Nurse assaulted

[Nursebarebari]

Two nights ago, a nurse at my job was assauted by a patient. The patient who was on methadone came to the ER around 4AM sunday. He was sedated and sent to a telemetry extension in the afternoon. He woke up in the night and asked for his 240 mg 10AM methadone that he missed at the clinic. The doctor could not verify the dose he claimed to get at the clininic because it was too late, so they ordered him 160mg. He got angry and grabbed the 120 pounds nurse and pinned her againt the wall. That telemetry extension is very small and is staffed with only 2 RNs or an RN and and a PCT or LPN. The area is only used when there is no bed in the hospital and the setting is more like ICU, no rooms, only curtains seperating the 8 beds. So a patient that was watching and did not know what to do pulled the fire alarm. Before any one arrived the second nurse who was picking up blood in the lab was back, she picked up a chair and threatened to hit the patient before he let go of the nurse. Ha, you need to see the frightened look on the poor nurse face. She was sent to the ER. Police was not called.

This is not the first time something like this had happened to my hospital. A doctor was nearly hit in the head with a pill crusher by a patient about 2 months ago. His reason was that the doctors was pushing him to sign AMA when he decided to go home before he was discharged. The lucky doctor was able to dodge the pill crusher when it came flying.

[TakeOne]

In this job market I'm not sure that I'd call her foolish for protecting her job by obeying her management and not calling police, although I certainly think management is foolish for having such a policy.

I doubt that it is "policy." This is probably just advice given to her verbally by her supervisor and management. She certainly had the right to call the police and press charges when a crime was committed against her--in fact, she may still be able to bring charges against the assailant. If the hospital administrators thought something like that might make the facility look bad, they need to learn that preventing fires is easier than putting them out.

[Belle Epoque]

If nurses keep allowing themselves to be used as doormats by management and punching bags by patients, what hope is there for this profession? No wonder this type of injustice permeates our profession when people are encouraging it to happen by doing nothing! If you got assaulted on the street would you shrug it off as unimportant or would you call the authorities? What a disservice you are doing to us all and to those who will follow our footsteps. For shame.

[JacknSweetpea]

If my personal safety is compromised by a dangerous patient.....management be damned!

[SC_RNDude]

A federal crime is a federal crime in every state. However, most crimes are left to be prosecuted by the individual states. I would guess that in NY unless a nurse or MD or anyone else is a federal employee and/or is assaulted on federal property, those assaults aren't going to be prosecuted as "federal crimes".

The OKC bombers for example were charged under federal law and prosecuted and put on trial by the US Govt because they blew up a US Govt building and killed US govt workers.

[SC_RNDude]

She agreed not to call the police because management did not want to be in the news. Some nurses were pushing her to call the police but she refused and decided to go with management decision. It was foolish. She was meeting with our union delegate yesterday and I dont know the outcome. All of us nurses will meet with the union 2pm today.

Mgmt should want this to be in the news so that people know this stuff won't be tolerated!

[fromtheseaRN, BSN, RN]

A federal crime is a federal crime in every state. However, most crimes are left to be prosecuted by the individual states. I would guess that in NY unless a nurse or MD or anyone else is a federal employee and/or is assaulted on federal property, those assaults aren't going to be prosecuted as "federal crimes".

The OKC bombers for example were charged under federal law and prosecuted and put on trial by the US Govt because they blew up a US Govt building and killed US govt workers.

yep, assaults against civil servants (police, health care providers, fire fighters, etc) are elevated to felony assaults, but they are not federal crimes.

[carolmaccas66, BSN, RN]

I haven't read all the posts here.

It sounded in ur post like u were mocking the nurse and the system.

And there is NO WAY I would let the out-of-touch managers tell me who I can and can't report. If someone assaulted me, they get reported I don't care if my job is on the line or the patient was spaced out on drugs.

I don't let management tell me what to do in cases where my safety is at risk, that is just soooo wrong.

[Quark09]

Before any one arrived the second nurse who was picking up blood in the lab was back, she picked up a chair and threatened to hit the patient before he let go of the nurse. Ha, you need to see the frightened look on the poor nurse face. She was sent to the ER.

I'm confused... were you there as well, or did someone else remark on the frightened look on her face?

Either way, she should not have felt pressured to not press charges. The small (lib arts) college that I went to for my BFA (or as I like to call it, my 'professional bartending degree') had a similar tactic when it came to assaults on campus... one girl in my dorm was assaulted after leaving a party; campus police took her straight to their office and an administrator, not the police, was called. She was summarily convinced to "let the school handle it."

Yeah, nothing much came of that

[thmpr]

New law in New York

New Law Makes it a Felony to Assault a Nurse - YNN, Your News Now

0.02

Look into a "defusing assaultive behavior" course. Do your best to be prepared If management wants to play "hide from the media," then perhaps they may offer another solution. How can you be expected to keep your patients safe if you are not safe?

[Nursebarebari]

I'm confused... were you there as well, or did someone else remark on the frightened look on her face?

Either way, she should not have felt pressured to not press charges. The small (lib arts) college that I went to for my BFA (or as I like to call it, my 'professional bartending degree') had a similar tactic when it came to assaults on campus... one girl in my dorm was assaulted after leaving a party; campus police took her straight to their office and an administrator, not the police, was called. She was summarily convinced to "let the school handle it."

Yeah, nothing much came of that

No, I was not there from the begginning. I responded to the fire alarm with other nurses, we got there just when he released her.

[Nursebarebari]

Update: From the pressures of her co-workers and the union, the nurse finally agreed to press charges. Police was called and assailant was put in hand cuffs yesterday. Still in the hospital though, he will be discharged to the police today.:yeah:

[ArizonaMark]

Hallelujah !