I had a combative patient who was fighting off 3+ staff with enormous strength. She was a schizophrenic who had not been taking her meds. I paged the Dr to see if he would order restraints. He never called back. Eventually we had 5 people, three nurses and two aides in the room attempting to get her back to bed. We put restraints on and I called the Dr again, at home, to update the status. He ordered a med to calm her down, but didn't confirm the restraints order. I got the order scanned, administered the med, meanwhile the patient was getting out of the restraints and trying to pull at her tubes and scratch at staff. I called the Dr back again and asked him pointedly about the restraints. He ordered a higher dose of the med and was angry that restraints were used. No order. I administered the med dose he ordered and removed the restraints.
The patient calmed down and was subdued once the med was in her system. Now I'm terrified I'm going to lose my job, maybe even license over this. I have no doubt that the situation was extremely unsafe. Every person in that room was in danger, including the patient to herself. I tried to call for more staff to help subdue her, but we no one else was available in that hall. In the end all I can keep thinking is "I restrained a patient without orders".
