How can you protect yourself from a harrassing patient at a Nursing Home?

Babs0512 · Jul 5, 2008

LOL, actually, I probably did! :chuckle:chuckle:chuckle

maggiecreek · Jul 5, 2008

I want everyone to understand. I and I have my companies attention on this....I am very concerned for the cna's that are there an other nurse's. I think an have witnessed that things can go bad.. I just hope this home forgets money an looks at safety for all. I Truly hope things go well for them. Yes I get to leave but they don't unless they quit. I hope for the best for them.

maggiecreek · Jul 5, 2008

I agree with most of the posts, and I can't give out legal advice. But let me tell you about a patient that sexually harassed me, and how I handled it.
I was working ICU and had been off a couple of days, so when I came back, no one wanted to take care of this guy. He was a prisioner complete with gun toting guards. He had been a MI, and was being titrated off of his Nitro gtt - so I had to go in to see him approx every ten minutes.
My first trip in, I introduced myself and did a head to toe assessment. I check his base fluids and his gtt, explained we were going to begin titrating off the nitro, so he was to report any chest pain/tightness or sob to me immediately.
As I turned the drip down, the patient exposed himself to me and began touching himself and making suggestive comments. I tried not to look at him and told him his behavior was innappropriate, and I would treat him with respect if he treated me with respect. The guards even told him to "knock it off".
I left the room, and documented what happend. 10 min later, I go back in, check vitals and turn the Nitro down. He starts this ritual again, adding "have you every seen anything like this baby!" referring to his member. Again, I got flustered and tried the "this is inappropriate behavior" lecture.
I left the room again, and documented everything, third time in the room, I did vs, asked him if he had any pain, and turned the gtt off. Again, he exposed himself and asked me "come on baby, have you ever seen anything like this before" the answer came to me, I stopped what I was doing, look directly at his member and said "yes I have, every night when I bathe my 6 year old son". The guards started laughing, and the patient called me the "B" name and the "C" name. I left the room feeling a bit worried that I would get in trouble. The nurses at the nursing station all patted me on the back. Again I documented exactly what happened.
Next time in the room he addressed me as "Mam" and was polite, and most importantly, kept himself covered and his hands away from his privates.
Mission accomplished.
Good luck

I am literally rolling on the floor laughing YGO Girl!!! that was

great!!! He needed that class of respect 101!!!

maggiecreek · Jul 5, 2008

Babs
Are you sure you didn't insult your son?:chuckle

excuse me that was inappropiate!

SuesquatchRN, BSN, RN · Jul 5, 2008

excuse me that was inappropiate!

Um, no, it was funny.

She was kidding that the son was better endowed than the patient.

ktwlpn, LPN · Jul 5, 2008

I have a serious problem. I am on a Travel Assignment an I have truly loved it. I love the people I work with an all, could not find better people to work with. but I have a resident there that is about 600lbs and is 52 yrs/old. he can walk an an is very alert an oriented. he goes out on pass each day an throws his w/c up on the bus an hops right on up. this is a nursing home not an assisted living facility. For the past 2 weeks he has made my life miserable. i truly want to complete assignment, but this nursing home is saying even with all the heavy documentation I have done an SS workers heavy documentation they have not got the right to give him a 30 day notice. It is unreal what he has done to me, I am charge at night an I feel Like I have made very sound judgement calls. he request a bath at 3am an wants the female cna's to do it. We do not have the staff at night to be able to give this man a bath in the middle of the night. Then he wants me to personally show him how to sponge bath himself, for some odd reason he doesn't think he knows how. Then he stalks us specially me thru out the night and we have caught him taking a flash light outside peeping thru windows of other residents in the middle of the nite. He always has a very good excuse when asked about his behavior. See he is smart, but he reported this nursing home last month an they did not see any reason for c/o's. But a social worker performed the site check. So last nite I was told an so my cna's that the state listens to him because he is alert & oriented. But there are many other residents alert an oriented as much as he. This man has been thrown out of nursing home after another. So why do we not have rights to fight back when you feel sexually harrassed an stalked? My company was told by these people this would be handled, well things got worse when he was counseled of this matter. As of last night my company will be stepping in on Monday to have it resolved or have me pulled from assignment. To me the nursing home is afraid of this resident. I want to known do I have a liable case to bring before a court against this resident? I really would like to know something about if anybody else has had this same type of problem? According to DON he started strange behavior 3 months ago an I got here May 19th. At first it was great, now the DON thinks he only likes light skin gals an I am. SO PLEASE HELP ME HERE!!

Thank You
maggiecreek:confused:

I'll add the following to the good advice you have been given- Review and update his care plan yourself-staff members should always be in pairs with this guy-and no baths in the middle of the night due to staffing issues.You can't spare that many aides at that time .Care plan his self care deficit issues and attention seeking behavior. He probably will have to aggressively assault another resident or staff member before anything can be done. You could make an anonymous call to the state and report his stalking and peeping behaviors and the facilities lack of action.They have to keep everyone safe -residents and staff -and the state WILL investigate within 48hrs of the complaint. Are any other resident's concerned? They can call also and I would encourage them to do so... As for Mediao that someone else mentioned -they do have the right to enjoy it but they do not have the right to subject staff to it.When entering the area for care if the resident does not immediatly turn it off then staff has the right to do so as long as they turn it back on prior to leaving the bedside.That is what the state surveyors said after we went through a similar situation in LTC. If this guy can go out on pass almost every day he must either be private pay or have some darned good nursing home insurance.I believe that medicare and medicaid bennies limit the resident to a certain number of passes a year-if they can go out every day then they don't need LTC.

Batman24 · Jul 5, 2008

I'll add the following to the good advice you have been given- Review and update his care plan yourself-staff members should always be in pairs with this guy-and no baths in the middle of the night due to staffing issues.You can't spare that many aides at that time .Care plan his self care deficit issues and attention seeking behavior. He probably will have to aggressively assault another resident or staff member before anything can be done. You could make an anonymous call to the state and report his stalking and peeping behaviors and the facilities lack of action.They have to keep everyone safe -residents and staff -and the state WILL investigate within 48hrs of the complaint. Are any other resident's concerned? They can call also and I would encourage them to do so... As for Mediao that someone else mentioned -they do have the right to enjoy it but they do not have the right to subject staff to it.When entering the area for care if the resident does not immediatly turn it off then staff has the right to do so as long as they turn it back on prior to leaving the bedside.That is what the state surveyors said after we went through a similar situation in LTC. If this guy can go out on pass almost every day he must either be private pay or have some darned good nursing home insurance.I believe that medicare and medicaid bennies limit the resident to a certain number of passes a year-if they can go out every day then they don't need LTC.

This seems to be some really good advice. Call the state so they can investigate if no one is taking action. Have other nurses and CNAs complained?! Have everyone put it in writing and send it to HR, Risk Management, and Legal Dept. Let them know all of you are serious.

And absolutely don't go in when Media is on and NO middle of the night baths unless medically necessary. I would suggest having male CNAs and male nurses deal with his ADL but they should also go in teams because this guy is bad news.

chadash · Jul 6, 2008

I am so glad you are getting support from those here, and from your agency.

Had a home health patient who had a history as a sexual offender. I would have to go his home alone, and it was very creepy and he was a very scary man, did some inappropriate stuff. (I had to help him bathe, etc.) It might have been from some childhood history, but I would cry all the way home from his house. He was not your normal rude guy. ( I can handle them!)

I had never refused a patient, but my supervisor made such an issue when I explained my problem. She actually arranged it so that when I offered to work Christmas day (I felt a bit quilty for turning down a patient) she had scheduled me to go to his home (in fact he was the only patient). I quit.

She found it slightly humorous.

Now that time has passed and I have worked with some great bosses, I think she did the wrong thing, not me. Still feel a bit unsure.

shelly304 · Jul 6, 2008

Are you kidding!? In light of the world today, after explaining this pts. behaviour to her, I cannot believe she would still have wanted you to visit this man alone! She sounds like a sadist.

I never put myself in harms way. Neither should you.

Babs0512 · Jul 6, 2008

Maggicreak: Just wanted to say that what I said to him, I said out of complete frustration. This man responded to none of the "normal" moral behavior suggestions - as a life prisoner, he had nothing to lose, it was his way of embarrassing me and controlling the situation. The other nurses had tried for a couple of days to get him to stop this behavior. Even the guards couldn't stop him - unless they "shot" him, and they couldn't shoot him for exposing himself and making sexually inappropriate commets to ALL the nurses. He was absolutely in the wrong, and I was humiliated and embarrased every time I had to go in the room. I had an epiphany of sorts, so I said what came to my mind and it worked. Since reasoning with him didn't work, I used the only tool left available to me, humor.

And it worked! Once his behaviors stopped, the nurses could actually "think" and concentrate on his illness instead of how he would next embarrase them when they went in the room.

Sorry you don't agree. But I was being abused, and I had to put a stop to it, so I did.

leslie :-D · Jul 6, 2008

Sorry you don't agree. But I was being abused, and I had to put a stop to it, so I did.

i don't think you should feel apologetic.

sometimes we are forced to get on their level, to speak the same language.

the guy was a pig and you put him in his place.

i say, kudos to you. :yeah:

leslie

shelly304 · Jul 6, 2008

Maggicreak: Just wanted to say that what I said to him, I said out of complete frustration. This man responded to none of the "normal" moral behavior suggestions - as a life prisoner, he had nothing to lose, it was his way of embarrassing me and controlling the situation. The other nurses had tried for a couple of days to get him to stop this behavior. Even the guards couldn't stop him - unless they "shot" him, and they couldn't shoot him for exposing himself and making sexually inappropriate commets to ALL the nurses. He was absolutely in the wrong, and I was humiliated and embarrased every time I had to go in the room. I had an epiphany of sorts, so I said what came to my mind and it worked. Since reasoning with him didn't work, I used the only tool left available to me, humor.
And it worked! Once his behaviors stopped, the nurses could actually "think" and concentrate on his illness instead of how he would next embarrase them when they went in the room.
Sorry you don't agree. But I was being abused, and I had to put a stop to it, so I did.

You most certainly do not have to apologize for taking care of that situation. I work in a very busy clinic with a diverse population. I cannot begin to count how many men have made offensive comments and/or gestures to me.(I even had my own private stalker 2 years ago) Somehow the title "nurse" is equated with Media actress to some male patients.:angryfire

You took care of the situation in the only lingo this man understood. Good for you!