Pressing Charges Against a Patient

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I'm a nursing student working on a medical telemetry floor. We currently have a patient who two staff members are pressing charges on for assault (he has AIDS and bit one, and the other he punched in the face.) Due to a mild language barrier and him generally being uncooperative, the doctors are still working on figuring out if he has some kind of psych issue, or he's confused, or if he's just very unpleasant.

Since the two employees (a nurse and a tech) have decided to press charges, security has been sitting outside his room 24/7, but that's it. He's become a lot more hostile even less cooperative since this happened, and most of the nurses agree that he thinks that we're all 'against him' now. As far as I can tell, this isn't really true- I don't notice anyone treating him differently, but I can definitely understand why he would feel that way. It seems really strange to me that they wouldn't move him to a different unit, but apparently that's not hospital policy.

What's the usual protocol for dealing with situations like this? And what exactly happens if you pursue charges against a patient?

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Specializes in ICU.

"just very unpleansant"?

Sounds more like very violent.

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Specializes in Med-Surg, Emergency, CEN.

In some states it is a felony to attack a nurse.

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Specializes in burn ICU, SICU, ER, Trauma Rapid Response.

Hopefully they go to jail. I have pressed charges aginst several patients. It s not policy at our hospital but it is encouraged. Either way the police will be called, either by the victim, or charge nurse, or nursing supervisor. Obviously patients who are not responsible for ther actions, dimentia, TBI or similar are excluded. However phych issues, on drugs, or drunk are not excuses. I work in a trauma center. A couple years ago we had a very nice young CNA who was 7 months pregant. SHe was attacked by a patient high on meth and was kicked so badly that her baby died despite an immediate emergency c-section. The "patient" was tackled by several ICU nurses but not before he got in one hard kick. He is in state prison as I write this.

Pressing charges is exactly what should happen when a patient assaults a nurse or other staff.

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Your question is totally dependent on you facilities policy. You have to pick your battles.

I have been assaulted, finished my shift and reported for evaluation and treatment afterwards.

99% of the time,,, the nurse will LOSE!

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Agreed 100%. I personally believe that if someone assaults a nurse then charges should be pressed, because if these people did this on the streets then pressing charges would not be an issue more than likely. A lot of facilities make excuses for some patients, but the majority of these people still know right from wrong. I once worked in a facility where a nurse was caring for an ex soilder and one night he got upset and punched the nurse in the chin. They said that it was post tramatic stress disorder, and while this may have very well been true, it still doesn't give a person the right to act out against staff in a violent manner, so I am all for pressing charges against people that act violently against nursing staff

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Specializes in burn ICU, SICU, ER, Trauma Rapid Response.
Your question is totally dependent on you facilities policy. You have to pick your battles.

I have been assaulted, finished my shift and reported for evaluation and treatment afterwards.

99% of the time,,, the nurse will LOSE!

*** It sounds like your hospital doesn't support it's nurses at all. Our experience has been very positive. Maybe cause a bunch of our ICU and ER nurses are married to cops, also one of our neuro suregons is a part time cop.

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Specializes in ED, CTSurg, IVTeam, Oncology.

not responding in particular to this op's question, but wanted everyone to note this other case, in which a psychiatric patient was sentenced to five years for assaulting a nurse and giving her serious injury:

http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/attack-on-nurse-draws-prison-in-tough-new-law-2251960.php

typically, if it would have been a police officer, the patient would have been arrested for attempted murder (as had happened in other cases in the past), as he bit and his saliva could have potentially carried the aids virus.

nurses have traditionally been used as various forms of punching bags, and the usual reaction from employers is to shrug and say "so what?" nurses and nursing needs to get together to help defend ourselves, both legally and physically, even as we're doing our jobs. hospital systems have to wake up to their legal responsibility to employee safety under osha.

imho, once a patient attacks someone, then continue to treat them, but change their status to "prisoner" with police in attendance. then, once they're medically stable for discharge, they should be transported into and processed by the criminal justice system.

large hospitals deal with police prisoners all the time. having a patient become one in the midst of his admission isn't so strange. in large cities like new york city, there are what are known as "prisoner wards" which are locked facilities like a psych unit, with corrections officers always in attendance.

we as a society have to realize that crime and criminality does not stop when the criminal gets a cold. to ignore that facet of their life begets danger not just to nurses, but to society in general.

support your nursing unions! :up:

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Specializes in burn ICU, SICU, ER, Trauma Rapid Response.
Not responding in particular to this OP's question, but wanted everyone to note this other case, in which a psychiatric patient was sentenced to five years for assaulting a nurse and giving her serious injury.

*** Wonderful! Exactly what should happen. (at least)

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Specializes in Acute Mental Health.

I work in Behavioral Health and can tell you that the most our pts will see is a trip to acute for a week or so and maybe a ticket issued by the sheriffs dept which will be thrown out upon review d/t pt being deemed incompetent :crying2::mad::crying2:

I would love to see them at least hauled off to jail for the evening, but it never happens here and they know it!

Seems like when this pt is released, he will be taken according to police procedure and then whatever the DA decides. It may be necessary to evaluate the pt to see if there is a progression of the disease or if something else is going on psychologically. Either way, if he were my pt, he would be placed in 4point restraints or ambs and have some good meds IM'd.

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Specializes in ICU, Telemetry.

If you know you have AIDS and bite someone, that's attempted murder. While it is possible for a person to have AIDS dementia, the people I've seen with it have been the quietly confused type of demented. I had a patient who would lick her palm and spread saliva where nurses would touch and she wouldn't have a reason to -- buttons on the IV pumps, the bed buttons on the outside of the rails, dials on the O2. We had her in a camera room doing it, and she was told if she did it again she would be arrested for attempted murder (why else would she be wiping spit everywhere except to try to spread the virus), and she would no longer be admitted to the hospital. Amazing how she never did it again.

They should take the cost of the employees AZT out of the patient's check.

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Trauma and Psychiatry.
Agreed 100%. I personally believe that if someone assaults a nurse then charges should be pressed, because if these people did this on the streets then pressing charges would not be an issue more than likely. A lot of facilities make excuses for some patients, but the majority of these people still know right from wrong. I once worked in a facility where a nurse was caring for an ex soilder and one night he got upset and punched the nurse in the chin. They said that it was post tramatic stress disorder, and while this may have very well been true, it still doesn't give a person the right to act out against staff in a violent manner, so I am all for pressing charges against people that act violently against nursing staff

`I am also for pressing charges! Most of these patients know exactly what they are doing and saying. It seems sometimes we present ourselves as " a sacrifice" for patients and act as if we are at their mercy. I think this talk about "the customer is always rights" and the advent of "patient advocates" who in trying to keep their jobs act as if every complaint from a patient is valid, encourage some patients to act out since they know the possibility of a consequence for their behavior is far fetched or unlikely.

I always ask myself the question, 'why do customers in a post office or in a bank have to obey the rules and respect the staff, while the same customers we see in the post office and the banks disrespect and assault the staff when they are in the hospital - at the bank and the post office (there are expectations!) they are expected to stand in line no matter how short or how small the transaction they want to make ... stand in line even if they want to ask a question! They dare not behave in a threatening or unpredictable manner or the police will be called and they would be escorted out in style.

Why then should nurses tolerate abuse and disrespect from patients - if we allow them to feel it's okay and that we have no recourse one of us might be fatally wounded leaving our family to suffer silently. I say press charges whether hospital policy or no policy! We definitely deserve to be respected, at least I do!

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