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.

[Pappilli0n]

Sounds like this "extra" floor needs a beeper for each person working on it. Security should be a button away....

simple, huh? Nursing Supervisor needs to be updated with each patient sent there from ER or wherever. In

fact, normally it's the NS who assigns the bed.

[littlemammanurse, BSN, RN]

I had a patient stick his hands up my scrubs and began to grope my breasts.I was so upset, and I was lucky that another nurse witnessed it.I left that job the next day.

[TakeOne]

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

Management doesn't want this kind of thing to get draw the wrong kind of attention to the facility, lest it be perceived as an unsafe work environment. If something like that is identified, management is beholden by labor and occupational safety law to remedy it. They also don't want the injured employee to get any ideas about suing them for allowing an unsafe condition to exist.

[Guest717236]

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:

This is the correct outcome, it is a legal issue. The legal system

will need to handle his criminal behavior and his medical issues.

From now on, all assaults at your hospital need to be reported

to the police..

I want to comment on the frightened look on the nurses face.

She indeed had something to worry about. Years ago a RN

I worked with had a situation in the ER. The intoxicated

male patient over 6'2 picked her up and slammed her against

the wall. She was 5'7, but a slender frame. she had permanent

damage to her spine and had to take a different job in nursing.

The patient did time for the assault, but she was permanently

changed by the incident...