MurseDan

When working in a children's Emergency Department a VERY distressed father came in with his baby. He was concerned about a 'abnormal' mark which was on the baby. I then had to explain that birth marks were perfectly normal........... Cheers MurseDan

i'm suggesting that we move away from feeling sorry for people, sympathy only disables us from doing our job however being empathetic to there needs and there situation may be a key. sure it may be idealistic but having that goal in mind will certainly improve us as people and as nurses. we will never be able to fully rid ourselves of violence but i'm just suggesting that there may be other ways of dealing with violence, many places over training on dealing with aggressive behaviour and anger management. personally i think all nurses should be involved with this type of education, as many of these situations described may have been avoided if staff were properly trained to deal with violent situations. thanks for your concern, i've been working specifically in dementure for 7 years now, i also do agency "guard" shifts in various hospitals, i'm called in when they have a patient that is aggressive or has "unwanted" behaviours. i've been punched, kicked, elbowed, kneed, spat on, almost stabbed once, abused many times. like i said, sometimes it doesn't matter what you do, im not completley unrealistic however endeavouring to better ourselves and trying to reduce violent situations occurring, i think, isn't such a bad goal to have. have i ever thought "why me" after a patient has punched me in the head? well i'm only human and sure after experiencing pain and suffering i get a bit upset but i'm sure the patient is feeling the same way, hence probably why i got punched in the head! for me understanding that its nothing personal helps me move through it faster but i do understand that if you were permanently disabled from a violent situation, this would be a different story. on another note, nursing deals with more violence then most of the jobs out there, i'm sure everyone will agree. would you do a self defence coorifice, if it were offered by your place of employment? would you be involved training that deals with aggressive behaviour? (if not i'm curious as to why) and does anyone work for an employer that offers this type of training? maybe if employers made it compulsory for all nurses to attend this type of training, there may be a reduced number of incidents. what do you think?

If everyone patient was "perfect" would you still be a nurse? Personally I enjoy the fact that people are so different in the way they react and respond. The best thing nursing has taught me, is that "bad situations" allows me to rise to the occasion. Sometimes situations, like what you all have described, can be an opportunity in disguise. An opportunity to experience a higher part of who you are, and to teach by example. Diffusing violence can be difficult and I admit sometimes impossible however we still shouldn't lose sight of why we became nurses, it takes a situation like that to be able to experience forgiveness, compassion and understanding. If you always had a perfect patient you would never be able to experience these wonderful and amazing aspects of who we are. Our perception is so important in what we do.