We have an RN who is known to be rather "colorful" and animated at times. Today was a nice, quiet, rainy day at the facility and a CNA's sister (who is having trouble at home) pulled around to the side of the wing where her sister works and was talking to her outside the door. This woman's husband apparently followed her in his truck and was revving his engine, squealing tires, driving back and forth like a maniac, pulling up behind her and backing out...so I went and got this supervisor, and she came with me to see what the commotion was. He pulled up and started to get out of his truck and we heard children screaming in terror and crying. There were 3 little girls in the car. This RN saw those children upset and she totally lost it, I guess you could say. She ran over to this guy (she's about 5'2" 120 pds. and he is about 6' tall) in a rage and told him to get the #$%% away from here and she was going to call the police. Then, this man's wife chimed in that he will go to jail because she has a restraining order out on him. And this RN started screaming LOOK WHAT YOU'RE DOING TO THESE CHILDREN, GET OUT OF HERE YOU SON OF A _____!!! He pulled out and was driving off. This RN ran to the children and was so upset she was shaking, and telling them everything was going to be alright. She has been upset about those children ever since, and says she absolutely can't stand to see children mistreated. But do you think this guy could call the office tomorrow and report her? She was kind of acting out in the heat of the moment, but do you think they would try to punish her for this?
Specializes in Peds/outpatient FP,derm,allergy/private duty.
=Born2BWild; This RN ran to the children and was so upset she was shaking, and telling them everything was going to be alright. She has been upset about those children ever since, and says she absolutely can't stand to see children mistreated. But do you think this guy could call the office tomorrow and report her? She was kind of acting out in the heat of the moment, but do you think they would try to punish her for this?
Report her for what? Most of the time enraged men who violate a restraining order and menace their wife and children in public aren't going to be calmly calling the next day to "report" that a nurse was impolite that particular day. It's a shame none of the spectators thought to call 911 which was the first priority.
Specializes in Management, Emergency, Psych, Med Surg.
I don't know if what she did was right or not because I was not there and everyone has their own take on a situation when something like this occurs. But what I can tell you is that people are unpredictable and you never know who has a gun.
When I was the manager of a small ED in Texas we had a nurse on the night shift who was just a superior nurse. But I got wind of a problem with her husband. It seems that he would show up about 3 am, sneak into the ED and demand that she be allowed to go home. He called her at work non stop and was found prowling around the hospital property on a number of occasions. He had some trouble with the police and it was known that he had a lot of weapons. We decided that this guy was dangerous. I sat down with her a few times to discuss this situation and she tried to keep him away from the hospital but it did not work. I finally had to terminate her because he was a danger to the facility. (Actually I had her resign and told her to come back to her job if she could get away from him). Restraining orders were not going to work with this guy and we were certainly not set up in the ED to get into a shooting match with this guy. He was psychotic and the police knew it but he had not made an actual threat so there was nothing we could do. I was certainly not going to get into a discussion with this man on why he needed to stay away from her at work. He was mentally ill and I knew it was not going to take much to put him over the edge to have him kill her and us too. She made the decision to stay with him, not me. I had to worry about the safety of the employees and patients on the unit.
Now I carry a gun. I have a gun permit. But there are times that I know I would never take that gun out to use it because you have to be able to read the situation and know when to act and when not to. And I guarantee you that one of the most dangerous situations to be in is in the middle of a domestic violence situation. You ask any police officer and they will tell you the same thing. I don't know about the woman in this story but I can tell you that I am not getting in the middle of any domestic violence argument etc. I am calling the police and getting out of the way. I have had people come in the ED and and shoot each other in the ED waiting room. I am not anxious to do that again.
Specializes in Peds/outpatient FP,derm,allergy/private duty.
These situations are very unstable, and sometimes we only know what we would do, after a crisis has already happened. The RN supervisor probably shouldn't have risked her own safety, and yet, we don't want a Kitty Genovese world. I remember when Theresa Saldana was attacked, it was a bystander that saved her life. Should he have? The only thing I know is that the last thing I would be thinking is "I wonder if the crazy-dude is unhappy with the supervisor's customer service skills?"
nursel56
7,122 Posts
Report her for what? Most of the time enraged men who violate a restraining order and menace their wife and children in public aren't going to be calmly calling the next day to "report" that a nurse was impolite that particular day. It's a shame none of the spectators thought to call 911 which was the first priority.