Nurses, have you been been spit on, pushed, scratched and verbally or assaulted?

Nurses Relations

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  1. Nurses, have you been been spit on, pushed, scratched and verbally assaulted?

    • 1211
      Yes
    • 178
      No

1,389 members have participated

Unfortunately, it is quite common in the nursing profession to have had been assaulted one way or another by a patient at some point in your career.

For some reason, it is tolerated in the nursing profession and is just accepted as "part of the job"? Police do not tolerate this type of abuse, nor do most professions, why is it tolerated in the nursing profession?

Do to recent stories of fatal violence in hospitals, I wanted to poll all of you AN'ers and see what kind of percentage of nurses from all specialties have had to deal with violence in some fashion.

I think we all would like to see policies change to have a safer work environments, please share this poll with your nursing friends, Facebook etc.... Thanks

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Please take a second and answer our poll, then if you wish, please share your stories of your experiences.

I have been scratched, had my finger almost broken by a patient that I thought wanted to hold my hand while going to sleep and pulled my back several times from lifting patients who truly could move better than me but the worst part of the abuse was from physicians. I have worked with some of the most foul mouthed physicians who were so verbally abusive. I have been called in to a case and the doctor say, "where is my nurse?"

I worked with one girl that for some reason the doctor hated and everytime we would do a case, he would call administration and say, "get me some competent help in here." Different doctors of course, but the same personality. I have also been rubbed up against numerous times, but that was perhaps from just having to work closely with physicians while doing procedures. I say that because that was mostly with a very polite physician who only was rude to me one time.

Funny thing is that one of the most hateful, rude and insulting doctors that I worked with has his patients completely fooled. I signed one in once and she said, "I just love him, he is such a good man. He prayed with me before surgery."

I was speechless. I couldn't say a word because he was a monster to work with.

Just reminiscing....ah, the old days.

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Specializes in Geriatrics, Geriatric Psych, Med/Surg.

I had one little old lady who had VERY long sharp nails dig them into my wrist as hard as she could. I knew her MO so as badly as it hurt I stared at her right back and told her she wasn't hurting me so she could quit whenever she wanted. It ticked her off as she wasn't achieving her goal so she quit. I still have a scar to this day ~ 15 years later.

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I had one little old lady who had VERY long sharp nails dig them into my wrist as hard as she could. I knew her MO so as badly as it hurt I stared at her right back and told her she wasn't hurting me so she could quit whenever she wanted. It ticked her off as she wasn't achieving her goal so she quit. I still have a scar to this day ~ 15 years later.

What a nightmare...I just had a vision of that crazy old lady in that movie that came out this year...

What caused her to do that? Did she not want to be there?

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Specializes in Primary Care.

You know it is so ridiculious to have to care for people who are abusive. I left the hospital 8 years ago because of the abuse. I have been slapped, kicked, man handled and had a patient throw his lunch tray at me. I have been called everything except a child of God. I now work as a NP. If there is any inkling of trouble I get out of the way as fast as I can.

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Specializes in neurology, cardiology, ED.

I've been hit, kicked, punched, and spit on by patients with dementia, severe ETOH withdrawal, and neurological injuries. Those I take with a grain of salt.

But a couple of weeks ago I had a patient's family member verbally attack my tech. Since I had learned in report that he had attempted to punch the day nurse already that morning, I didn't even go in the room, I just calmly went to the desk and called security to have him escorted out. Problem solved, in my mind. Come to find out my tech was called in by our new nurse manager and asked why she laid her hands on the patient (um, to do vital signs), why she gave the family member attitude... glad to know our new manager has got our backs!

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Specializes in assisted living.

Wow! I am currently a nursing assistant student. What would be the best place to work after receiving certification?

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Specializes in LTC.

add to that, hit , kicked, and my personal favorite, bit.

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I have been physically assaulted by a psychiatric patient. The mental health workers that were assigned to her on a 2:1 ratio because she was so violent,, turned to talk to EACH other, when I entered the room to administer meds. I finished my shift while limping from a hip injury and pulling hunks of bloody hair from my head. No one seemed to care about my injuries, ,there was no supervision available.

Being spit on and verbally abused is par for the course in all care settings. I have also been the victim of lateral violence in the workplace. I was stuck by an open lab draw needle placed in my lab coat draped over a chair .My managers response was,,," well it has been 3 days since it was placed there, no chance of any living organisms u need to worry about"

I appreciate the forum to express this and the :yeah:concern regarding this issue.

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This is why I am leaving med/surg... I'm done with the verbal and physical aggression.

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Let's see... I've had a fork stuck in the back of my hand; been hit, kicked, scratched, pinched, verbally abused, spat on, had pills spat at me, and fallen on. I haven't been bitten... yet. Gotta love being a nurse :lol2:

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Specializes in Certified Wound Care Nurse.

Yeah - I had a drunken "friend" of the family threaten to shoot me and my staff... all this with my first and last name emblazoned on my name badge. You can bet I taped up my last name after that one.

Oh, and, the "friend" (who was 48 yo) was sent to the local McD's to meet his Mommie so that she could take him home with her. The hospital decided not to press charges (for terroristic threatening against the facility) because "he's just drunk".

Makes me feel really safe.

RiverNurse

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Specializes in Trauma Surgery.

i have been verbally abused by a local. i'm an expat nurse working in their country, so apparently i am considered worthless. it was degrading and hurtful, but i refuse to grace that insult with a response because i know what i am and what i am not. i had to stiffen my spine and walk away because, frankly, i believe that KARMA is a ***** and one day this same person will owe us his life and regret all the things he said about us.

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