patient abuse in psychiatric nursing

[julesjameson3333]

I recently spoke to a man who is a former psych nurse in my area. When I told him that becoming a psych nurse was my intention, he stated that it was a "tough job". I asked him to elaborate and he responded that he got fed up with abuse happening by nurses to patients and that when he reported these abuses it backfired and found himself forced out. Unfortunately this isn't the only story I have heard about patient mistreatment in the psychiatric setting. I want to know if this is commonplace. I find this more than a little upsetting. I am hoping to hear that you are as disturbed as I am and that abuse of patients is not tolerated.

[Sour Lemon]

I recently spoke to a man who is a former psych nurse in my area. When I told him that becoming a psych nurse was my intention, he stated that it was a "tough job". I asked him to elaborate and he responded that he got fed up with abuse happening by nurses to patients and that when he reported these abuses it backfired and found himself forced out. Unfortunately this isn't the only story I have heard about patient mistreatment in the psychiatric setting. I want to know if this is commonplace. I find this more than a little upsetting. I am hoping to hear that you are as disturbed as I am and that abuse of patients is not tolerated.

The patients I work with are not abused. It might be worth considering that people who are "forced out" rarely have good things to say about the places they're forced out of.

[dream'n, BSN, RN]

The abuse I've seen so far in psych nursing is done by the patient to the staff.

[B52, ADN, BSN, MSN, RN]

I just reported a colleague for abuse. I can't go into details, but the patient was not an aggressive, agitated muscle head. Instead it was an elderly, non-violent woman in a wheelchair. I stopped the abuse. Cameras will verify my story. Still, I'm freaking out because I didn't want to get anyone in trouble, but I'm a patient advocate first.

[brownbook]

I suppose any that in unit, any facility, from magnet status acute care hospitals to poor improvised skilled nursing facilities to home health care nurses you can find incidents of abuse.

I would hope you might be more motivated to enter psych nursing to be the advocate for change if it is needed.

Personally I have never seen it. I floated to a locked psych facility and my husband is a psychiatric social worker.

[JKL33]

I recently spoke to a man who is a former psych nurse in my area. When I told him that becoming a psych nurse was my intention, he stated that it was a "tough job". I asked him to elaborate and he responded that he got fed up with abuse happening by nurses to patients and that when he reported these abuses it backfired and found himself forced out. Unfortunately this isn't the only story I have heard about patient mistreatment in the psychiatric setting. I want to know if this is commonplace. I find this more than a little upsetting. I am hoping to hear that you are as disturbed as I am and that abuse of patients is not tolerated.

This may be a slight rabbit trail, but I'm always interested in exactly what people mean by the words they use.

In this case I would be interested to know whether he is talking about individual "rogue" staff/practitioners who do individual acts that are clearly abusive, or whether he is dissatisfid with a system that doesn't serve patient needs and he finds that abusive, or maybe the institution has individual policies that he feels violate patient rights, etc. I'm not saying one of these is "more abusive" than the others, I'm just always curious to know what people are thinking when they make charges like this. The additional conversation gives me clues about the problem (how widespread is it, it is not really a problem but rather someone is disgruntled, is it a systemic problem or an invidividual problem, or an institutional problem, etc.)

[Davey Do]

The abuse I've seen so far in psych nursing is done by the patient to the staff.

Agreed.

This may be due to the swing of the pendulum theory. Once upon a time, as I have been told, psychiatric Patients were abused in a number of ways- one swing of the pendulum. The pendulum swings back and now it is the staff that are considered to be abused.

I have seen isolated incidents of some sort of what could be considered Patient abuse in various areas of Nursing. However, I have never seen a staff member act totally inappropriately with a Patient and not have to deal with the consequences of their actions.

[guest52816]

It might depend on your definition of abuse.

For instance, I worked for a UHS-owned behavioral health facility and yes, I think patient abuse was committed there, if you consider medicating adolescents in an unethical manner abuse. Several employees were fired while I was there for striking patients.

I got OUT as soon as I realized that the facility wasn't going to change. They had been operating like this for years. It is their business model.

[Hygiene Queen]

I worked in psych for a long time and I never, personally, saw anything remotely resembling abuse. I was lucky to work with some really good people and I don't think it would have been tolerated. That doesn't mean it doesn't happen, but it has not been my experience and I would not have worked there for so long if that were the case.

[psychpatient]

it is probably because you don't consider as abuse the things you have done. like you never laugh at your patient or you never joke about your patients. I know how you dehumanize your patients. what does snowing mean? while there is an inappropriate restraint use? you don't care about your patients. even some of the nurses accept that.

[psychpatient]

and somehow even moderation is trying to protect the reputation of psych nursing, lol :) my messages needs a confirmation :):)