Combative dementia patients

Specialties Geriatric

Published

I have just been suspended for several days because a patient of mine became combative and my med nurse, the tech and I had to hold him down. He now has significant bruising, but is otherwise ok. I charted the incident at the time, and passed it on in report. The bruising didn't show up until my night off. I don't want to get punched and I need to look out for my staff. As it is, I get home with bruises more days than not. Now it's costing me job security and pay. How do you handle this situation?

Specializes in Acute Care, Rehab, Palliative.

lol.Oh some days we WISH we could just call someone to take them away. :)

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Specializes in LTC, Hospice, Case Management.
We can't back down when they are actively trying to assault us. Unfortunately we have no where to send them We have to deal with them as there is no psych beds for them usually.They are usually in grave danger of hurting themselves or others.

Wondering if you missed that this post is in the geriatric (ie: nursing home section). Our rules are different than the hospital. The advice that you responded to is the correct answer in LTC in most situations. You back off and allow them to calm down and try again. If all measures fail in house than it is appropriate to look for a gero-psych unit.

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