How common is Work Violence?

hmmmm. I have had a black eye, and darn near lost some teeth by a dementia patient.

well...thats a hot subject. Worked on a nutty med surg/oncology/telemetry(yes,a moneymaking 10 pt ratio kind of floor), and seen nurses hit, pinched and verbally assulted quite often. Then went on a P.C.C.U. floor,was kicked in the throat by some *** going to have a cardiac cath in the am,was just a plain nasty man, and decided he wanted to throw his weight around. I never seen it coming, or I would not have went in his room at the time. Was out of commision for about a month, never did go back to that floor.

I hear alot of nurses being attacked by patients personally i dont know any who have been attacked. I volunteer in the ER and i never seen anybody get physically assaulted. I wanna be a ER RN so should i expect to deal with violence in the workplace. Does it come with the territory.[/quote

I hear alot of nurses being attacked by patients personally i dont know any who have been attacked. I volunteer in the ER and i never seen anybody get physically assaulted. I wanna be a ER RN so should i expect to deal with violence in the workplace. Does it come with the territory.

Never was attacked until two weeks ago when a patient bit me before we gave her haldol.

violence can be from patients, visitors, or staff....it all happens....

and it happens far too often. it's unfortunate that mgmt. does not acknowledge the severity of this very issue. years ago i was out of work for a month because a patient threw a table at me when i was walking away. 2 other nurses have had surgery because of related violent acts by pts. my back is permenently crippled (almost- i don't want to jinx it) because of trying to protect other pts, staff or myself. it goes with the territory.

We are supposed to be "trained to protect ourselves"....the inservice classes they give us are supposed to cover the hospital, I guess.....it seems so hurtful to nursing staff in the long run.

OOPs Sorry posted twice

well...thats a hot subject. Worked on a nutty med surg/oncology/telemetry(yes,a moneymaking 10 pt ratio kind of floor), and seen nurses hit, pinched and verbally assulted quite often. Then went on a P.C.C.U. floor,was kicked in the throat by some *** going to have a cardiac cath in the am,was just a plain nasty man, and decided he wanted to throw his weight around. I never seen it coming, or I would not have went in his room at the time. Was out of commision for about a month, never did go back to that floor.

I hear alot of nurses being attacked by patients personally i dont know any who have been attacked. I volunteer in the ER and i never seen anybody get physically assaulted. I wanna be a ER RN so should i expect to deal with violence in the workplace. Does it come with the territory.[/quote

If I ever see (still a student) a staff member assualted by a pt or if I am ever I will be calling 911. Just because we are nurses, aides or techs does not mean we should be assualted. It is still illegal. And we have every right to call the police. If the pt is altered or ped it might be different. But even so everyone has the right to a safe workplace. I worked in management (not nursing mgmt) before I had kids. And we would not have tolerated this behavior from our clients. Why should nurses have to? After all these are grown people who should not leave their manners at the door. If they are going to act like a criminal they should be treated like one and be arrested.

It seems like management doesnt have the backs of nurses. Patients could grope or hit Nurses and it goes unpunished maybe thats why theirs a lack of nurses cause nobody really is their to protect them from lowlife patients.

Hi all! I am still a student and I have been hit by a patient, and my teacher too (same patient). She was pretty far gone to Alzheimer's, but she kicked me in the face, bit me, ect. We were just trying to give her a bath. This was on the med-surg floor, not LTC.