Have you been assaulted by a patient?

[CrabbyPatty]

I think I read an article here somewhere that stated nurses are assaulted more than any other profession.

In my short 2 years as an RN, I've been assaulted (or seen other RN's assaulted) by patients MORE times than I can count (and I don't work in Psych)! I don't blame the patients who attacked me because their illnesses caused major changes in mental status and they didn't know what they were doing.

I DO, however, blame the RN's, Nursing assistants or MD's who DON'T know how to interact with these people and only make things WORSE! Do NOT snicker or giggle at a patient no matter how ridiculous their behavior might be....it doesn't help! And if a fellow nurse says "I need help in here" or "call security", please take it seriously!!!

Just curious how often this happens to others.

[CrabbyPatty]

Several times in the ER. Cops and DA wont do anything about it if there are no serious injuries or the patient is drunk or on some other drug. A friend was assaulted by a sober visitor. DA prosected this one. The judge reamed the DA and sentenced the guy to 3 times what the DA had asked for. Sometimes the good guys win, I guess.

My husband works in worker's comp and has told me horror stories about ER nurses who were attacked by their patients; one RN was stabbed repeatedly by a patient who was high!

Seems like there should be MORE security in ER's and ICU's. At least my hospital's ER has a security guard stationed there, but our ICU is off @ the farthest end of the hospital and even if we call security, it takes them FOREVER to get to us!!! I watched a patient going through DT's who pulled out his foley (ouch!!) and was swinging it around, trying to hit the RN's in the room, punched an RN in the face and kicked another, all the while 3 security guards stood outside the room watching while the nurses in the unit subdued and restrained the patient!!!

[CrabbyPatty]

Many times but the pts were not O&AX3. I have learned to keep a close eye on my pts during the assessments. I have also begun talking with the confused pts for a few minutes before I approach them.

I always try to distract my confused patients, ask them about their families, or just generally talk to them to get a sense of where they are "at that moment". Usually works, but not always.

[CrabbyPatty]

A nurse pushed me into a cart and knocked me down. I cut my hand and all she said was to better prepare myself before I come back to HER ed.

did you report her??? or file a police report?? You should NEVER let another nurse (or any mentally stable person) assault you without pressing charges against them!

[newbetonursing]

:idea:If you dont mind me asking (all of your more experienced nurses), where do most of these assults/verbal words/bitings happen? I did phlebotomy for about two years, and I never saw any of the nurses go thru a situation like that. Im about to start nursing school this november. I didnt know that things in this department could that bad (especially with other co workers). It makes me think twice about making sure I have a strong attorneys.

Again I was just wondering where most of these incidents happened. Im only 23, so I apologize for asking so many questions.

Thanks again,

NewbeTonursing

"P.S. Anyone awake and alert, intact and bigger than me who dares to try to do anything will suffer severe, legal repercussions....and I usually let them know I have attorneys in my family so MY fees will be FREE...... "

You definately make me think twice. :)

[kids]

Little old ladies can get kinda squirrelly when demented and kids can be pretty unpredictable. I've had a good share of pinches, slaps and bites from people not in their right mind but two were significant:

1) A generally healthy gentleman who was near retirement age, 10 days prior to his admit he was working full time as a machinist. He was admitted for abx for cellulitis. He had been started on MS Contin at the hospital, since his arrival at the SNF we had been documenting and notifying his doctor that he was a little more off each day. The doc wouldn't change the orders because the man wasn't especially frightened by the hallucinations and responded well for TLC and reorientation. And he did, until he finally lost what little grip he had on reality and I was the devil there to kill him and stood between him and the window. He punched me in the face so hard it dropped me to my knees, my nose was broken and both my eyes blackened so bad schlera vessels ruptured. His doc's partner heard the commotion & was a few feet from the door when I crawled out it. He picked me up, got me an icepack and a ride to the ER. He also wrote new orders.

I went back to work a week later, on my regular group. The man was still there and my DNS offered to move him or assign another nurse. I really didn't hold a grudge, his behavior wasn't his fault so I thought we should leave it up to him. I spent the first half hour of the shift sitting on the side of his bed hugging him while he cried and told me he was sorry over and over. The stories he later related of what was happening in his head leading up to that were very interesting, "he" was still in there, trying to convince himself that what he was hearing, thinking and seeing wasn't really happening and eventually lost his grip on it. He was a lovely, lovely man, one of the few patients I've kept in touch with over the years, he passed away last summer.

2) Sixteen years ago. Physically healthy, physically large & strong 50yo man with a rare dementia that has a very rapid onset & progression. Victims of this disorder are often physically and sexually aggressive at a stage where they are still physically strong and capable. I was working in a tiny LTC with a very fragile, largely helpless elderly population. I eval'd this guy at the geri-psych unit and told my administration he was not an appropriate and would pose a risk to our residents. Also, he was repeatedly trying to leave the locked unit and we were not a locked facility. His p-doc upped his meds, 24 hours later he was declared stable and the facility took him anyway. Four days later as I was coaxing him away from the door he was trying to abscond through he grabbed me by the back of the next, folded me in half, put me on the floor and body slammed me. Multiple vertebral fractures complicated congenital defects, that event has altered my entire life (and still impacts the employer's WC rates).

[Teebee5]

I haven't even graduated yet, and during my clincal placement a client grabbed and twisted my arm hard enough during a bed bath that it left a mark...

It bothers me that this seems to be normal occurances...

[LouisVRN, RN]

In two years, the most dangerous thing I've had happen is a dementia patient post-op hip fracture who swore I was the antichrist pulled her IV pole down so it crashed on my head. Thankfully I was orienting a male new-grad and he was in the room with me, and she thought he was the greatest thing ever. Since he was near the end of the orientation, I told him I felt comfortable supervising from the doorway.

I've had a few confused patients take a swing at me when I have been ordered to restrain them, but thankfully they have never made contact.

[totally_nuts]

I got beaten up by one of my dementia residents. I was black and blue all over. I know he has dementia but he scared the living hell out of me and I couldn't go back into the dementia unit for months afterwards without having an anxiety attack.

[txredheadnurse, BSN, RN]

Two broken ribs and a heck of a contused neck from an ICU patient. It would have been worse if the doc and MP who responded to our tiny little cleaning ladys' call for help hadn't pulled him off me. This occurred many years ago so the beds at that time had full metal side rails. All 300+ pounds, 6 foot 5 inches of the patient rolled over my right arm and trapped it under him, grabbed my left arm with his left hand and wrapped his right leg around my neck and squeezed. Meanwhile he had lifted me off the floor and was banging me into the side rail. He kicked the cleaning lady across the room, as well as the other nurse. She hit a corner of the desk and broke her wrist. Bless that cleaning lady. She came back at the patient with a mop smacking his arm and leg trying to get him to let me go. He again kicked her across the room. That was when she went barreling down the hall screaming for help.

When the doctor and the MP responded they tried to pull the patient off me and he kicked them away too. But they both literally jumped on top of him. The doctor grabbed the patients ET tube and disconnected the ventilator. Patient still kept shaking me like a chew toy. By now the doc was desparate and I was almost passed out. He punched the patient which combined with the lack of a ventilator caused the guy to remove his leg from around my neck. The MP had been punching the guys thigh and trying to pry it loose without success. As soon as the leg was off my neck the doctor was able to get the patient to loosen his grip on me and the MP pulled me loose. The ventilator was re attached, new four point leather restraints plus additional straps across the thighs were applied until the sedation kicked in. The house supervisor pulled other staff to cover the ICU and all of us who had been assaulted were examined. I fared the worse in terms of injuries. I also had nightmares about this daily for several months afterwards and still will have a flashback type of dream on occasion.

Why did the patient go ballistic on me? I had removed a piece of tape on his chest tube dressing and he went off. I found out later that he had a history of domestic violence and was under investigation for possible discharge from the military. The two things that made me the most upset about this whole thing was when I returned back to work 4 days later (on light duty) the new charge nurse assigned him to me. I refused the assignment because I wasn't supposed to be doing bedside care and, yes, I did not want to even see this man ever again much less take care of him. She wrote me up for refusal of a lawful order. The only write up I ever received while on active duty. It was over turned and removed from my record but it should never have been issued in the first place. The second thing was my ex-husband saying to me that what happened to me wasn't as bad as combat so suck it up. He was also a nurse. Oh yeah, he also got upset that I woke up screaming every night for months as I relieved the assault in my dreams since it disturbed his sleep.

I am still eternally grateful to that tiny little cleaning lady who showed remarkable courage for stepping up to help and for getting help before I was injured more severely. And that doc stayed one of my favorites for the remainder of my time on active duty and we stayed in contact for several years after he and I both returned to civilian life.

[Silverla]

I've been hit, and kicked and scratched and spit on so many times working in LTC. I have only been scared once though. I went in to the room of a large man in his early 60's who had a previous brain injury and AD, he was such a sweet man but as his dementia progressed he had moments of explosive violence. He was lying on his bed with his eyes open toward the ceiling and I called his name several times with no response. So I lightly touched his knee, he got up faster than I would have ever imagined he was capable of with an enraged look on his face and ran at me with his fist up, I backed up yelling at him to stop when he finally did a Ft away from me. It took my heart rate so long to return to normal.

I had another incident with the same man, I was doing care and when it came time to shave his face I showed him the electric razor and turned it on so the noise wouldn't startle him but I was only finished half his face when he became agitated and clinched his fist (behavior that he did before previous incidents of violence),so I stopped. Later my supervisor came by and said, "oh, I see you didn't shave _____," and I told her that I tried and why I stopped. Then she tells me, "it's funny how he's aggressive with some people and not with others." So I said, "I didn't think shaving him was worth getting punched in the face." It's so unfortunate when co-workers don't support each others safety.

[eriksoln, BSN, RN]

I used to work on a lock down TBI unit. You never knew when it was going to happen. Interesting to say the least.

[Tait, MSN, RN]

Two broken ribs and a heck of a contused neck from an ICU patient. It would have been worse if the doc and MP who responded to our tiny little cleaning ladys' call for help hadn't pulled him off me. This occurred many years ago so the beds at that time had full metal side rails. All 300+ pounds, 6 foot 5 inches of the patient rolled over my right arm and trapped it under him, grabbed my left arm with his left hand and wrapped his right leg around my neck and squeezed. Meanwhile he had lifted me off the floor and was banging me into the side rail. He kicked the cleaning lady across the room, as well as the other nurse. She hit a corner of the desk and broke her wrist. Bless that cleaning lady. She came back at the patient with a mop smacking his arm and leg trying to get him to let me go. He again kicked her across the room. That was when she went barreling down the hall screaming for help.

When the doctor and the MP responded they tried to pull the patient off me and he kicked them away too. But they both literally jumped on top of him. The doctor grabbed the patients ET tube and disconnected the ventilator. Patient still kept shaking me like a chew toy. By now the doc was desparate and I was almost passed out. He punched the patient which combined with the lack of a ventilator caused the guy to remove his leg from around my neck. The MP had been punching the guys thigh and trying to pry it loose without success. As soon as the leg was off my neck the doctor was able to get the patient to loosen his grip on me and the MP pulled me loose. The ventilator was re attached, new four point leather restraints plus additional straps across the thighs were applied until the sedation kicked in. The house supervisor pulled other staff to cover the ICU and all of us who had been assaulted were examined. I fared the worse in terms of injuries. I also had nightmares about this daily for several months afterwards and still will have a flashback type of dream on occasion.

Why did the patient go ballistic on me? I had removed a piece of tape on his chest tube dressing and he went off. I found out later that he had a history of domestic violence and was under investigation for possible discharge from the military. The two things that made me the most upset about this whole thing was when I returned back to work 4 days later (on light duty) the new charge nurse assigned him to me. I refused the assignment because I wasn't supposed to be doing bedside care and, yes, I did not want to even see this man ever again much less take care of him. She wrote me up for refusal of a lawful order. The only write up I ever received while on active duty. It was over turned and removed from my record but it should never have been issued in the first place. The second thing was my ex-husband saying to me that what happened to me wasn't as bad as combat so suck it up. He was also a nurse. Oh yeah, he also got upset that I woke up screaming every night for months as I relieved the assault in my dreams since it disturbed his sleep.

I am still eternally grateful to that tiny little cleaning lady who showed remarkable courage for stepping up to help and for getting help before I was injured more severely. And that doc stayed one of my favorites for the remainder of my time on active duty and we stayed in contact for several years after he and I both returned to civilian life.

All I can say is wow...

What a great doc to jump in there and fight the guy. So many of these stories bring tears to my eyes just reading them!

I have been sexually assaulted twice and verbally assaulted more times than I can count. It is hard when your patient has dementia or withdrawls and are out of their minds, but sometimes it is amazing how a firm "NO" and stern look will alter their behavior no matter where they are. Always surprises me when it actually works. (Gotta love learned behaviors and reactions).

To the poster who got shoved down by a co-worker: I would have had her butt in the CNO's office so fast it would have spun her head! What a jerk!

Tait