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.
Maybe that Hospital Administrator needs to be put in charge of care for that patient. Always easy to tell someone else to "forget about it" unless you are their shoes...
Wow! I never knew it could get this serious. I'm going to be careful on my clinicals from now on!
Yeah like hospital administrators actually even come to the facilities they are paid by
I hope you are feeling better soon. I am so glad you are pressing charges. I have been in a similar situation in the past and after reading this post I feel much better about the decisions I made at the time. Thankyou for posting this Take very good care of yourself and do continue to follow up.
what you are sayuing is interesting- in the uk we are going through a campaign against abuse to staff. ZERO TOLERENCE has been set up and anyone either physically or verbally abusing staff can be discharged instantly. We also have been successful in proscecuting patients within the psychiatric wards for attacks on staff.
as nurses we are only trying to do our jobs not go to work to get injured- what if your injuries have a lasting effect and you have to leave? do something now before its tooo late- I'm sure the patient would be very quick to sue if it was the other way round
:angryfire I was assaulted by a client with psych problems and I got it bad my face was
swollen and I had a concussion and I had finger marks where he tried to choke me . Anyways when they got me from under him I had no idea where I was at . I left to go to the hospital and as I was headed out the door he started chasing me again they hadn't even restrained him. I requested that the police be called so I could file an assault charge they refused so I called the police from home and filed. Needless to say I had to wound up getting an attorney and suing but let me tell you what they made sure it never happened again. See I was the fourth employee to be assaulted by this guy and up until I fought back they just kept ignoring the fact that he was dangerous.
Call the police!!! My brother would have no problem charging him.
As for the hospital, did you talk to their media relations dept.? How would they like this little news nugget to hit the 6pm show. "Student Nurse assaulted--Nursing Students Banned for Reporting Assault". Details at 6!
Your instructor (sounds like a piece of work) go over their head to your Programme Director.
Assault is Assault, Blackmail is Blackmail(and that is what the hospital had done).
Get yourself down to the detachment, STAT and go from there.
I totally Agree!!!! If you work in a psych ward or a dementia/alzheimers etc, type of facility, then you are made aware of the dangers. But when it is a case of an irate but mentally competent patient who is probably drug dependent (since you mentioned the narcotic med) then by all means! Take it to whoever you can and get heard. We are here to "cause no harm", not to recieve harm.
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.
Yeah like hospital administrators actually even come to the facilities they are paid by
Do you really not see your administrators. I know where I work we are spoiled in many ways. We see our administrators fairly frequently. The work on site and are present on the floors either days or nocs every quarter to see what is going on with the staff.
Do you really not see your administrators. I know where I work we are spoiled in many ways. We see our administrators fairly frequently. The work on site and are present on the floors either days or nocs every quarter to see what is going on with the staff.
I was being slightly sarcastic, I imagine they are on site 9n their offices, but NO I don't them making themselves available on the floors. I am talking CEO, adminitrators etc. Now Our nurse manager is in house daily and available but is usually very busy with meetings with those other admin types.
I was chrging last Friday and we could not get our Heart Call nurse to answer his phone and she was going to come and take over Charge and I was going to do the Heart but I found and talked someone into to coming in.
This is one of the big jokes in nursing. Every facility I've worked in covers up employee incidents, so they don't have to pay workman's compensation, number one, and so they don't get publicity for the incident, number two. Facilities don't care about you; you're just a piece of meat to them.
this is another tangent of this topic. We are all in danger of patients and families anger. Our facility just gave us excellent inservices on de-escalation. This includes not being in this guys room alone once he starts to show frustration and anger. Get out of the room- even if it feels rude. It would appear it could not have made him more angry. and to always keep your palms down whenyou are tlking to some one that is upset. This was emphasized several times through the 2 hour class. This is a topic that NEEDS to be taught to students- and has not been. It is now part of our organization's orietation. and it is not limited to nurse staff.
Yeah- this is an adult, and he should be held accountable for his actions. I have been punched by a patient- I did not bruise and did not require Xrays. The pt was confused though. His father- who was 70 at the time- helped tackle the man who had been roaming the halls in his undies. I did not even think to file charges. The administration was more than alarmed that it had happened and they still use it as an example of what we need to prevent. If I had been bruised and bloody I doubt my husband would have let it go without police intervention.
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
Every nurse and student nurse needs a personal accident insurance policy.
When this kinda thing happens there union see it through, and the insurance policy pays up for the legal charges. I belong to the Royal College of Nursing in the UK (its a union) and they have a thing called Nurse Care Plus and it only costs £5 (9 bucks) a month.
Thank goodness you didn't hit back! I know someone who did after a confused elderly man with dementia grabbed her breast (in a nursing home) - she got fired. I never found out what happened........
The fact is that clients think they can hit us..........carpet wise and its wrong.
:angryfire :angryfire Call the police!! Press charges yourself!!
I worked as an agency RN for a couple of months before I decided to go staff at the ED where I'm currently employed. I was giving Ativan IVP to a drunken, combative female in 4 point leather restraints when she got an arm loose & punched me right in the face. Good thing the charge nurse happened to have positioned herself between us at that time, or I probably would have hit her back. This helped me think a little more clearly.
Being agency at the time, I told the charge nurse I was calling the police & filing charges, which I did; unfortunately, she was not arrested, as the ED doc decided he wanted to admit her, but then discharged her home a couple hours after I got off shift. I had to fill out a bunch of paperwork with the hospital & my agency; then I heard from the legal dep't at the hospital. The woman I spoke with couldn't understand why I would possibly file charges. My answer: "She shouldn't have hit me. Anyone hits me, I'm filing charges."
Assault & battery is assault & battery, whether you're assaulted at work, in clinicals, or on the street. Call the police. File charges. Nobody has the right to put their hands on you, period. :angryfire :angryfire
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Yeah like hospital administrators actually even come to the facilities they are paid by