No Restraint Policy

[khrisrk]

What are your thoughts about this scenario?

You are working in the ER for a local hospital when police officers brought in a client with a large gash in his head. The police officers restrained him with handcuffs but you r facility has a "no restraint policy". You were able to assess and treat the client but the restraints make you feel uncomfortable. You asked the officers to remove the restraint but they refused. As the nurse on the unit, what will you do?

[bgxyrnf, MSN, RN]

And I wouldn't work in an ED that had a "no restraint" policy... that's not safe for the staff nor for the patients.

[Guest219794]

So-

Are there actually EDs with "no restraints" policies?

I hope that is just a goofy made up thing for nursing school, and not real.

To answer the question:

If there was a place foolish enough to have such a policy, and somebody was foolish enough to think it applied to law enforcement, I would ignore that person and continue to keep myself, my team, the public, and the patient (in that order of priority) safe.

If I got called out on that, I wold respond with "sorry- my bad." and continue to ignore the policy while I found another job.

Of course, it's all academic. Go ahead and tell a cop you have a policy that requires him to uncuff a prisoner. Sure, you might get a chuckle out of him, but those cuffs are staying on.

[chare]

Handcuffs, and other forensic restraints applied by a member of an outside law enforcement agency, are not considered restraints; however we are required to assess the site and patient's physiologuc needs and responses on the forensic restraints flow sheet. If they are applied vy our hospital's police department they are considered behavioral restraints, and are documented as such.

And, while I have not eorked in one of them, there are facilites that are restraint free. I see this as problematic, not only in the ED, but the ICU as well.

[kbrn2002, ADN, RN]

While handcuffs are restraints I doubt if they are intended to be included in the hospitals "no restraint" policy. I wouldn't interfere if an officer needs to keep a person in cuffs. It's most likely their policy to keep that person in cuffs and unless there is a very good medical reason they need to be removed for emergency care I wouldn't argue against that policy. The cuffs are on not only to prevent the detained patient from escape but to potentially keep officers, staff, and other patients safe.