Physically attacked on the job?

Nurses General Nursing

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My gf told me of a situation where an addict threw an IV pole at her, luckily it missed. My friend's wife was kicked in the knee sustaining a minor patellar fracture.

Have you ever been attacked at work?

Specializes in Transplant, homecare, hospice.

Oh wow....you guys have been beat up...Luckily nothing bad yet. The encephlopathic patients who are pre-restrained try from time to time, but I usually catch their swinging fists or I'm able to pry their hands from me.

A long time ago...I mean like 20 years ago, I was working in a nursing home as a CNA and had never had a nursing-type job before so I wasn't expecting anything...I had a full urinal thrown at me...thank goodness it missed and a dementia patient scratched me. Other than that....nothing so far....knock on wood....

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I'm out of Psych now but I was in Forensic Psychiatry. ie Psychos with Rap Sheets! (And don't dare anyone give me the lesson on calling the mentally ill 'psychos'. Some of them are just that and only that. I have a wealth of experience with Norman Bates 'actalikes'). However, now I bask in the serenity of Med/Surg. And if that's an appropriate adjective to describe Med/Surg.... then I'm the Pope. ;)

:chuckle Again, I have to smile, because I too worked with pt's with rap sheets...only younger ones...lol!! I recently resigned...had enough of that action..it wasn't changing & I am not getting any younger! Hmmm, Med-Surg, might have to go back to that, but...still searching.

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Yep, many times in ten years. Mostly by psych & geriatric Pt's. I had to take a 22 year old boy down in an elevator once. He was on a psych hold and assaulted three others and tried to leave the unit. I let him throw a punch, then stepped in and took him down to the floor. 2mg of ativan in one butt check and 4 of haldol in the other.

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Specializes in Utilization Management.

Yup. The biters are the worst. Close behind that are the MRSA(or other gross/nasty disease)-infected spitters. The slappers, punchers, scratchers, kickers, throwers--I've BTDT and I try very hard not to get caught off-guard any more.

Most are so confused that there's nothing you can do except wrist restraints and medications.

However, I've sustained the most severe personal injuries just lifting or transferring patients. So my biggest fear is a bad back injury or a leg/foot sprain. It can mess me up for weeks.

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Yes but it has been awhile, I once got punched in the stomach while I had a patient in the shower. Amazingly he was my patient again about 15 years later and he REMEMBERED the incident and APOLOGIZED for it. WOW. I have come close to being hit more times that I can remember, had too many killer grips to my hands than I can count.

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My gf told me of a situation where an addict threw an IV pole at her, luckily it missed. My friend's wife was kicked in the knee sustaining a minor patellar fracture.

Have you ever been attacked at work?

Yes, more times than I care to count (working in the ER multiple years).

Worst - being choked by a psychotic patient. An off-duty police officer with a #tib/fib was waiting for the ERP and hopped over on one foot to try and stop him. The code team arrived at the same time and tried to tackle the pt. too. Unfortunately, the pt, the police officer, and two men on the team knocked everyone over and landed on top of me squishing me flatter than a pancake. Perfect case of the cure being worse than the injury, but I didn't complain too much cause I was still alive. It was not fun and I was off for months. :o

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I have been kicked, punched,and scratched. Why is it that when resident care plans are followed, and incident reports are filed that the main MDS nurse makes it out to be your fault. The primary MDS nurse is angry because the physician has ordered new medications to decrease the violence of this resident. Following an IDT meeting,this MDS nurse has had a memo issued to all staff stating that many patients have attacked staff but when care plans are followed and two staff are present in the room that should eliminate the attack or physical contact by the resident on the staff because the 2nd person will be able to stop the punch. This is not always true. If a violent resident does not appear angry or agitated, is being helped to sit up, throws an unexpected quick blow, the other staff may not be able to stop this unless they are standing on the bed and in a few inches of the residents arm. This positioning of the second staff person is not always possible to be within inches of this residents arms. Following this IDT meeting the MDS nurse who actually wrote the memo blamed the main MDS nurse and stated they had to write the memo. Can someone please explain?

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I had a 60 year old male hit me in the upper back and neck with his fist. He then hit my partner in the stomach.

Management "justified" keeping him on the floor by stating he was "agitated", and refused to have him transfered off the unit.

The sad thing is he underwent surgery a few days later, got a post op infection, and died several days later.

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Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.

i've been punched, slapped, bitten, shoved, kicked, scratched and almost knifed. and that's just by the patients. (there is no one stronger than a demented little old lady!) i've seen physicians punch, slap, shove and throw objects at the nursing staff, and once the assistant manager shoved me so hard i slammed into the bedside cart and had bruises all up and down my side for weeks! i wasn't getting out of her way fast enough. i wrote that one up -- the doctor was in the room when it happened. unfortunately, nothing came of it because the doctor died before the investigation got to him. in the end, it came down to she said/i said, and since she was the assistant manager and i was a lowly staff nurse . . . . after a number of complaints about her verbal abuse of others, she did go to anger management, though. and then there's the visitors . . . i've seen them punch, slap, threaten, kick, shoot at and set dogs on the nursing staff. and my friend bob got shot in the butt as he was running away.

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I have been kicked, punched,and scratched. Why is it that when resident care plans are followed, and incident reports are filed that the main MDS nurse makes it out to be your fault. The primary MDS nurse is angry because the physician has ordered new medications to decrease the violence of this resident. Following an IDT meeting,this MDS nurse has had a memo issued to all staff stating that many patients have attacked staff but when care plans are followed and two staff are present in the room that should eliminate the attack or physical contact by the resident on the staff because the 2nd person will be able to stop the punch. This is not always true. If a violent resident does not appear angry or agitated, is being helped to sit up, throws an unexpected quick blow, the other staff may not be able to stop this unless they are standing on the bed and in a few inches of the residents arm. This positioning of the second staff person is not always possible to be within inches of this residents arms. Following this IDT meeting the MDS nurse who actually wrote the memo blamed the main MDS nurse and stated they had to write the memo. Can someone please explain?

I read the first part of this and was thinking "resident" doctors!!!!!:rotfl: I was like.... :imbar:chair: then I figured it out. :uhoh3:

sorry you're veen so abused at work!! :crying2:

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Specializes in Corrections, Cardiac, Hospice.
i've been punched, slapped, bitten, shoved, kicked, scratched and almost knifed. and that's just by the patients. (there is no one stronger than a demented little old lady!) i've seen physicians punch, slap, shove and throw objects at the nursing staff, and once the assistant manager shoved me so hard i slammed into the bedside cart and had bruises all up and down my side for weeks! i wasn't getting out of her way fast enough. i wrote that one up -- the doctor was in the room when it happened. unfortunately, nothing came of it because the doctor died before the investigation got to him. in the end, it came down to she said/i said, and since she was the assistant manager and i was a lowly staff nurse . . . . after a number of complaints about her verbal abuse of others, she did go to anger management, though. and then there's the visitors . . . i've seen them punch, slap, threaten, kick, shoot at and set dogs on the nursing staff. and my friend bob got shot in the butt as he was running away.

omg!!!!!:eek: where do you work?!?

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People shouldn't let those kind of situations get in the way of their helping others. I was talking to a nurse earlier that was concerned about working in a rehab because she thought she would get attacked! Probabaly unlikely

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