I was slapped by a patient

[FNPStudentLife]

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.

[GeminiNurse29]

Report it and call security. And the police. File a report!

[beckysue920]

Yes, I agree with reporting it to the authorities : police, security, etc.

But a question I have is: where does Hippa come in, regarding this situation?

[Sour Lemon]

20 minutes ago, beckysue920 said:

Yes, I agree with reporting it to the authorities : police, security, etc.

But a question I have is: where does Hippa come in, regarding this situation?

Don't you have to do the mountains of hipAA modules every year like the rest of us?

[Horseshoe, BSN, RN]

I hope anyone reading this takes this away from this thread:

Assault and battery against you should be considered a crime and reported IMMEDIATELY.

[JKL33]

1 hour ago, beckysue920 said:

Yes, I agree with reporting it to the authorities : police, security, etc.

But a question I have is: where does Hippa come in, regarding this situation?

Quote

This same limited information may be reported to law enforcement:

About a suspected perpetrator of a crime when the report is made by the victim who is a member of the covered entity’s workforce (45 CFR 164.502(j)(2));

Link

Quote

(2)Disclosures by workforce members who are victims of a crime. A covered entity is not considered to have violated the requirements of this subpart if a member of its workforce who is the victim of a criminal act discloses protected health information to a law enforcement official, provided that:

(i) The protected health information disclosed is about the suspected perpetrator of the criminal act; and

(ii) The protected health information disclosed is limited to the information listed in § 164.512(f)(2)(i).

[65 FR 82802, Dec. 28, 2000, as amended at 67 FR 53267, Aug. 14, 2002; 78 FR 5696, Jan. 25, 2013]

Link

[NightNerd, MSN, RN]

I agree with everyone else's advice to report this and press charges. Other than that, sending big hugs!!!! It is so degrading when we are literally attacked for things beyond our control. I hope that your administration will show you support, perhaps by connecting you with someone to help you debrief if needed. I participated in such a session a couple weeks ago and it may help you process the incident. You don't deserve to have to hold on to this.

Also, if there is a way to do this, have it flagged in his chart that this patient has a history of aggression toward staff. Should he ever come back to your hospital, everyone will know to take extra precautions and have security present.

[Workitinurfava, BSN, RN]

Don't let giving great customer service get in the way of you protecting yourself. Many patients know about the press ganey stuff and they use it to their advantage. I bet he left the part out about slapping you when he filled out the forms. He probably did put on the forms that his experience at the hospital sucked though. Please report this.

[girlsma5 RN BSN]

OMG!! I am so sorry that happened to you but I agree with everyone else that you definitely need to report that. It is definitely not okay for him to do something like that.

[FNPStudentLife, BSN, RN]

8 hours ago, brownbook said:

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.

I walked out of the room, called security immediately. Then informed my charge nurse of what happened. I had to step out for few minutes to put myself together. When I came back 10 minutes later, he was gone. Not sure what happened while I wasnt there. I did file an incident report.

[FNPStudentLife, BSN, RN]

7 hours ago, Daisy4RN said:

"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!

This happened yesterday. I did file a police report today. We'll see what happens.

[FNPStudentLife, BSN, RN]

6 hours ago, beckysue920 said:

Yes, I agree with reporting it to the authorities : police, security, etc.

But a question I have is: where does Hippa come in, regarding this situation?

When I filed the police report, I didn't disclose any information related to patients diagnosis, medical history, or anything related to medical care. It was strictly about the incident that happened. So there was no violation of HIPPA.

[Wuzzie]

Pursue this. DO NOT let him get away with this even if you’re employer tries to talk you out of it.