Inappropriate patient behavior

[zinaptl]

How do you deal with inappropriate patient behavior (exposing self randomly), hitting call light frequently for no reason, verbally saying sexual things ? As a student nurse I don’t have the confidence to be stern but the things I do say come off as silly or small and doesn’t affect patient behavior. What do I do l? Help I’m honestly so uncomfortable and want to cry. This has never happened to me before so as a first experience I’m pretty unhappy. Please send examples of what to say.

[JKL33]

I'm sorry this happened to you, being shaken up by it is understandable and okay. Remember this is about the patient, it is not because of something you have done wrong.

There are quite a few ways to handle this when you are caught off guard and alone with a patient, IMO they sort of depend on the specific patient situation. Here are some ideas for students in this scenario where it sounds like the patient is aware of his actions:

- "I am going to leave and will return with your nurse" or "...my instructor"

- "That makes me uncomfortable. I will get your nurse [/my instructor]."

- "If you do not need nursing assistance right now I will check on you again in a little while." [Leave].

Etc.

If this happens to any of you, you should make sure the patient is otherwise safe and then leave ASAP and inform your instructor and the patient's nurse. In my opinion you should not be expected to be alone in this type of situation and should be allowed to provide care in tandem only--and now that I think about it, that doesn't mean two students, it means a student and the instructor.

On 12/3/2019 at 7:02 PM, zinaptl said:

As a student nurse I don’t have the confidence to be stern but the things I do say come off as silly or small and doesn’t affect patient behavior.

I really do understand this, but especially if the patient knows what they're doing, you don't have to make jokes or say silly little things; that is degrading (to you) and they know they are making you uncomfortable. You are worried about making them uncomfortable meanwhile they are enjoying making you uncomfortable. That's a big fat NO. You do not have to stand there and be humiliated. Instead, excuse yourself in a professional manner, pronto. Anyone....anyone in this situation has the right to not tolerate this; women, men, younger, older, students, staff, everyone. Being professional, polite, kind, caring, "nice," etc....does not involve having to be subjected to this.

@zinaptl...you are okay. You haven't done anything wrong. Please talk to your instructor about what you experienced. You can continue to process here, too, of course.

?

[Lucydog14]

“That’s inappropriate. Ring when you are ready to act like an adult”

[Shan, RN]

I listen to a podcast called FreshRN and they have an episode called "Dealing With Difficult Patients and Families" in which they address this exact scenario, along with situations in which a patient is verbally malicious or belligerent. I highly encourage you to give it a listen, since you will probably run into this after nursing school, as well.

[Thanksforthedonuts, MSN, APRN]

“that is inappropriate behavior and will not be tolerated at this facility, it stops NOW” I say it very sternly.
“if it continues we will have to speak to management”

Then depending on the patient and situation I review the boundaries and expectations from them.