Neuro/trauma

[sugarsmom]

I don't know about anyone else out there, but I still haven't figured out why it is okay to be mean to your nurse. I work neuro/trauma and it doen't matter if the patient is confused from dementia or oriented after a MVC but everyone feels the need to kick, spit, hit or cuss the nurse. I told my dad the other day that I think this is the only profession that people can do this and get away with it. If you went in to Wal-Mart and did this to the greeter, they would haul your butt off to the pokey. I try my best to deal with calmly with people like this, but I find that at the end of a 12 hour shift it gets a little more difficult. Any suggestions on how I can cope a little better? (besides xanax...lol)

[RNperdiem, RN]

Avoid patients with neurological injuries, patients with dementia, and some psych patients.

If not possible, a sense of humor.

If these people are cognitively impaired, they are not picking on you personally because you are a nurse. The aides, respiratory and phlebotomy are probably dealing with this too. When they go home, the family will bear the brunt of it.

If my former job was a reality TV show it would be wrestlemania! The old folks had dementia, so it was nothing personal and I was never afraid of serious harm.

[ERRNTraveler, RN]

If you work in a neuro/trauma ICU, and these are brain-injured patients, then they can't help it. Brain injuries, especially frontal-lobe injuries, lead patients to have poor impulse-control, and can cause them to have violent outbursts. Don't take it personally- they can't help it. If they are truly a danger to themselves or others, they need to be restrained, and security needs to be at bedside.

If, on the other hand, these people do not have dementia or a traumatic brain injury, then there is no excuse for their behavior (being drunk or high is NOT an excuse!). If there is no medical reason for their behavior, the police need to be called and charges pressed......

[mrsalby]

I believe cueing and recueing is important. I had a patient with a MCA clipping and he was acting so frontal. He kept grabbing the nurses boobs and making sexual comments etc. We had security come talk to him and finally police. In our state it is a felony to assault a healthcare worker. He was trying to take advantage of his "brain trauma" to inflict such actions. Family said that the behavior was actually his baseline and the way he always is. I remained firm fromt eh beginning and told him it wasnt going to be tolerated and he would easily find himself leaving the hospital and going to jail.

Otherwise I agree...neuro patients take A LOT of patience!