Recently, the hospital where I work had a male patient on the med/surg floor who was sexually harassing the female nurses - groping them, pinching them, pulling their tops out so he could look down them, etc. The floor decided to assign all male nurses to him, but that was even worse because he was making disgusting assumptions about their sexual preference.
So, they called a male nurse from another floor who's about 6'7" and 400 pounds, and he introduced himself and told the patient, "We don't harass nurses in this hospital."
I have had lots of patients who were either just making inappropriate comments, or actually groping us nurses. Either way, you have to set limits with your patients. Lots of people who have histories of psych disorders can and will take advantage of people who they sense are intimidated by them. It is not uncaring, cruel, or unethical to tell your patient to stop the inappropriate behavior or there will be consequences for their actions. I don't care if you are a patient, that does not give you the right to do whatever you want to staff who are trying their best to help you. I have told patients many times that they cannot behave in a certain way. I do not threaten them, but I will set limits on what is acceptable. I had a patient who was very ill recently. He had been in a nursing home, and was bedridden, etc. His mind was not affected by his illness, but he felt that since he was in this position (through his own fault, I might add), he could get away with bad behavior. He would yell and scream, and cuss at us. When we tried to clean him or dress his decub ulcers, he would attemp to hit and bite. The first night I cared for him, he tried to punch me when I turned him. I grabbed his wrist and said to him "I am here to help you. Yes some of the things I have to do will probably be painful, but I will do my best to minimize the pain. Why don't you tell me why you try to hit us when we work with you, and it might help me understand how to care for you better?" He started crying, and told me that noone had ever asked him how best to care for him. He was in a miserable situation, and felt like noone would listen or care. By not judging him, I was able to work with him to make him happy. I have also had patients that I have had to call security on so that I could calm them down because they were violent. These patients often were not capable of their own decisions and had state appointed guardians. In these cases, we had to restrain them and use meds to deter harm. I believe it is entirely appropriate to assign a nurse who is just by their presence intimidating to a patient that has the potential for harm to others. The nurse is not actively threatening the pt, just his presence alone is enough.
al7139, ASN, RN
618 Posts
OK,
I have had lots of patients who were either just making inappropriate comments, or actually groping us nurses. Either way, you have to set limits with your patients. Lots of people who have histories of psych disorders can and will take advantage of people who they sense are intimidated by them. It is not uncaring, cruel, or unethical to tell your patient to stop the inappropriate behavior or there will be consequences for their actions. I don't care if you are a patient, that does not give you the right to do whatever you want to staff who are trying their best to help you. I have told patients many times that they cannot behave in a certain way. I do not threaten them, but I will set limits on what is acceptable. I had a patient who was very ill recently. He had been in a nursing home, and was bedridden, etc. His mind was not affected by his illness, but he felt that since he was in this position (through his own fault, I might add), he could get away with bad behavior. He would yell and scream, and cuss at us. When we tried to clean him or dress his decub ulcers, he would attemp to hit and bite. The first night I cared for him, he tried to punch me when I turned him. I grabbed his wrist and said to him "I am here to help you. Yes some of the things I have to do will probably be painful, but I will do my best to minimize the pain. Why don't you tell me why you try to hit us when we work with you, and it might help me understand how to care for you better?" He started crying, and told me that noone had ever asked him how best to care for him. He was in a miserable situation, and felt like noone would listen or care. By not judging him, I was able to work with him to make him happy. I have also had patients that I have had to call security on so that I could calm them down because they were violent. These patients often were not capable of their own decisions and had state appointed guardians. In these cases, we had to restrain them and use meds to deter harm. I believe it is entirely appropriate to assign a nurse who is just by their presence intimidating to a patient that has the potential for harm to others. The nurse is not actively threatening the pt, just his presence alone is enough.
Amy