Has this happened to you???

[SweetMelissaRN]

So in order for me to explain this situation, I must first tell you about a situation with a pt, we'll call him TheCrazy.

In out ER, TheCrazy is a frequent flier, always comes in with either complaints of chest pain or SI. Well, 2 weeks ago I took care of him and was very aggressive and rude (more so than normal), bordering on homicidal.

Well the bordering on turned in to full blown homicidal when he decided to throw an IV pole at me for relaying the message that he wouldn't be getting dilaudid for his earache. Before he threw the IV pole at me he started yelling he was going to "get me on the outside" and knew where to find my silver car (what's scary is I really do drive a silver car :trembles:), then he threw the IV pole. TheCrazy got arrested and taken off in a police car and hooray the day was saved!

Fast forward to last night when who do I walk in to find waiting to be seen by his nurse? TheCrazy of course! I hope he saw the anger (not underlying terror) when we made eye contact where I quickly turned around and told my charge nurse I refused to take care of him for fear of my well being. The only way I would agree to take care of him is if he was handcuffed to the bed, or sedated with diprovan. I was told that neither of those options were plausible (clearly not getting the sarcasm) and that I would have to "suck it up". I refused, and ended up getting WRITTEN UP! Please tell me someone else agrees with me that this is ludicrous?

Oh let me describe TheCrazy to you, imagine a 6'3, 200lb ex-convict or ex-military type of guy. Did I mention I'm a 5'7, 135lb girl, and while I am stronger than most people expect, the only hope I would have in a battle with TheCrazy is that I'm fast and fairly agile.

I really just posted this to vent because I'm still fuming from my first write up.... Because I was scared for my safety!

Hope everyone has/had/will have a pleasant night at work :) BE SAFE!

[sissiesmama, ASN, RN]

So the charge nurse was a decent sized man and you are an averaged size woman and he didn't understand given the situation the last time u cared for him? That's pitiful!

ESP. Since the police were called last time you would think it wouldn't be a problem. We shouldn't have to worry about being battered while caring for someone.

Anne, RNC

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[Sassy5d]

Is he always violent when he comes in?

We have a lot of 'TheCrazy' that come in.. And they have a different personality each time. I understand where you're coming from, but at the same time, get where maybe the charge is coming from.

I guess what I mean is, you can't count him out before he does something. We you able to utilize security staff, never go in the room alone?

Many of ours act differently for different staff members.

[skylark, BSN, RN]

I'm just wondering if the other nurses had also had problems, and there was basically nobody on the floor who had NOT had problems with him in the past?

We also have frequent fliers, and i think we've all been threatened at some point, so often there is nobody left to care from him, if you take out all the nurses who he has threatened previously.

In this situation, the charge nurses sends us in pairs, and has security nearby. I cannot think of any other options.

[bwhiddon74]

Sounds like taking care of him would be a conflict of interest since you had him arrested. Taking him on as a pt would be detrimental to your career if something bad happened to him while under your care (even though you wouldn't have caused it). So, I say the law would override the charge nurse on this one.