Meltdown at work, does TPAPN need to know?

I’m not sure what they would report and even if they did what would that prove? You got emotional at work because some slob abused you. You are far from the first nurse this has (and will have ) happened to. Many nurses are abused and nobody should have to put up with that. It surely doesn’t indicate substance abuse nor a mental heath problem. You aren’t a disgraced anything. Rather you are simply another nurse who was abused by an idiot. Hold your head high. Nurses and the board should stand up for you instead of trying to punish you

Unless you're not including something significant, I can't see why anyone would report you to TPAPN.

If you handled it as exactly as you reported above, and there was another nurse available to which the patient could be reassigned, I see no reason why this would be reported to TPAPN.

I had almost exactly the same situation, anxiety attack over a jerk patient that got nasty with me, had a history of being nasty (we’re talking throwing his water pitcher at the nurse for not being ‘quick enough’ to refill it.) with me, he pulled the grunt and point at his arm, even though he could speak just fine. I quite politely told him that I could not help him if he would not tell me what the matter was and that if he continued this behavior, I was going to step out and would be back when he decided to act better. (I thought maybe the issue was his IV hurting from the vancomycin he was getting so I turned it off before I left the room.) About5 minutes later, I get called to the phone and it’s the patient’s wife or sister or something, screaming at me ‘’I’m gonna come down there and make you people take care of him.” There were other threats too. I maintained my cool until I hung up and then I lost it. Into the office with the ugly crying and all. However when the charge nurse told me “that’s part of nursing and you’re just going to have to learn to take it.” That snapped me out of my ugly cry and I just had no words.

The point is, (in both situations) the patients safety was NOT compromised, this was a known issue with this patient and NO, we are not required to take this kind of abuse. I left that unit soon afterwords and went back to where I am happy....OR.

Having to tolerate such abuse from both patients and other nurses is one of the reasons I admire anyone who can work the floor. It ain’t as easy as people think.

I too had concerns of this being reported to my program but like it was said above...known problem patient who was being abusive. Getting upset is not indicative of anything that is any business of the program.
Also, you not a ‘disgraced’ anything. If anyone is a disgrace, it’s the patient who treats their caregivers in a way that sets off an anxiety attack.

You're a human being and allowed to react as such. Sometimes it is very difficult to respond to others with kindness when we are treated badly. There is nothing wrong with feeling angry or overwhelmed, but we must step back and not overreact.

My concern for you is if this episode was triggered by some other non-related stress. It might do you some good to talk to a counsellor. It certainly helped me out.