Sexual Harrassment?

[burn out]

The other day I was taking care of a male patient that absolutely made me

sick to my stomach. Everytime I walked into his room he would whip out his member and just leave himself exposed. At first I threw the sheet over it but he would pull the sheet off. The next time I went in the room he was fondling it and when I left the room it was almost doing jumping jacks. How do you handle a patient like this. I told his physiciain he needed a psych eval. because what if he does this kind of thing to little children..the doc said we would just be wasting tax payers dollars and I should just confront him and tell him this kind of action is not tolerable. I am rather on the timid side and have a difficult time with confrontations. Is there any other suggestions?

[glenwood]

Your patient needs to be confronted and told to stop this. However you could also look at what inside of you makes you so uncomfortable with this abusive display. You can get over it and be a better nurse. After long enough time as a nurse some of us just don't respond to this sort of thing. It is hard but worth thinking about.

[tridil2000, MSN, RN]

document his actions in the chart.

tell him it will not be tolerated, and if he continues, administration will be notified as well as the hospital's legal department.

if you just verbally let him have it, he could easily turn it around that YOU were the one starting trouble. people like this are notorius for the bait & switch moves!!

document each step and each action.

[chadash]

With dementia patients, you sort of take it in stride, seen one, seen them all.

But this sounds like it might be deliberate abuse. Look, if he did this in a public place, it would be indecent exposure. If he is demented or confused, sure, ignore it. If he is just a plain pervert, deal with him in no uncertain terms. A psche evaluation sounds good to me too. If he goes home and has access to children, you could save someone a boatload of heart ache.

[Dratz]

I had a demented elderly pt that rather liked to be in the nude, and after having to see that so many times...I finally said "we keep our ponys in the barn sir" and put a towel over it. Yeah he would take it back off...but usually not before I was done.

Then I had a male nurse that was taking over for the next shift. We got together and continued to say that phrase and finally he stopped.

Please do not let him do this, it cycles and others have to deal with it (including non nursing personal). Get together with your charge nurse and perhaps administration and the other nurses on your floor and come up with an idea together! Heck when this happened to me I told my charge nurse after trying myself, and it really helped!!!

Pony's in the barn !!!! Too funny!! :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

[squeakykitty]

Accidently spill his ice water in his lap.

:rotfl: :yelclap: That would sure cool things off!!

[smk1, LPN]

I would decide that a male staff member needed to be present during any interaction with this patient after I told him to cover up and knock it off. Also report the behavior to the supervisor so that if he tries to say something happened that didn't, you already have your bases covered.

[Dratz]

As a student nurse, I am curious as to if you chart that behaviour? And if so, how? Pt. exposing himself????? or is that politically correct?

[LeahJet, ASN, RN]

How revolting, we should not have to put up with that. If he did that in any other situation he would be arrested. Do you think he had a mental problem?

You know, you are exactly right. If someone whipped their business out in front of a Walmart employee or a waitress at Denny's, the cops would be called immediately. We are about the only group that is expected to tolerate such behavior.

I could just see a female CPA saying..."Knock that off"...to a client exposing himself to her.

[HARRN2b]

Leah,

I about spit my drink out laughing when I read your post. I can just see some guy doing this to a female cpa. Nurses should not have to put up with this crap. He call play with himself all day if he chooses, but he should not do it in front of you!

[leslie :-D]

report it to your supervisor but handle it yourself.

no one enjoys confrontation but if you can't advocate for yourself, how can you advocate for your pts?

make sure you add it to report.

if he doesn't respond to your limit-setting, fill out an incident report and let your supervisor handle it.

in other words, use the chain of command.

it's not only 'unpleasant', it IS sexual harrassment which commands a zero tolerance policy.

best wishes....

leslie

[TazziRN, RN]

Dratz, you chart exactly what you see: "On arrival in pts' room, pt exposed his genitalia to this RN"...........

You chart what you say to the pt and what his response is.

[Marie_LPN, RN, LPN, RN]

Depends on the pt. condition. If they have dementia, i'd handle the situation differently.

Someone who's A and O? I would say "we have privacy rules here, i'll either shut the door or pull the curtain around, because NO ONE needs to see that."