when you feel creeped out

bernjenkins · Apr 30, 2016

Valuable suggestions . I am thankful for the analysis , Does anyone know where I might obtain a sample a form form to fill in ?

Elladora · Apr 30, 2016

I only volunteer in an ER atm (I'm a nursing student) and this one guy always requests female PAs and Nurses to give him exams (they call him a frequent flyer). I had to get a signature from and one of the male PAs stopped me and told me he'd get it. It's nice of the male PAs and male nurse to always step in but the female staff takes care of them if no one else is there since you're supposed to regardless of the person.

First of all, they need to stop doing that. If it's your job to take care of the patient, you need to do it. Sorry If you feel "creeped out" but unfortunately ALL people need care, not just the nice ones.

James W. · Apr 30, 2016

Here's a tip..

Assume the Jodie Foster/Clarice Starling/FBI-pro, 'race-face' approach,

- as seen in the classic movie - ' Silence of the Lambs'..

Maintain the nursing-role empowered upper-hand & ensure proper boundary control.

Kristiernbsn · Apr 30, 2016

I think in reality it depends on your work environment. The vast majority of facilities/hospitals would not make you work with a patient who had assaulted you or was personally threatening you if you didn't want to. If it's just a case of you being creeped out by someone, or a patient who is assaultive/threatening to everyone, most of the time you have to do it. If we have a patient who is extremely emotionally difficult to work with, no one has to work with him/her more than one shift in a row... if staffing allows. If we have a patient who is blatantly racist, we often don't assign nurses of whatever color s/he hates, just for the nurse's sake--again, if staffing allows.
Many of my patients would be considered "the scum of the earth" by the rest of the country and those of us who work there generally consider it an honor to serve those populations, if not every single individual who comes through. I know how they would be seen at other hospitals. If you truly love to help people, hopefully you would recognize that everyone is deserving of help and kindness. It is not always easy to take care of someone who just flings abusive language (or worse) at you all shift, but someone has to do it.
If this really doesn't sound like something you can do, you don't have to work at a hospital like mine and you can choose a field of nursing where you won't find as many of the kind of people you "can't stand"--but recognize that probably in every field, it's going to happen and you're going to have to rise to the occasion. A fancy hospital gets sociopaths too. L&D, NICU, peds--they all have to deal with family members, some of whom are going to be dysfunctional.

You are a blessing to your patients. My favorite part of nursing is the "difficult " patient-- the one no one else wants. I consider it a personal challenge to find a way to connect with and "soothe the beast" in him. That's what we do, not pick and choose who we want to help.

ixchel · Apr 30, 2016

Another reason I would like to be a nurse is I love to help people, I know that sounds clichÃ© but I'm actually really good at taking care of people, I'm nurturing and kind. But I can't stand the sleazy scumbag guy. I was wondering if a patient makes you uncomfortable can you refuse care?

It doesn't happen often at all. I believe this is partly situational, partly your demeanor. Nurses are very "up in your business". We ask embarrassing questions, we do embarrassing assessments. We do it stoically, and professionally. There is rarely opportunity for a sexually-charged atmosphere in his mind or yours. If you want to know the truth, in my experience, I see the male nurses and techs take a lot more inappropriate behavior from patients than the female ones.

I've had only one situation get under my skin due to inappropriate behavior. It was a guy that took us 3 weeks to detox. His ammonia level was very high still, but he was awake and calm for the first time in those weeks. He wasn't oriented, though. He got handsy with me twice. The first time, I told him that was not appropriate and he needed to stop. The second time, I told him if the behavior continued, I would not return anymore, and that included if he wanted his PRNs. (I never would have followed through with withholding meds for real.) The threat worked, and he was appropriate the remainder of the night. If the threat hadn't worked, I would have asked someone else to go into the room with me, or to administer meds so I wouldn't have been in reaching distance. The next night he was oriented and remembered none of it. And he turned out to be a very nice, polite person.

Axgrinder · Apr 30, 2016

The pt's that make me feel uneasy are the ones you get overt sexual vibes from.

I work telephone triage now, and just last night a pt called reporting urethral irritation and dysuria - then he elaborated as to why. I'll spare you the gorey details of which he described in 3D Technicolor (your welcome - I wish I didn't know either, and could wash my mind clean with bleach) but it involved masturbation and disposable baby diaper. By the time I started to get suspicious it was too late, and I had to tell him, "I'm disconnecting this call". Upon reviewing his EMR after the call ended he had no psych history, but it was unquestionably beyond inappropriate. All our calls are recorded, and I spared a thought as to what my supervisor's reaction will be when she reviews this particular triage interaction. Bottom line: I am way too trusting and some pt's will take advantage of that.

I've also learned that it's not just men who are capable of being sexually inappropriate. I remember an incident that occurred during orientation of my first nursing job. My preceptor sternly reprimanded a female pt for sexual impropriety while we were administering pericare. Luckily the incidents I've had with this type of behavior have been infrequent, although others haven't been quite as fortunate.

Walker111 · Apr 30, 2016

When my coworkers feel this way I will go in the patients room and shut it down. Nobody should feel uncomfortable while doing patient care.

Farawyn · Apr 30, 2016

Creepier than any of this are the "My wife is going to nursing school and I'm worried about all the memberes she will be seeing..." posts.

:sarcastic:

Ruby Vee, BSN · Apr 30, 2016

No, you cannot refuse care because you can't stand the guy. There are going to be many patients you can't stand.
There is no picking and choosing who you take care of.

You can't refuse to take care of someone just because you can't stand the guy, but sometimes it is inappropriate for you to care for certain patients. Especially in a small town, where it is likely that you'll encounter patient's you know outside of the hospital. If the relationship is cordial or distant, it's one thing, but if you know them well and don't get along, it's something else. A friend of mine in a small town ER was assigned one of two patients coming in post motor vehicle crash. It turns out that one of the patient's was her husband and the other was the woman who was performing oral sex on him when he crashed. In this case, she didn't have to take care of either patient.

Another nurse I worked with told me that when he was an EMT, he was called to the scene of a single car accident and found his ex-wife dead at the scene.

I'm just glad I wasn't up for the next admission the night my former mother-in-law came to the CCU with chest pain.

Jensmom7, BSN, RN · Apr 30, 2016

Here's a tip..
Assume the Jodie Foster/Clarice Starling/FBI-pro, 'race-face' approach,
- as seen in the classic movie - ' Silence of the Lambs'..
Maintain the nursing-role empowered upper-hand & ensure proper boundary control.

And if your patient produces a plate of fava beans and a nice Chianti??

James W. · Apr 30, 2016

And if your patient produces a plate of fava beans and a nice Chianti??

That's cool.. its the chopped liver tartare, you'd best avoid..

jdub6 · Apr 30, 2016

Agree that in most cases you just need to put on your no nonsense face and professionally but quickly finish up and get out of the room. Typically as others said you can rotate problem pts but not refuse them.

That said, if a pt is outright threatening or inappropriate to you specially (makes creepy comments to you and creepy comments to others about you) in some cases you do need to not have contact with them. These are rare extreme cases but it does happen. For instance in home health one pts son was weird and creepy to all staff, but when his favorite nurse went on vacation in a neighboring state he found out the town by talking to her and the other staff (a big no no, never give personal info about you or anyone else to anyone but especially those who give bad vibes), found out the exact location through stalker like behavior and managed to show up at the door of her hotel room. Her husband made him leave immediatly and told him if he was anywhere in their vicinity again the police would be called, and upon her return she was pulled off the case and had NO further contact with the family.

As I said this is rare but yes you can and should refuse to be involved if someone has stalking type behavior directed at you specifically. I would also refuse to care for them without a buddy and preferably at all if I was touched sexually or got a direct threat. If the pt is aao and not delirious or actually mentally ill (in which case psych should be addressing this) security and or police should be involved if laws are broken by a pt who knows what they are doing. The garden variety man (or woman) who leers and catcalls at all females (or males) and seems to enjoy care a bit too much is just someone you gotta deal with. (Appropriate independence should be vigorously encouraged with these pts. No one should be touching them to do anything they can do themselves. )