Patient claims abuse (sorry Long!)

[core34]

Ok--

I'm pretty disturbed by this. I hate confrontational situations.

I work on a Geri-Psych unit and something happened last night that upsets me. 11-7, one of our patients became pretty upset -- unsettled, anxious, etc, around 130am. She NEVER sleeps, she just lies there all night eyes wide open, somewhat catatonic. But last night she became very upset & hyperverbal. There are 2 RN's and a counselor overnight. This particular patient was not my assignment, but I'm very familiar with her. So anyway. The other RN went in to check on her and figure out how to help her. And she made this statement to the other RN.

PT: "He hit me....that black guy"

RN: "Who the counselor?

PT: "Ya"

RN: "Why did he do that?"

PT: "Because I was yelling and wouldn't stop.....he's not gonna get away with it."

There were 2 "black guys" on the unit last night. One was the counselor and the other was a 1:1. However, neither were ever in physical contact with her last night!! I can't say 100% but I'll say 90%. We do 15min checks on the unit, so she would have seen the counselor. But there is no hands on contact unless needed.

Summary of events:

1100-0045, the counselor, the 1:1 and both RN's were busy with 2 patients (other than the accuser) who were becoming agitated. The 1:1 then went into a separate room with both doors shut and he would've had to walk past the RN station. The other patient fell asleep in a chair in front of the RN station.

0100-0120, this accused counselor and I went to this Holiday dinner thing at the cafeteria so we were off the floor. The RN covered the floor and the checks. When we got back I covered the 1:1 so he could go get food.

0140, this is when the RN gets the statement from the patient. There was very minimal time for the patient to have interaction with the counselor. Also, she NEVER screamed, yelled, spoke loudly OR rang the bell etc. If she had, both nurses and the counselor would have checked on her TOGETHER. We do 15min checks on on all patients and we answer all bells, bed alarms TOGETHER, always. This never occurred with her last night.

It is highly possible that she is having a delusion or hallucination, or some sort of flashback of an abusive history. But no one can tell for sure. This is a serious accusation and I will feel SO BAD if something happens to this person's job. I truly believe this person is innocent and I will certainly speak up for him if needed.

I just have such a horrible feeling. It makes me nervous too!!!! I mean what if someone accuses ME of abuse unjustly one day???? I can see that it is a real possibility.

Has anyone ever encountered a situation like this before? What was the outcome? I am very upset about this. I'm nervous to enter this patient's room alone for fear of her focusing on me. Ugh. I don't even want to go in tonight and hear bad news. How can I protect myself against accusations like this?:o:o:o

P.S. I am a new grad, so this is still all very new to me.

[rn4ever?]

I work in a Psych unit too and sad to say, I have seen a couple of staff members being accused of such and such. Make sure you document, document, document! Did you write an incident report? Did you document what you said here?

[Chico David, BSN, RN]

I don't have definitive answers, but a few thoughts

You appear to have made a good start by making a detailed written record of the chronology. This is something I highly recommend to nurses whenever there is a hint of a complaint or problem. Other thoughts: given the nature of the unit and the racism still rampant in our society, I have to suspect that accusations of this sort are not all that rare and it's fairly likely that the manager and the counselor have had to deal with this before and may actually be less upset than you are by it. And of course this is a patient who is obviously seriously mentally ill, so in any rational environment her credibility has to be suspect. But is has also been my experience that sometimes managers react reflexively to assume that all patient complaints are credible and the nurse or other worker is always assumed to be in the wrong - one of the reasons our hospital unionized and one of the reasons I would not work in a non-union environment. The best you can do at this point is hold yourself ready to speak on the other worker's behalf if needed and try not to overreact to hypotheticals.

[Spritenurse1210, BSN, RN]

I currently have a lady like that on my unit. We were told by management to document her saying that someone was beating her ( after a thourough investigation showed that no one was) I agree with caringnursern make sure you document and cya!

[Batman24]

DON'T go into her room alone. Make sure you have someone with you at all times. If you weren't involved in this conversation I'd urge you to tell the RN who was involved to write up a IR to cover themselves at once.

[core34]

FYI: Nothing ever came of it. Turns out she was being very manipulative, etc etc -- and had been saying it about every male caretaker. We have all covered our bums and do care in pairs:) Thanks for everyone's response! Great advice--I have a lot to learn!!!

[Virgo_RN, BSN, RN]

Thanks for the update!