I was slapped by a patient

[FNPStudentLife, BSN, RN]

It wasn’t about the fact that he was a patient and I was his nurse. It was about the fact that he was a man who slapped me out of rage, when I had no control over his plan of care at that point ( he was discharged from ER because his labs/tests came back clear, he didn’t want to leave because he had nowhere to go). It didn’t strike me with empathy because he didn’t feel well and wasn’t himself. It striked me with fear, because a man twice my size wanted to hurt me. I just wanted to share this. To get it off my chest.

[Wuzzie]

You need to report this and file a police report NOW!

[Jory, MSN, APRN, CNM]

Security should have been called the second this happened and he should have been arrested.

[RNNPICU, BSN, RN]

Report this NOW! Do not let this go. He was discharged, this is an assault.

[pixierose, BSN, RN]

This is absolutely assault.

If you were walking down the street and the same guy asked for directions, then slapped you when he wasn’t happy with the plan ... you’d press charges.

We normalize this in healthcare. And by “we” I mean the powers that be as well. Of course you were frightened - he meant to harm you.

I’m sorry this happened to you.

[osceteacher]

Its always good to vent but you really need to get this reported!

[brownbook]

I am curious....what did you do when he slapped you? I guess from your post you didn't do anything.

I have a terrible personality disorder ??? of not reacting well to sudden stressful situations....I guess I go into flight mode....panic....almost shock like state...don't do anything...don't know how to react..get me away from this mess...even have a hard time asking for help in my panic mode.

I am glad you weren't hurt but this may be a good time to reflect on how you handled the situation and how to better handle these incidents in the future.

[Miss.LeoRN]

Okay, so like someone else asked... and you did what? Informed your manager or charge nurse? Called security? Just stood there? This is actually more than assault, it's assault and battery.

I'm not sure I understand the perception that you just stood there, took it, and then went on about your day but came here to "vent" over it. We, as nurses, are not here for patients to abuse us, and allowing them to is completely unacceptable. You should have and NEED to report this. What happens the next time he's in the ED, unhappy he's being discharged, and he does more than just slap that nurse because no one is aware he has an aggressive history of attacking nurses?

[Daisy4RN]

"It wasn’t about the fact that he was a patient and I was his nurse"

I am not sure what you mean by the above stmt but IMO this is exactly what it is about. I hope that by now you have reported it, if not it is probably not too late to do that. This is not acceptable and I have seen way too many of these situations get swept under the rug by management with their stmts like: there is nothing we can do; well, what did you say to him to upset him; he is just sick and not feeling well, blah blah blah!. Of course there is no excuse for this if the pt was A&O. I don't know where along the line this became acceptable behavior but as someone else pointed out in no other profession would this be considered par for the course. I am sorry you had to endure that attack and hope you are doing OK. I would absolutely file a police report, incident report and anything else I could. Take care!

[Here.I.Stand, BSN, RN]

Here’s a virtual hug... now go report this to law enforcement! What he did was called assault and battery.

[Here.I.Stand, BSN, RN]

As long as we continue to allow this behavior, it will continue to happen.

[umbdude, MSN, APRN]

He's upset because he had no place to go. Well, how about jail?