Nursing is really a dangerous profession

Nurses General Nursing

Published

Nurses really put their life at risks every day they go into work. I don’t care if this is a hipaa violation or not but I really feel I need to share this. So 1 resident at my job decided to commit suicide by hanging himself in the bathroom and he succeeded. After a whole investigation was done with notes he left behind they found out he had a plan B to get access to a gun and to take some of the administrative and nursing staff along with him. but thank god he didn’t have any money to get access to a gun. I’m just shocked by this news that myself and my coworkers could have been a victim to such a selfish act.

23 hours ago, Nurse SMS said:

I think a reaction of fear is pretty understandable, but I would encourage you to ponder more how much pain this individual had to have been in and what the facility could have done better to ease his suffering and keep him safe. That is the only thing that will make any of us safer in the long run.

How do we know there was anything else that could have been done?

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Critical Care; Cardiac; Professional Development.
20 minutes ago, Kooky Korky said:

How do we know there was anything else that could have been done?

We don't. But we do know the first step of the nursing process is Assessment. A patient/resident suicide is a sentinel event and warrants an RCA.

1
Up Vote Up Vote ×
On 9/8/2019 at 9:25 PM, emilygirl89 said:

Nurses really put their life at risks every day they go into work. I don’t care if this is a hipaa violation or not but I really feel I need to share this. So 1 resident at my job decided to commit suicide by hanging himself in the bathroom and he succeeded. After a whole investigation was done with notes he left behind they found out he had a plan B to get access to a gun and to take some of the administrative and nursing staff along with him. but thank god he didn’t have any money to get access to a gun. I’m just shocked by this news that myself and my coworkers could have been a victim to such a selfish act.

Having been a survivor of a couple of successful suicidal actions by patients over the years, I understand how you feel. It is very, very frightening. And while some don't see suicide as a selfish act, rather one of screaming out because of intolerable pain or an expression of some aberrant belief, it can definitely feel selfish to those left behind. Be the survivors family, staff, friends, even staff who had minimal contact with the taker of life.

How about "suicide by cop" - people who do things that they know will push police to shoot? I think most cops find this pretty awful. Most police, I think, don't want to have to kill or injure anyone. Yes, there are some bad apples out there in uniform, but most police probably prefer non-violence in their work. Why put the police in the position of taking your life?

Why does religion say that suicides are damned? What makes that such a unforgivable act? In a world filled with taking of others' lives and filled with causing severe damage to peoples' bodies by drugs, by violence, by stealing their children, etc., etc., why does suicide cause damnation but all of these others can be forgiven?

Yes, suicide does feel, to some survivors, selfish. And rightly so.

Yes, the person who ends his or her life is ill or a zealot for some cause or whatever. Or maybe they know they are terminally ill, or they have terrible pain - physical or psychic - and they just can't take it any more.

Anyway, just my 2 cents. I agree Nursing is dangerous. From needle sticks to other infections, to psychic stress and chronic understaffing, from injuries to our backs, shoulders, and perhaps other parts, to shift work, to the many ills we all see every day, it is dangerous. Then there are rude and dangerous people in the ER or Clinics, etc. Nurses who work in Psych, Jails, ED's, and Methadone Clinics are especially prone to experience or be around violence.

Hope you are doing OK, OP.

1
Up Vote Up Vote ×
Quote

he had a plan B to get access to a gun and to take some of the administrative and nursing staff along with him

People, THIS is the selfish act to which OP and their coworkers could have fallen victim. Murder is selfish. I don't care how tormented the murderer is.

2
Up Vote Up Vote ×
2 hours ago, Kooky Korky said:

You might be more scared if this had happened with one of your patients.

I've only worked acute care, including floating to a locked psych unit.

I did work about two months, and have visited relatives in skilled nursing facility. So in those situations I can't believe patients could buy a gun.

I'm just trying to figure out what the facility is? Maybe a board and care facility where clients can come and go freely during the day?

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Add a Comment