Creative Weapons

Fingernails: this patient was on a 1:1 and multiple medications. However, the patient succeeded in causing multiple infected wounds by persistent scratching. Apparently she figured out how to use friction. She had been working in healthcare for a while, and she successfully caused herself to get systematic MRSA.

We had a patient once who found really tiny rocks out on our patio and use them to cut himself. Despite the multiple room searches we did we never found where he would hide the rocks he found. Eventually he confessed that he hid the rocks in a safety pen.

Pencil lead in the light socket will spark enough to light a paper on fire. We had a major fire on the unit.

The little mesh screens that are on faucets to aerate the water...a patient used one of those to cut her wrists.

Pencil lead in the light socket will spark enough to light a paper on fire. We had a major fire on the unit.

Also little bits of paper torn up can also cause fires.

Hairbrushes! Seems innocuous enough, but the bristles cause nasty scratches topically. Can also be used for injury to others & self-injury when used in body orifices.

An older women was admitted for new onset delirium and tried to strangle me with her Jobst hose. She was only about 90 pounds soaking wet, but she had the strength of Hercules and those hose are super tough with little stretch.

We also have had to move the code carts with the monitor/ defibrillator into the med room, because we had a bad incident where a patient, who claimed to be a member of the Justice League was using his super powers and the defibrillator paddles to deflect bullets and ward off wifi mind reading. It was both a safety and cost issue...when security tackled him, they accidentally ripped some wires.

I work in recovery where residents live in their own unit in a complex (one unit in the centre is the office). We have people who do become quite unwell and have access to a range of things to self harm (or attempt suicide). Although we take all knives/scissors etc we had one resident buying razor blades online and delivered directly to her. Another resident drank Ajax Spray'n'Wipe because she felt 'dirty inside'. We have a very fine balance of keeping people safe but allowing them to have control over their environment.

Had a patient make a shank out of pork chop bone.

Wow! Thank you guys for your feedback! Keep it coming!

We have a gentleman in our facility who is a self-harmer, he will insert objects into his urethra or swallow items mostly. Just recently he inserted a game piece into his urethra and then a rubber fork (the pronged end). I was quite amused when he waltzed up to the nurses station and flagged me down. He was so proud of himself and said, " MMC.RN guess what I just shoved up my d**k!"

We've also had a gentleman who ripped out his own catheter, ripped it into pieces, and swallowed it. He's swallowed so many things including a TV, in pieces of course. He's also the same guy who managed to rip up a canvas sheet which was given to him because it's supposedly, "indestructible," and safe to use amongst our patients on suicide precautions.

Other potential weapons I've seen used: toothbrush or hairbrush, CD's that were smuggled in and broken, broken lights or light fixtures, sheets...I'm sure there are more but at the moment my mind is drawing a blank. Almost anything can be used as a weapon, you constantly have to keep your eyes and ears open.

PS: if it isn't obvious our patients will do almost anything to get a trip to the ER...