Double standards b/w nurses and police officers

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I once worked with a nurse who was immediately fired after a patient complained about something extremely petty. His complaint was how he felt burdensome to her because she told him he needs to stop calling every 5 minutes. Nurses are always getting reprimanded for little things, and oftentimes the BON gets called about the nurse, putting our license at risk for oftentimes petty complaints.

 

I’ve been in situations where the patients realllllly challenged my patience, hit me, acted violent, cussed me out. I know all of you have, too. And we handle it, it takes teamwork and sometimes chemical or physical  restraints, but at the end of the shift, we did it and we did it well. And then we’re called about some BS complaint or minor documentation error. 

Never once have I worked with a nurse who needed to put a knee on someone’s neck to get “em under control. Hell, George Floyd would’ve been one of my easy patients from the footage I’ve seen. I could’ve handled him with some soothing but stern words. Can you imagine what the nurse would go thru if we put our knee on someone’s neck? OMG.

Or recently in my town, a cop body-slammed a person and caused a seizure  after being told by the person to STFU. And it’s been that cops 4th major  offense in 5 years, with the first three offenses requiring anger management and counseling. How many of you had patients call you every name under the sun and you still kept your composure? It really doesn’t even phase me when it happens.  But can you imagine what would happen to us if we got in that patients face? Or body slammed that patient? Most of us endure some form of physical abuse from patients if we work the bedside, especially ED nurses. Yet, we handle it, and rarely file police reports ourselves, and we certainly never flip out and go ape ***. 

Why double standards? Why aren’t police officers held to the same standards as nurses? It’s sickening. 

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Specializes in School Nursing.

I agree police should have a licensing body over them, and when the renew every two years, have to answer questions like, "Were involved in any excess force or discharge of a firearm investigations in the last two years?"

 

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Specializes in retired LTC.

Police have UNIONS!!! That's the difference! Every police dept.

Many of us believe that unnecessary force was used on George Floyd. But the police union is standing behind that officer.

I like the idea that police and law enforcement officers should be somehow licensed like nurses. With all the oversight. But it will never happen as the police unions with its members would just not tolerate it. Never get off the ground.

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Specializes in Psych, Corrections, Med-Surg, Ambulatory.

There actually is a type of licensure; I'm not sure how many jurisdictions have it.  Nurses are expected to care for sick people so the focus is on being nurturing.  We do tolerate a lot of bad behaviour that we shouldn't have to tolerate.  It's on us that we don't stand up for ourselves better.

Police are expected to protect the public from those who would do harm.  It requires a different mindset and a different set of skills, with some overlap.  Good communication skills are a must, but not all training emphasizes it.

When police are found to behave badly it garners a lot of publicity.  The same happens with nurses, as well.  Both professions are subjected to a lot of second-guessing by people who don't know what they don't know.

I do recommend watching reality shows involving different law enforcement agencies.  Cops is only one; there is Border Patrol, To Catch a Smuggler and others.  Actual individuals describe their work and are filmed performing it.  Too bad nurses can't do the same thing, but HIPAA.

It's very enlightening to see what other professions are up against.  (I also recommend Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe, but that's another story.)

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Specializes in Ped ED, PICU, PEDS, M/S. SD.

Apparently you never worked in an ER. There is a bunch of crazy out there. 

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42 minutes ago, Dacatster said:

Apparently you never worked in an ER. There is a bunch of crazy out there. 

Actually I love the ER, it is wild and crazy alright. But despite getting smacked, spit and punched more times than I can recollect, I’ve never had to put my knee on the neck of a patient, or tase them, or tackle them to the ground with 5 others. I handle it. And ironically, most of the people that police officers brutally attack already have handcuffs on; handcuffs make the suspect less of a threat, so why tase or attack or grind the knee into their carotid? The EGO. 

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Specializes in Ped ED, PICU, PEDS, M/S. SD.

Well I am so glad you have never been faced with that situation. Unfortunately, so of us have not been so lucky. 

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Specializes in retired LTC.

I believe that there are some communities (NOT TOO MANY) that have Community Review Boards (or something like it) that becomes involved in these types of incidents. Don't know how much political clout they carry to make any recommendations for sanctionings.

Our BONs are charged with 'protecting the public'. Not us. That's OK to protect our industry from 'bad nurses'. (But I will agree that things do go overboard at times.)

So who 'protects the public from the protector LEO'? That's what I believe is needed for law enforcement and ancillaries, like corrections.

Any agency that could have power to revoke a 'license to practice' could possibly impact today's LE environment.

Something has got to be implemented.

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Specializes in ER.

I put a methed out patient in a Full Nelson once. He was threatening the medics who'd just brought him into my ER room, I was behind him and able to subdue him to the ground easily with that move, me,  a 60 yo woman.?

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“Threatening” is OK, it really is! Threats are only words. 

He was on Meth, did you expect him to be A/OX3 and rationale? 

“Your” ER? 

Hello EGO! Check yo’self before you wreck yo’self.

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Specializes in Physiology, CM, consulting, nsg edu, LNC, COB.
On 4/7/2021 at 7:32 PM, raindrop said:

oftentimes the BON gets called about the nurse, putting our license at risk for oftentimes petty complaints.

True, but the BON knows how to recognize a petty complaint, so no worries about your license on that score.

 

On 4/7/2021 at 7:32 PM, raindrop said:

Most of us endure some form of physical abuse from patients if we work the bedside, especially ED nurses. Yet, we handle it, and rarely file police reports ourselves, and we certainly never flip out and go ape ***. 

Why double standards? Why aren’t police officers held to the same standards as nurses? It’s sickening. 

Other than the fact that LEO (law enforement officers) may be more likely to encounter violence potential in their workplace than we are,  I think it's because that's how they're attracted to the field and then how they're trained. I am hoping fervently that this is on the cusp of reform, true re-forming of all the current paradigms. When the police can be refocused on the preserve and protect part and less on the throw-your-weight-around part, we'll all be better off.

BTW, I see that Officer Chauvin is 5'6". Small man syndrome often includes bullying once they get power.

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Specializes in ER.
On 4/22/2021 at 4:27 PM, TriciaJ said:

There actually is a type of licensure; I'm not sure how many jurisdictions have it.  Nurses are expected to care for sick people so the focus is on being nurturing.  We do tolerate a lot of bad behaviour that we shouldn't have to tolerate.  It's on us that we don't stand up for ourselves better.

Police are expected to protect the public from those who would do harm.  It requires a different mindset and a different set of skills, with some overlap.  Good communication skills are a must, but not all training emphasizes it.

When police are found to behave badly it garners a lot of publicity.  The same happens with nurses, as well.  Both professions are subjected to a lot of second-guessing by people who don't know what they don't know.

I do recommend watching reality shows involving different law enforcement agencies.  Cops is only one; there is Border Patrol, To Catch a Smuggler and others.  Actual individuals describe their work and are filmed performing it.  Too bad nurses can't do the same thing, but HIPAA.

It's very enlightening to see what other professions are up against.  (I also recommend Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe, but that's another story.)

Good point that when a cop behaves badly or even debatably badly it is widely publicized. Not so much when they do good things. Most cops are good people with a very tough job trying to do the right thing. Same thing with doctors and nurses but definitely a few bad apples. 

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