So at work Saturday, I was called by another floor to come assist w/ a combative patient. They were preparing to place 4 pt leather restraints (Just to give you an idea how combative this pt. was being) on this pt.
I arrive to the floor just as the leather restraints were being broughtup from the ER where they are kept. There were 10 of us all together to restrain him. 6 of us held him down while the others began to apply the restraints.
I was holding the pt's thighs/knees down, and the pt. began to go in a spitting motion, we threw his gown over his head to protect us.
The leather restraints do not hold the pt down like a Posey vest does, they only go on the arms, and legs. The Pt. lifted his body up, the gown fell off his face, and he coughed up junk from his lungs and spat it all over my face, I felt it go into my eye, on my lips, and when I got home it was all over my back (really sick!!)
So heres where the real fun began. We finished up restraining him, another nurse ran with me into the med room and flushed my eyes out w/ saline using a syringe. I then went to the nursing supervisor, explained what happend. I get sent to the ER to do an occurence report.
I expect to get right in, get baseline bloodwork drawn, get some paperwork then sent back to work. Not hardly! They make me sign in like everyone else who goes to the ER. Then I wait 30minutes to get seen in Triage, where they ask me questions, what happend, take my vitals. They then tell me they will get me seen in our "ER" fastrack as soon as possible.
4 hours later they call me back, 30minutes later they draw my blood, go over some paperwork incorrectly (They didnt fillout anything they were supposed to) then send me back to the nightshift nursing supervisor who was now on duty. This supervisor was very mad that the previous one allowed the ER to keep my waiting 4 hours before seeing me after a bodily fluid exposure, and even madder to see the ER didnt fill out the workmans comp/bodily fluid protocol paperwork correctly. She said the previous supervisor really dropped the ball and should had done more.
I called the Employee health nurse today. He tells me he cant tell me any test results from me or the patient, and that he would call me back in a day or two to tell me when I have to go to a Walk-In clinic our hospital owns to get the bloodwork results. I tell him I was disqusted by having to wait 4 hours in the ER just to have bloodwork drawn. His responce was the ER was probally to busy.
THen he tells me I will have to go to a Walk in clinical that is handling the bloodwork in a few days to get the results, and that I will have to be "patient" as the wait will prob be 2 hours or so.
Does anyone else get treated like this by their employer? Am I in the wrong to think like this? Does professional courtesy not exsist? I basically feel like I am being held hostage legally as I have to follow policy/procedure for this situation.
I truely hope the patient comes back negative for hepatitis C/B, thats all I am really worried about. Just ranting off here
