I was punched

[Still Riding]

yesterday while in clinical i was punched by one of my clients, he just wailed on me without any notice. Now my face looks like crap, a huge black eye and cheek on the one side, even the bridge of my nose is bruised.

This man wasn't little either he was compitent, this was all because he was mad that i wouldn't/couldn't give him a narcotic (I'm only a student) I ofered to get the nurse I was co-assigned with but then he got really angry and started pulling out his IV, i stepped closer to encourage him to stop and then he let me have it. I was so shoked, and seeing stars. my nose was gusshing blood and I could barely drag myself out of his room.

ALL that was done was that incident reports were made, no charges. My prof said we should contact the police as this is assult but the administration got all over our @$$es about then the school will not be aloud to return for clinicals for the rest of the semester. This would not only affect my education but about 2/3 of my class. My prof said it was up to me what i wanted to do, and i chose not to call the police because I wanna graduate, and not screw up my classmates year.

But the situation really pisses me off. I look like crap, it hurts and I had to have e-rays of my face to look for broken facial bones.

Thanx for letting me rant

[aileenve, ASN, RN]

yesterday while in clinical i was punched by one of my clients, he just wailed on me without any notice. Now my face looks like crap, a huge black eye and cheek on the one side, even the bridge of my nose is bruised.

This man wasn't little either he was compitent, this was all because he was mad that i wouldn't/couldn't give him a narcotic (I'm only a student) I ofered to get the nurse I was co-assigned with but then he got really angry and started pulling out his IV, i stepped closer to encourage him to stop and then he let me have it. I was so shoked, and seeing stars. my nose was gusshing blood and I could barely drag myself out of his room.

ALL that was done was that incident reports were made, no charges. My prof said we should contact the police as this is assult but the administration got all over our @$$es about then the school will not be aloud to return for clinicals for the rest of the semester. This would not only affect my education but about 2/3 of my class. My prof said it was up to me what i wanted to do, and i chose not to call the police because I wanna graduate, and not screw up my classmates year.

But the situation really pisses me off. I look like crap, it hurts and I had to have e-rays of my face to look for broken facial bones.

Thanx for letting me rant

This same situation happened to me, I was called in a room to talk with a pt. about going to physical therapy; he punched me in the eye with no warning, I then left the room to go to the eye clinic and report the incident. The pt was competant and nothing was ever done, he then laughed about it to other nurses and told them they had better watch out! He was allowed to finish PT and the hospital just "flagged" his chart with assault precautions!

[jrussole]

Thank you for sharing! This is what I am talking about. It goes on everyday. Nurses are abused and it has to stop.

[chenoaspirit, ASN, RN]

I was punched in the gut once by a male patient. He was in his 30's. It hurt my feelings on top of having to "lean against the wall for a while to gain my strength and wait til the pain subsided".

It sounds like maybe this guy was possibly withdrawing from narcotics abuse and was upset that he wasnt getting his "fix". He may have already asked the primary nurse and she has told him no, then thought he could get around her by asking you? Im really sorry you had to go through that, but you should have gotten support from the administration. I dont understand why your school would have been banned from the institution for the actions of an abusive patient. At least you had the support of your instructor.