hear what happened. Wishing you the best!

Sending Prayers and Hugs your way!

Praying for you and sending hugs...

So sorry to hear. You have my prayers.

Hugs, my friend.

I am so sorry to hear this happened. I work mental health & addictions. I have yet to be attacked by a pt but I know the chance is always there. I am sometimes the only nurse on the unit with up to 8 adult patients and at times they can be very unstable. Sometimes it can be a little disturbing to me that they overlook the fact that this is very unsafe for both the patients and me. I have voiced my opinion to management about this many times. Unfortunately staffing is always an issue on our unit so I know this will continue to happen until a situation like yours arises. My prayers are with you.

I'm so sorry that happened to you! I work as a Mental Health Worker at an inpatient psych hospital, and I'm a senior year nursing student (I graduate with my BSN in May) and I want to be a psych nurse.

Yesterday at work I got attacked for the first time and it really upset me. An adolescent male spat in my face and kicked me in the belly - and I just had abdominal surgery 2 weeks ago! It knocked the wind out of me and I just couldn't stop crying. I had to go home early b/c I just couldn't shake it off.

I feel bad b/c the other people who work there seem able to get hit and just move on, while I feel totally traumatized and scared to go back to work tomorrow. :o

5 assaults in 7 seven years i'm afraid. These range from kick to the groin to punch to the head.

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