Nurse dies after assault at job. She finished her shift first.

Published

Something has got to give. A nurse in Louisiana was attacked at work, finished her shift, went to the ER the next night. Sent home. Dead a few days later from a blood clot. Patient abuse of nurses is not a right. Here's just another story of a nurse being attacked.

http://www.ksla.com/2019/04/15/baton-rouge-nurse-dies-days-after-attack-by-patient/?fbclid=IwAR2JHJJYDVnAyYxlxuK3RKtUmtw1CoJUc9M-gToOBxA7qidFYBak5wXExGY

14 hours ago, Ruby Vee said:

I've been threatened with guns by the family members of sick patients, and when I raised a stink about it, I was told, "They're not at their best because their family member is ill." Not at their best? Really? Do you have to be at your best not to carry a gun into the hospital with the express purpose of threatening those who are trying to help?

I hope newer generations of nurses will, without apologizing or mincing words, just say a hard "NO" to that rationale. Actually I hope everyone will do that whether new or seasoned.

It was never reasonable to begin with. This type of behavior is not a departure from the perpetrator's everyday behavior.

"Regular folks" may experience a difference in communications or body language when stressed (ask lots of questions/make more requests, get teary-eyed or raise their volume or pace around a little, communicate more bluntly or clam up, or dozens of other things that are a result of being stressed, some even physiologic), but they do not just suddenly say to themselves, "I'm scared my mom's going to die, let me throw hot coffee at the nurse" or "My child is really sick; I think it will help to scream at the staff and put my fist in their faces," and certainly not, "Although I don't regularly threaten people with weapons, I am very stressed right now so I think it's a good idea."

The nursing profession itself completely dropped the ball on this by not declaring these ^ distinctions. Yes, people are stressed, and no, we should not take personal offense to their normal stress responses. But it doesn't follow to make excuses for abusive behaviors.

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1 hour ago, JKL33 said:

I hope newer generations of nurses will, without apologizing or mincing words, just say a hard "NO" to that rationale. Actually I hope everyone will do that whether new or seasoned.

I agree with this statement. Both seasoned nurses and fresh nurses have been advising me and other grads to be careful of accepting assignments that could cause a safety issue. Not just for protecting the license.

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On 4/16/2019 at 11:27 AM, Jory said:

We have to be careful about drawing causation. Blood clots killing someone after something like this is extremely rare and the nurse most likely had a coagulation disorder that was previously undiagnosed.

Jory it appears you drew your own causation with your assumption that she most likely had an underlying medical condition. The issue is continued violence against caregivers and a sister nurse lost her life because of the violent act.....not her own medical issues IF she even had any.

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On 4/18/2019 at 8:08 PM, brandy1017 said:

All the altered mental status patients and the alarms are what get on my nerves. As to violent patients usually, they are angry men in my experience. While I've never been injured my coworkers have been punched in the face, kicked in the face, chased with a cane. I've had angry men raise their fist at me threatening me on a couple of occasions. One with known psyche issues and the other a 400-pound guy who we heard was physically abusive to his wife. One time a patient tried to slam the closet door on my coworker when she was reaching for something in his closet he wanted. Luckily by a miracle she moved in the nic of time and wasn't hit.

Occasionally women might get angry and yell, but not hit, except for the rare dementia patient who is usually too frail to do any real damage.

We have security, but some have a tendency to rile the patient more. One that physically restrained a person got fired, but I think they should be able to do that if necessary to protect us!

It’s a sad day when a security guard gets fired for restraining a violent patient. What are they there for? To just “look” like they will do something when they actually aren’t allowed to do anything. Crazy. I hope that guy found a better job.

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Specializes in Neurology/Oncology.
On 4/20/2019 at 8:10 AM, studentnurseASN said:

I agree with this statement. Both seasoned nurses and fresh nurses have been advising me and other grads to be careful of accepting assignments that could cause a safety issue. Not just for protecting the license.

I'm curious as to what assignments those would be.

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Specializes in Neurology/Oncology.
On 4/19/2019 at 11:28 AM, gcupid said:

(I believe this hospital doesn't have an ER because it's in an area where many black uninsured people are and the ER did not make the hospital money, so it was shut down.)

Wow!...just....wow.

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On 4/18/2019 at 12:57 PM, marty6001 said:

Hey Jory, I don't mean to sound argumentative, but as an APRN and CNM you would know that DVTs are caused by virchow's triad, and the triad speaks to endothelial injury and stasis of blood flow (in this case from immobility) as significant risks of DVT. Could she have a hypercoagulable state, sure... but to make a broad statement that blood clots, I assume you read the original article and saw it was a DVT, killing someone after "something like this" is extremely rare, is not only unfounded (https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/b747/8999a5738ccfdfe5bdb9101176d5e452d93d.pdf) <-- just one article I found in a lit search about ACL and DVT, but also frankly a little insulting based on what you should know about DVT/PE and virchow's triad. As a nurse and now APRN who has been hit, kicked, spit on, bitten, tackled, pushed more times than I care to remember and/or count, I would never be so dismissive and make such a statement like this saying the person "most likely" had a coagulation disorder with zero proof.

Your exampled article did not show one single death from an injury similar. It just showed three cases of a DVT that formed (out of how many injuries)? Yes Virchow's factors can lead to clotting, but again present real data onto how many injuries cause clots that then lead to death. Since the coroner deemed the PE to be from the leg, then yes it was injury related. I do not think the original commenter read the coroner conclusion. She wasn't being dismissive but rather cautious to make a conclusion before that detail was written on the discussion messaging order.

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Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.

It just goes to show, we are not valued. We have to value ourselves because as far as admin goes, we cost too much. Like toilet paper and plastic pitchers, we come with the room.

Firing security for restraining a patient? What in hell is security FOR???!!!!! Again, our safety and our selves are not valued, at all.

We need to bill for our services like any other provider. The devaluing of nurses has to stop or there won't BE any in the next years to come.

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Quote

We have to be careful about drawing causation. Blood clots killing someone after something like this is extremely rare and the nurse most likely had a coagulation disorder that was previously undiagnosed

This looks like an attempt to shift blame.

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It will never change because we don’t make the hospitals money, the patients do. And because of their customer is always right *** attitude

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Specializes in Trauma, Teaching.
On 4/18/2019 at 9:08 PM, brandy1017 said:

Occasionally women might get angry and yell, but not hit, except for the rare dementia patient who is usually too frail to do any real damage.

Except that it was a woman who tried to leap onto the back of my colleague, and I am the one who ran after her, grabbed her by the arm and put her to the floor.

It was a woman who threw a punch at me and dang near broke my glasses, after I had security back up a bit trying to de-escalate her because she felt very threatened by men....

And it was a woman who tackled me and my charge nurse, took us both down to the floor, and bit me, wouldn't let go, my arm had a 6x8 INCH bruise & swelling around the wound which left a scar. Yeah, she was convicted of two felony counts of assault on a health care worker.

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As a school nurse I was assaulted by a student. The school did more about it than any hospital I ever worked in would have. Hospitals make you feel guilty for dumping patients on a co worker to get treated or even go home ill. You are not being a team player and letting your coworkers down.

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