Okay...so maybe gutless is a strong word but I am having a difficult time finding another term to describe some of my colleagues after the most recent assault I was involved in. The nurses station is isolated and poorly designed to where the patient is between the door and the desk where patients come in and sit down for assessments or just to chat.
Some time into my shift a patient enters the office and is focused on some persecutory delusion. I perform some active/reflective listening. He seems okay but just flips instantaneously, screams, jumps up from his chair, slams the door, turns to me and just charges me. I am not easily frightened, but this patient outweighs me by a decent amount and you can tell by the look in his eyes that he wanted to make me pay for...whatever.
As I am slammed against the wall, I am pushing back, trying to escape using the bi-yearly, substandard escape maneuvers we are taught during orientation, I am repeatedly shouting for help only to see one or maybe two of the techs open the door, watching the patient attempting to rip my face off, only to see them close the door. I am able to work my way around the patient take two steps to the door to try a futile escape before he grabs my back and closes the door. A couple of seconds later the door opens again and I see a nurse and a tech from a different wing on my unit enter the room. He lunges at me again but I am able to side step him and guide him to the floor. As I feel the other nurse grab him, I get out of the room to collect myself and catch my breath. I was honestly glad to be alive. When something like that happens, which has never happened to me, I felt like I was going to die.
Personnel arrived seconds later from other units to assist. After the adrenaline slows down, I assess the damage. Mostly a few scratches and bruises. As a few days have now gone by, I am beginning to feel anger, not over what the patient did (obviously it comes with the job) but by the complete cowardice of the two techs on my wing who just stood by and did nothing to help, despite me shouting at the top of my lungs for help. I must have shouted it at least 15 times. Several of those times were when the techs were looking at us like a deer in headlights and several more after watching them withdraw.
Am I alone? Am I wrong to feel pissed off at them? Thanks.
I don't blame you for being mad. I would be as well. How dare you get hurt and they stand there. I would understand more if it was just one person who froze in the moment, but there were two of them. Scared or not you do not let another co-worker get beaten like that. Even distracting the patient would have been helpful. Simply doing nothing wasn't the right option. I did psych for a short time and enjoyed it some days. Others I felt like I was at serious risk and that was mainly due to poor staffing/terrible training for staff. Psych patients can be very dangerous and unpredictable. Management may not care since their risk is minimal, or at least they think it is. I bet if it was a manager that was attacked wheels would be in motion already. Being the Nurse we are expected to take this abuse. It's crap. Now I'm p*ssed for you. Get some help through your Employer if at all possible. Take care.
I may have jumped the gun in my assumption that my colleagues, at least one of them, did nothing. One of the two on the unit with me was on safety checks and per policy, is not allowed to engage in any activity besides watching patients on the unit. But you're right. That person could have tried to distract the person or something.
I have never understood the mentality that we are expected to expect to be physically assaulted at some point in our career, and that we are expected to accept this as "just part of the job."
I have been assaulted plenty of times, but by elderly dementia patients that truly don't understand what they are doing. There is no thought process there, just the physical reaction of lashing out. It's never bothered me and I too consider it just part of the job. It has scared me a few times when the combative elderly resident is a big ambulatory man with no filters and no possibility of verbally redirecting him exists. Then we do the best we can to remove all other residents to a safe area and get the heck out of the way until help arrives. Help in this case means a 911 call and a lot of responding officers. Why didn't somebody call 911 to get you help in this situation?
Specializes in Psych (25 years), Medical (15 years).
Daniel Gilbert, in his book, Stumbling on Happiness, says that we feel better about a situation if we have someone to blame. The Gutless Colleagues in this scenario rightly deserve this blame.
We all do the best we can at any given time, in any given situation. That doesn't mean we don't have the potential to do more or better, it just means that we do the best that we can at that time.
Obviously these Gutless Colleagues were more concerned for their own safety than LPC2RN's safety and they reacted accordingly. That's a difficult fact to swallow. LCP2RN is experiencing emotions appropriate to the situation and the Gutless Colleagues' reaction. When our safety has been violated and those responsible do not act appropriately, anger, fear and cognitive dissonance result.
Through understanding others' behavior, we can sometimes find peace within ourselves. And peace is gained not through what others do or say or what happens around us, but through being at peace with ourselves.
Here's to LCP2RN in the quest for finding Peace and Closure.
Daniel Gilbert, in his book, Stumbling on Happiness, says that we feel better about a situation if we have someone to blame. The Gutless Colleagues in this scenario rightly deserve this blame.
We all do the best we can at any given time, in any given situation. That doesn't mean we don't have the potential to do more or better, it just means that we do the best that we can at that time.
Obviously these Gutless Colleagues were more concerned for their own safety than LPC2RN's safety and they reacted accordingly. That's a difficult fact to swallow. LCP2RN is experiencing emotions appropriate to the situation and the Gutless Colleagues' reaction. When our safety has been violated and those responsible do not act appropriately, anger, fear and cognitive dissonance result.
Through understanding others' behavior, we can sometimes find peace within ourselves. And peace is gained not through what others do or say or what happens around us, but through being at peace with ourselves.
Here's to LCP2RN in the quest for finding Peace and Closure.
You are completely valid in your feelings! In my opinion those techs need to be fired! I don't care how little or long they've worked there. #1. As a tech on the unit you are trained to take down a patient. #2. Even if you aren't a trained professional any decent human being with an ounce of empathy for human life would intervene in a situation like that. I truly hope those techs got a good tongue lashing. I am truly sorry you had to deal with that. I couldn't imagine working in an environment like that.
I so agree imintrouble. You stated precisely what needs to happen to those 2 techs. They are a danger to staff and patients and need to be fired immediately! There is no excuse. Decency can't be taught. You either have it or you don't and they obviously don't.
I'm not going to join the debate but will only add, that I'm sorry LBC2RN had this experience. I'm going to assume this is an isolated event and just one of those horrible things that no one could predict and just went very wrong. I agree with Davey, you have the right to feel however you feel. I'm a decent sized guy and this sounds terrifying to me. I would imagine that I'd be angry and I'm sure I'd be a little on edge when I was at work. Get whatever help you need as the only shame is NOT ASKING for it. If at all possible try to learn something from this as I imagine this is something that you will never forget. Again, sorry you went through this.
I agree! I work in a corrections facility and if this happened to me it could be a life or death situation and all you have is the support of your co-workers. If they can't step up they need to get out!
I work in an inpatient psych hospital that sounds very similar to yours. Our training is completely inadequate for the "real world" on the units. Our code system (intercom) isn't fast enough, and sometimes fails. Our pool of applicants for psych tech jobs comes from a tiny, rural town (We don't have the luxury of experienced labor). It doesn't make it right, but I wonder if these staff were undertrained, lacking confidence and scared? I do agree with a previous poster that they could have at least tried to yell or gesture to distract or interrupt this pt's thoughts/bx.
Dobie - might I ask a detail in order to add to my learning "toolbox"? How could this tech have protected himself differently? Escort or buddy? Was he killed with a tool that was created, stolen from staff or contraband such as brought in by visitor? thank you…...
LPC2RN
24 Posts
I may have jumped the gun in my assumption that my colleagues, at least one of them, did nothing. One of the two on the unit with me was on safety checks and per policy, is not allowed to engage in any activity besides watching patients on the unit. But you're right. That person could have tried to distract the person or something.