Pressing charges

Specialties Psychiatric

Published

A co-worker of mine who was hurt (kicking multiple times in the stomach and had to go to the ED) by an aggressive 17 years old patient on our C&A unit was discouraged from pressing charges and told by our HR department that she could "lose her license" for pressing charges if the parents then chose to sue her. Is this true? I know ED nurses press charges all the time if they're injured. CYOA IMO. Our organization isn't going to foot the bill if she has medical issues down the line. They are also saying her getting hurt is her own fault because "you should never be in front of a patient". When obviously during a restraint attempt the patient was all over the place and was able to kick her when she couldn't get out of the way. We use CPI (no floor restraints) which is ineffective in most situations (especially with children). Just wondering others thoughts on this.

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Specializes in Psych ICU, addictions.

She can not lose her license for asking for charges to be filed. The hospital is just trying to cover its rear.

I wasn't there so I don't know to what degree--if any--your friend's actions contributed to her getting hurt. I know CPI isn't the greatest tool in the box but it does help somewhat. It's also very possible that she was careless and as a result got hurt...that doesn't mean she can't still try to pursue it criminally and/or civilly.

However we at AN can't give legal advice. Your friend needs to call her and/or lawyer up before proceeding any further. She may also want to consider finding a new job, as should the patient file a lawsuit or otherwise kick up a fuss, the hospital will probably drop her like a hot potato. Best of luck to her.

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We had a supervisor badly assaulted a few years ago by a patient who was frankly just plain mean. She played psychotic but was very aware of what she was doing. Leadership discouraged my coworker from pressing charges and she did anyway. However the first magistrate she spoke with refused to issue a warrant. She went back the next day and was successful in taking out charges.

And I agree with meriwhen. I don't see how that's grounds for loss of license.

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