Is psych nursing usually this eventful?

[golson]

BH patient was given a syringe by a visitor that he later filled up with his own blood and sprayed that blood at nurses in an escape attempt. He briefly held a visitor against their will.

Man, 20, Accused Of Squirting His Blood On Nurses At Mercy Hospital « CBS Minnesota

Just a few months ago, on the same floor, a BH patient managed to set off the fire sprinklers, flooding that floor as well as those below, leading to an evacuation of the ICU.

Patient Accused of Breaking Sprinkler Head, Leading to Flood at Mercy Hospital | KSTP TV - Minneapolis and St. Paul

[Safety Coach RN]

Was that recently?

[Davey Do]

Was that recently?

[SheriffLauren]

Well on my unit the fire alarms have keys to them and the extinquishers are locked in saftey cabinets, the unit is locked so only staff with keys can leave. I'd say that hospital needs to improve its saftey plan. However, the level of chaos seems the norm. Usualy my unit run in cycles of acuity. Every few weeks or **** hits the fan. Last friday I had one patient in the seclusion room on 1:1 for iminent risk of swallowing (her favourite thing to ingest was plastic spoons) I heard screaming and pounding n the other side of the unit. A large muscular young patient was attempting to break down he metal emergency exit door (which he actually broke off the hinges) and at the same time a female patient began trying to strange a staff member. The male patient needed to be restrained on another unit, the other was taken to yet another unit, so by the end I was in charge of managing three patients on separate floors in restraints and had to administer emergency injections to each of them!

[blackribbon]

Alarms are set of periodically by frequent flyers that know a fire alarm will unlock the unit. We head to guard the doors when the alarm does go off but it isn't an every day occurrence. Usually patients who set off this alarm or the patient room emergency alarms are just acting out and are somehow under the impression by annoying us that they will convince us to just discharge them at 2am.

We did have one patient throw a cup of urine in the med nurses eyes when she went to deliver his meds...and occasionally, a staff member does get assaulted .... but that is the rare incident and not the norm on our floor. Usually, the most "exciting" activity is the schizophrenics responding in the hallways or the manics talking illogically and non-stop. Not too long ago, someone did catch two patients attempting to have sex (we are a co-ed floor)...not sure how they really thought they could manage that with the 15 minute checks. He got a 1:1 after that until a bed was made available at the state long term facility (this wasn't his only offense).