Do you arrest abusive patients?

Specialties Emergency

Published

We are having a debate on and off about whether or not to arrest someone who is abusive in the ED.

Not someone who has assaulted a staff memeber...that's a "no brainer"...bye bye my friend...enjoy your new wardrobe of orange!

I'm talking about those who threaten you or are verbally abusive.

I realize that we would be filling up the jail cells...but the PD should have plenty of room...since they bring IN all those drunks who are "Too drunk to go to jail" anyway...

I'm not sure if it's worth it or not.

Any thoughts...

We have one security officer who uses a walker.

MOG!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Specializes in ER, ICU, L&D, OR.
MOG!!!!!!!!!!!!!

he can alwys hit them with the walker

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he can alwys hit them with the walker

if he could lift it!!!

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Specializes in Trauma, Teaching.
and pepper spray also

Uh-uhhh! not in my ER! We had a berserker running down the hall, when the cops peppered him, they only got half of it on him and the other half on the nurse behind him :uhoh3: :crying2:

guess which one got the most care the fastest? and PD is banned from using it here ever again. Now tasers.......

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Specializes in ER, ICU, L&D, OR.

Tasers

I like that high tech stuff

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I think I have to move out of the Midwest to the Southwest...

You guys got all the fun stuff!

Pepper spray AND tasers!!!

:rotfl:

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No you should not arrest a patient for being verbally abusive even if he threatens your life. I been verbally abused not a big deal it wasnt the first time i been yelled at and wont be the last time. Now if a patient attacks you and he's not a psyche patient then you should donate their body to a medical school. :D

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No you should not arrest a patient for being verbally abusive even if he threatens your life. I been verbally abused not a big deal it wasnt the first time i been yelled at and wont be the last time. Now if a patient attacks you and he's not a psyche patient then you should donate their body to a medical school. :D

I'm gonna have to disagree with Dr. Gonzo on this one...but I will allow that it's situational. If the patient's psychotic or disoriented or something, OK. But if they're just an drunken orifice'ole or justa plain old orifice'ole...then yes. Arrest his orifice....with prejudice.

Imagine if you went into Starbuck's and threatend to kill the coffee guy because you had to wait too long for a latte. They'd call the police and you'd go to jail.

Suppose, Dr. Gonzo, you're at your favorite bar and your favorite waitress or bartender is being loudly berated by an angry patron for...say, pouring the wrong drink (or more likely, cutting him off...)? Mightn't you come to your barmaid's aid and twist off said patron's head for such an impoliteness? You would.

You don't shoot the cable guy because he didn't hook up the Spice channel....you just slip him 50 bucks. (imagine how'd that improve wait times in the ER ;)

In effect what you're saying is that you and your co-workers don't deserve the same respect and social courtesy afforded to all other service industry members. Hell, no. It's not like I don't have enough problems without the local Toyota dealer screaming at me because his kid has had a fever all afternoon.

Now, I'm military.....but I have no problem having our unruly non-military customers escorted out of the hospital by SP's into the custody of the local PD. You shouldn't either. My military customers who misbehave are dealt with accordingly as well.

The bottom line is that no, you don't get to be rude and disrespectful and nasty to ER nurses, be it a patient, doctor or other.

ER nurses, you work hard, you deserve respect for saving lives and relieving suffering. Anyone who whines can go to nursing school just like we did and feel free to do it better. Anyone who threatens your life needs to be reported. Lastly, a healthy knowledge of firearms, brightly lit parking lots, unlisted phone numbers, no last names, and safety in numbers needs to be part of every ER nurse's routine.

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Look if someone is in the ER it's usually not cause they wanna be their. Most of them are cranky i understand so if their verbally abusive big deal. Just call security and have them deal with them.

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Just last night I had a patient go nuts--got abusive and violent with staff. We had the police come in and 'talk' to pt, pt started hitting police--not the right thing to do. :nono: I wouldn't let them handcuff pt to bed like they wanted to though. We managed to 'get pt settled down' (haldol, ativan, versed) and pt took a little nap. So yes! We call the police for violent pts but as far as I know no one has ever been arrested for violence against a staff member.

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he can alwys hit them with the walker

hehehehehe :p

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Just last night I had a patient go nuts--got abusive and violent with staff. We had the police come in and 'talk' to pt, pt started hitting police--not the right thing to do. :nono: I wouldn't let them handcuff pt to bed like they wanted to though. We managed to 'get pt settled down' (haldol, ativan, versed) and pt took a little nap. So yes! We call the police for violent pts but as far as I know no one has ever been arrested for violence against a staff member.

I guess this is the reason I posted this thread to start with.

WHY don't we arrest these people?

I am NOT talking about the psychs either...they have no control...

I AM taking about the drunks and a$$es that think they can do or say anything because they are a$$es and drunks!

NO WHERE ELSE would this behavior be tolerated. No WHERE.

Just because we are nurses and want to help and nurture everyone...does NOT mean that we should be the verbal abuse-taking door mats. Calling security is fine if someone is getting unruly...loud...whatever...

But when it escalates to threats and obscenities...WHY do I have to "take it" just because I am a nurse? WHY???

A someone else said...even in a bar...you get out of line and become verbally abusive and/or threatening...you are asked to shut up or you are arrested. Period.

I guarantee you that if one of the drunks who comes in my ER said "I want some God DA@# food now you stupid CU$#" to a waitress...he would be spending the rest of his evening compliments of the local authorities.

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