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!!!
A few weeks ago, in clinical, I had an A&Ox3 patient throw pretty much everything that wasn't nailed down at me: newspaper, gown, bottle, IS, etc. This was while cussing me out from here to next Tuesday...
He did this in front of his wife as well as other staff.
We wondered if perhaps this was caused by brain mets from kidney CA. We asked the wife (who was in tears from his verbal abuse) when this behavior started and she replied he had been like that since they got married (at least 30 years).
I hope she took the opportunity while he was in the SNF to file for divorce. One mean SOB he was...
I am so scared of bites. Not only that, but you can't even do anything to stop it...you have to wait until they let go. It's horrible knowing that you are there to protect others but can't do much to protect yourself.
I've had some self defence classes with school and work (I can't remember what the euphemism they used for self defence was...) anyway they have all recommended with bites, say they bit your arm, your suppose to place your palm on the back of their head and pull them in towards you, while pushing the arm they've bitten forward.Or if your with a co-worker have them hold the person there while you use your rub your knuckle hard on their upper lip under their nose. Try it, it really hurts. The theory behind it is that it takes the feeling of control away from them which makes them more willing to listen when you tell them to let go. Does it actually work? I don't know. Is it possible to remember to do when its happening? I don't know?
I just mention it because their recommendation for when someone pulls your hair works really well when I've used it for my self and co-workers. Push their fist down on your head while pushing their knuckles down to break their fist. When I had to do it I lost some of my hair that was between their fingers, but it could have been a lot worse.
Just ideas, maybe you should talk to your workplace about self defence training for staff. BTW I mentioned this to my husband and he recommends punching them.:) What ever works for you.
A few weeks ago, in clinical, I had an A&Ox3 patient throw pretty much everything that wasn't nailed down at me: newspaper, gown, bottle, IS, etc. This was while cussing me out from here to next Tuesday...
He did this in front of his wife as well as other staff.
We wondered if perhaps this was caused by brain mets from kidney CA. We asked the wife (who was in tears from his verbal abuse) when this behavior started and she replied he had been like that since they got married (at least 30 years).
I hope she took the opportunity while he was in the SNF to file for divorce. One mean SOB he was...
What a sad story for the lady married to this patient; and glad you were not hurt. Shame is was based on facts; as it was almost comical to hear the "punch line" of 30 years!!!!! Wow!!! Poor woman.
after reading all of the replies regarding assaults at work I wonder if there is anything nurses in massachusetts can do to press charges against these patients?
I have been hit by another nurse and I made the mistake of letting the don and human resources deal with it
what a mistake it was a joke nothing was done to that nurse what I should have done was press legal charges against her hind site is 20/20
as for patients I have had some threaten me stating they are going to throw a colostomy bag in my face
and I have told them it is a felony to assault a medical or law enforcement professional with bodily fluids or waste
secondary to the possibility of HIV and Hep it worked!
facilities do nothing to enforce proper conduct in medical facilities the co I work for does LTC , short term rehab post op and has a locked dementia unit we are verbally abused daily, some have been hit kicked slapped and nothing is done until it's a patient to patient altercation then the offender is sectioned to a psych hosp ( which in some cases has taken days to do )
families are worse defending the offender by saying it's the staff and their approach lol
oh yes ' hello how are you? bam a swing and a hit" IF nurses and cnas actually pressed charges against the sane ones and it made the newspapers maybe just maybe people would at least pretend to respect the staff trying to heal them or if medical professionals actually sued them in courts they would think twice about their conduct.
WE ABSOLUTELY ALL NEED TO COME TOGETHER ON ABUSE TOWARDS MEDICAL STAFF. I BELIEVE WE CAN CONTINUE TO GIVE BETTER QUALITY CARE WHEN WE ARE NOT AFRAID AND THAT OUR EMPLOYER WILL DEFEND AND PROTECT US!!
I have been smacked and hit several times. I just had an old lady bite me on the arm, but did not break the skin, just a big bruise. It is par for the course when you work with the elderly and demented. Not a fun part of the job and something we have to sometimes get used to.
I am sorry to hear about the abuse, but I will never be of mind to think it is "something we have to get used to". I do agree our jobs can get physical, but I will report it each time and not turn a blind eye. I must admit I did that for years, but after so much I realized that it was important not to ignore this treatment from a patient or a fellow peer. It is unfortunate that we do come into contact with patients who are not aware, but there are many patients that are more aware than we are lead to believe; these are the patients that need to be reported.
Please know that I love what I do and am glad I chose this calling; but I will not tolerate any form of abuse as this only shows acceptance of poor behavior. I work in a facility that will not tolerate any form of abuse (again we are talking about patients that are aware).
Specializes in Rural, Midwifery, CCU, Ortho, Telemedicin.
Been there - had it happen by both compus mentas and non compus mentas patients. Finger bitten to the bone, kicked hard enough in the SP that had another very astute nurse not been there I wouldn't be here, to having one of my breasts fractured and my genitals assualted, multiple bruises on extremities. And that was in the private sector of the nursing business. But the real problem comes from the administrative persons who "know" that if you just speak softly to these poor souls that they will see the error of their way and stop their actions, and that by the nurse tells the patient to "stop that now" that nurses are assaulting the patients. True happening.
I want to thank everyone for posting their experiences. I am about to start nursing school in a few weeks. The comments posted here are very helpful and can teach any student or person how to be cautious.
I'm an SN, still have a ways to go before I become an RN.. do you have any advice you can share about talking patients down?
I think in my case it comes from "life experience" (i.e., being old). As I've gotten older I've gotten more comfortable talking to people and I came from a very abusive, dysfunctional family; many times I can actually relate to a situation that a patient might be going through. If not, I try to distract them by asking them about their family or where they live/grew up, etc.
If they have children, I tell them that I'm a mom and just talk about my son or funny things that happened when he was growing up. I'll talk about where I grew up (in the south) and different life situations I've experienced.
If they are totally out of it, I try to get them to talk as much as possible about themselves, so I know where they are mentally and can keep my distance if need be. It doesn't always work (I have been assaulted twice), but I've seen much worse happen to other nurses than myself. Don't EVER turn your back on a confused or aggressive patient...back out of the room. If you don't feel safe, get help (another nurse or security).
I'm sure other more experience nurses than I have MUCH more helpful info than I do. You'll also learn some helpful stuff during your psych rotation in school.
after reading all of the replies regarding assaults at work I wonder if there is anything nurses in massachusetts can do to press charges against these patients?
I have been hit by another nurse and I made the mistake of letting the don and human resources deal with it
what a mistake it was a joke nothing was done to that nurse what I should have done was press legal charges against her hind site is 20/20
as for patients I have had some threaten me stating they are going to throw a colostomy bag in my face
and I have told them it is a felony to assault a medical or law enforcement professional with bodily fluids or waste
secondary to the possibility of HIV and Hep it worked!
facilities do nothing to enforce proper conduct in medical facilities the co I work for does LTC , short term rehab post op and has a locked dementia unit we are verbally abused daily, some have been hit kicked slapped and nothing is done until it's a patient to patient altercation then the offender is sectioned to a psych hosp ( which in some cases has taken days to do )
families are worse defending the offender by saying it's the staff and their approach lol
oh yes ' hello how are you? bam a swing and a hit" IF nurses and cnas actually pressed charges against the sane ones and it made the newspapers maybe just maybe people would at least pretend to respect the staff trying to heal them or if medical professionals actually sued them in courts they would think twice about their conduct.
In my honest opinion, if you're assaulted and you went to your superiors and nothing was done, you need to file an incident report @ your hospital or establishment; contact their risk management department AND I would contact the police and file assault charges against the individual(s) who assaulted you.
I've only been an RN for 2 years, so others might have better solutions than mine.
good for you! that's what's missing is reporting these people. instead of shrinking away because you think you will be fired; report your injuries so you are protected. if we continue to have sn, cna's, rn etc shy away from doing so, and then what happens is these "aware" patients become empowered. we are not dogs, we serve with care and compasion in our hearts and this abuse must stop. if this were done on the street, police would show up and the person must pay the price. the day i was told not to report something was the day i did exactly the opposite as it was the right thing to do in order to protect me. i had 4 stitches and a broken rib and was still told not to report. a week later i was called at home telling me 'they were sorry" and when could i come back to work.
so, please remember, if you do not report abuse of any sorts, you will be saying "it's ok for patients to abuse me", thus it only continues and trickles down to your peers.
it's your body and we only have one. no patient's (of course we are talking about aware patients) are ever going to put me out on disability and not be handed a consequence for their poor behavior by the hospital, ltc etc. again, some employers will tell you to turn a blind eye.
stay safe!!
if you don't report it, it's the same as "if you don't document it, it didn't happen". if you don't bring this stuff to light, then people may not believe it's really happening.
after i was kicked in the throat by a patient (who was wrist, but not ankle restrained), i received a phone call the next day from risk management questioning my why the md wrote an order for 4-point restraints and a 1:1 observer for a 76 year old male (she asked "could someone so old really be that threatening?") i informed her that once he managed to pull out his iv that was delivering a critical cardiac med (while wrist restrained) and kick me in the throat (and yes, a 76 year old demented patient can kick hard as hell) that the md decided it was necessary to protect the patient and staff. the risk manager asked me if i had gone to the er afterwards and filed an incident report, i told her no, that no one told me i should....interesting, because my manager was aware of everything that happened, but didn't mention the need for me to be seen in the er or complete an "incident report".
Poor woman.
sparklie.lady
158 Posts
A few weeks ago, in clinical, I had an A&Ox3 patient throw pretty much everything that wasn't nailed down at me: newspaper, gown, bottle, IS, etc. This was while cussing me out from here to next Tuesday...
He did this in front of his wife as well as other staff.
We wondered if perhaps this was caused by brain mets from kidney CA. We asked the wife (who was in tears from his verbal abuse) when this behavior started and she replied he had been like that since they got married (at least 30 years).
I hope she took the opportunity while he was in the SNF to file for divorce. One mean SOB he was...