Nurse pressing charges

[Girlygirl69]

55 y/o male just finds out he has terminal CA. RN comes in room to administer meds and pt becomes verbally then physically abusive. Patient throws meal tray at RN hitting her in the face. No permanent damage just a really swollen black eye. Pt is deemed alert and oriented times three, would you press charges?

[Esme12, ASN, BSN, RN]

i have seen facilitiesback nurses 100% and press charges themselves and I ahve seen others that have "lost" incident reports and badgered that injured employee and threaten them not to press charges.

If a perfectly alert patient hit me with their tray and hurt me.....I'd call the police....whether or not to press charges depends on the circumstances but I think we should. All 50 states have enacted some felony violence nursing laws.........click on the followinf for the ENA's listing of states and their statutes.

http://www.ena.org/IENR/Documents/State%20Survey%20-%20Criminal%20Laws%20-%20Misdemeanor%20and%20Felony.pdf

For nurses in New York state, Nov. 1, 2010 represented a victory for on-the-job safety. It was the day that the Violence Against Nurses law took effect, making it a felony to assault an on-duty RN or LPN.

For many nurses, including those in home health, dealing with violent or abusive patients and caregivers was considered part of their plight. The New York State Senate passed the legislation in January, noting that, according to the U.S. Department of Justice, nearly 500,000 nurses each year become victims of violent crimes in the workplace. Most commonly reported acts of violence include spitting, biting, hitting and shoving.

Violence in the workplace for nurses is very under-reported. Nurses were either afraid to come forward or not sure if what was happening to them was classified as violence. Erin Silk, is the assistant director of communications for the New York State Nurses Association, which has been working to bring the legislation forward since 2008.

With the Violence Against Nurses law, nurses join the already protected groups of police officers, firefighters and emergency responders. A physical attack against an RN or LPN on duty is a Class D felony, subject to a maximum of seven years in prison.

So yes.....I do think we should press charges.......

[Altra, BSN, RN]

Exactly. Whatever the circumstances ... the same behavior will not be excused in the grocery store, the post office, the bank, on public transportation, or anywhere else ... but yet somehow in a healthcare setting things are different?

Not in my book.

Yes, I am a nurse, and I have a myriad of ways to help a patient cope.

But getting physically assaulted falls outside the entire support system I have to offer.

[caroladybelle, BSN, RN]

Yes.

As a longterm oncology nurse, there IS no excuse for this behavior.

This is right up there with, "what did YOU do to the doctor to make HIM hit you/scream at you/throw that scapel"....... " YOU know that he is under so much stress". Like that should be an acceptable excuse.

When police go in to a domestic violence call, and either party throws a punch......there are going to charges filed and prosecution. Yes, the parties were "stressed" or overwrought.... That does not entitle them to abuse another party.

Cancer/terminal illness does not turn people into saints, as a general rule. There are nice people with cancer. There are also serial killers, pedophiles, rapists, and genocidal dictators with terminal cancer. Would we give them a break?

If someone with AIDs (essentially terminal, the life may be extended more, now) assaulted a HCW after hearing the news, would we feel like cutting them a break?

[nurse2033, MSN, RN]

yes, of course

[aileenve, ASN, RN]

I was assaulted by a pt. that did not like what Dr told him, ( I was punched in the eye upon entering the room and asking if he was ready to go to PT) the hospital did nothing about him; I think if you are a &o x3 you should be accountable for your behavior, unfortunately people get ill, have cancer etc..that does not excuse hurting others!

[JDougRN, BSN, RN]

I most certainly would. I work in an ED, and have to deal with violent people quite a bit. We as nurses HAVE to stand up and demand that we be treated with the same respect that somebody who works as a casheir, or waitress would get. A/O people who act violently with police get charged, and I really believe patients should be held accountable. EVERYONE needs to be held accountable. And I don't give a hoot about politics or hospital issues...If ANYONE EVER threw an op instrument, the police would be waiting outside the OR doors....bet on it.

[caroladybelle, BSN, RN]

I was assaulted by a pt. that did not like what Dr told him, ( I was punched in the eye upon entering the room and asking if he was ready to go to PT) the hospital did nothing about him; I think if you are a &o x3 you should be accountable for your behavior, unfortunately people get ill, have cancer etc..that does not excuse hurting others!

My question: Did YOU do anything about it?

Yes, hospital SHOULD do something, but ultimately, you need to report it, call the police, file charges, if the lily livers decline to act on it. You do not need their permission to report this crime.

[VeraciousRN]

i am a new rn with life experience and i know a couple rn's myself. during clinicals a woman was continually physically attacking the nurses on a momentary basis. we were not allowed around her a warned to evacuate an area if she entered it. one day i came in and this woman had jumped the nurses station and caused harm to 3 or 4 nurses who ended up being seen in the er for wounds from the assault. one of the nurses back was seriously injured in the event and she was indefinately off from work.

i was more than shocked at how the staff handled the situation. the patient was aware of what she was doing when she reached out and grabbed a nurses hair, or jumped the nurses station to assault the nurses. my preceptor said that it happens and you cannot defend yourself from the patient, what??

i came to find that many of the nurses i would meet were physically assaulted on numerous occasions often. there are the people who try to bite the nurse. there are the pinchers or the hitters depending.

most people that i witnessed assaulting the nursing staff were well aware of their actions. plainly there is no consequences for the actions of these people, so they continue to act in such a way. why should nurses sustain injury for doing their job often? if more nurses pressed more charges things like this would happen less.

a nurse who was my instructor in nursing school was assaulted to the point of a near death experience, and she wrote an article called my worst nightmare. i hope providing a title is okay. she left her position with the support of the facility stating that she always new it was a posibility and she agreed to be a nurse. no safety measures came of this event and the nurse was left with a giant case of ptsd. to hear her describe the pain and suffering associated with that event, it leaves an impression because it could happen to any one of us.

[color=#556b2f]

with client nurse ratios, how well do you know the person whose room you enter all alone? the reality is quite shocking to think about?

sorry about any spelling errors, i am a spell check fan but the spell check program won't download to my 64 bit system.

[whichone'spink, BSN, RN]

At the very least the police or hospital security might give him a talking to.

[xtxrn, ASN, RN]

What if this is a parent who has just been told by a police officer that his/her child was murdered, and the parent lashes out. It's not their normal behavior. It's up to the cop to decide if charges are going to be pressed. Take illness out of it for just a second. (and I do agree people need to be held accountable- but what jury is going to convict- and what more can you take from the person?). The exigent circumstances are overwhelming. Is it right they slugged the cop? Of course not. Are they acting within their normal behavior? How could they? Their judgment and reactions would be overridden by grief.

JMO. :)

What do you get by prosecuting someone who will not live until the trial?

[TheCommuter, BSN, RN]

If this terminally ill patient were to go into any other place of business and give someone a black eye, I would bet top dollar that they would call law enforcement.

If he had assaulted the pilot on a major airline, he would have been forced by the air marshall to exit the plane before it leaves the ground, and he would be arrested. If he threatened bodily harm toward the bank teller at his local branch, he would have been made by security to leave the premises. If he had slapped the Wal-Mart cashier, the police would have been called on him. If he had tried to punch the movie ticket counter person because 'it is taking too long,' he would have been refused service and possibly had the cops called on him. Does anyone see the pattern that I'm trying to lay out?

A terminal prognosis does not give a patient a license to assault and batter people in close proximity to him. In a nutshell, administration tells nurses to accept the public's rude behaviors because the 'customers' are under stress. They ask that we coddle abusive patients because they're 'coping.' Violent patients should be made responsible for their socially unacceptable actions.

[msgirl68]

I would press CHARGES against the patient and the institution. Nurses don't need violence and abuse on the job! Verbal abuse is violence also. If this beligerent behavior happened on an airplane, the sucker wouldn't be flying again anytime soon. When you are attacked while working as a nurse, unfortunately YOU are treated as being somehow responsible or deserving the bad treatment.

The same thing happened to me 5 yrs ago, I regret not calling the police and not pressing charges. I also should have sued for post-traumatic stress.

Don't let anyone you care about even think about pursuing bedside nursing. The general public is too ungrateful and getting more DANGEROUS!