Absolutely it should be Felony battery. In Florida if you hit a nurse, doctor, emt, or fireman it's the same charge as hitting a cop. The actual charge is "felony battery on emergency personel" if you hit the above mentioned workers. It is in fact enforced, the only way out of that is if the worker iwho got hit signs a waiver of prosecution.
Does this include dementia patients, brain injury patients, or any patient not under the influence of illegal substances?
Specializes in Breast Cancer, Arterial, General Surgery.
Does this include dementia patients brain injury patients, or any patient not under the influence of illegal substances?[/quote']
I am all in favour of Nurses being protected against all assaults (and this does include by dementia and brain injury patients).
Making the assault a felony offense against these patients (who are unable to recognise that their behaviour is inapproriate) is, I think, not acceptable.
However, for all other people; relatives, patients, general public - just throw the book at them.
Fear and worry are understandable, but it should not be an excuse for violent behaviour ... and I do include the drunks and drug addicts in this group as well.
The fact that some of the patients are "wacko" shouldn't be the only deciding factor of whether or not a crime was committed. People that rape 5 year olds are nut jobs but they are also criminals. Was the person oriented?- then it's a crime- go to jail-go directly to jail-do not pass go. The infirmary at the county lock up can treat your medical problems. If they are too complex for that care the law enforcement agency can provide a deputy to guard thier inmate while he is at the hospital so we don't have to tie up a NA to sit with him. Maybe while we are at it we can have a few of the rabid surgical attendings arrested for aggrevated menacing! How about locking up the nursing administration for kidnapping when we get mandated to stay over! Hey! this thread is productive!
I had my arm broken by a kicking patient. We had been told he was combative and to get someone to help. I had two orderlies and two aides holding his legs while I changed a toe dressing, he broke loose from all of them, kicked me and broke my left arm.
I did NOT get excused from work to go to the ER that night (was in LTC about 20 yrs ago),worked all the rest of the night and went to my PCP in am. DON did NOT want to hear about it the next day. Never did get workman's comp to pay a dime of it.
I wouldn't be that way now!!! I'd scream for an ambulance, and send every bill to the DON and tell her to kiss my fanny. And of course, no consequence to the patient at all.
Humph...sounds to me as if maybe facilities should be brought up on charges as well. Patients/residents sometimes have dementia or other psych. problems which causes them to become violent, but when a healthcare worker gets the cra* beat out of him/her and the facility does not care...that is truly criminal. Talk about salt in the wound. I'm sorry you had to go through that.
Does this include dementia patients brain injury patients, or any patient not under the influence of illegal substances?[/quote']
I personally would not call the police on a person who had dementia and a brain injury no matter what they did to me, I don't feel they can help it. If someone else called for me I would sign a waiver of prosecution and since I would be the victim, there would be no case without me or the "victim" in this case.
In my area if the injured party (nurse, doc, whoever) decides whether or not the person who hit in the first place should have the police called on them.
I personally have not seen a case where anyone did so where it wasn't dropped in a matter of a few days. However there is a lot of brain trauma, dementia, alzheimers type stuff here in the sunshine state. We have don't have to wear helmets to ride motorcyles, we have lots of water sports, and lots of elderly people. Brain trauma is par for the course with all that going on.
In fact my friend's teenage son had a brain tumor last year and was very combative after the surgery. He spit, hit, and kicked more than one nurse. Not a one of them filed charges and the family was horrified by his behavior. The nurses and docs explained he really didn't know what he was doing and wasn't in a state where he was responsible for his actions. He has since recovered fully and literally had no idea he
Also in this area even a healthcare workers still wants the person charged after admitting they had a diagnosis of brain trauma or dementia then the state attorney's office most likely would decline to prosecute even if charges were filed and drop the entire case.
Like I said though this is just this area. I cannot speak for other states and their interpretation. NY has a strange one going on right now along this line.
good point avalonlake. i think it is all a matter of context. certainly a medical issue is quite different than that of a beligerent drunk or mean-spirited person that refuses to be cooperative and abuses the very people that are taking are of them. i had to have a man arrested that repeated hit and kick me and then proceeded to stalk me outside the er. unfortunately this line of work subjects nurses to patients' worse sides at time and in the ed especially it is commonplace, which it shouldn't be.
I worked in the ER for a long time and verbal assaults are common. There were were several times I was physically assaulted. One time I was triaging a woman that jumped on top of me and just started punching me. Another staff member had to pull her off me. When questioned about why she did it her response was she was in so much pain she didn't know what she was doing. Our security called the police and filed a report, but the police acted like it was no big deal. If it had been a police officer that she attacked it would have been a big deal though. Nurses should not have to deal with verbal or physical abuse. The laws should reflect this and then people would not feel like they can get away with it.
Specializes in Peds, medical, surgical, all ICU's.
Recently we had an incident of a first year nurse being assulted. The courts can truely differentiate between aggression and dementia,but because of our "tasks" to preform during our shift, we encounter the aggressive patient in the line of delivering medical care to them. They are generally on a hair trigger to say the least and can explode without warning. Why should they be treated any different than anyone else that would assult you in a dark alley, corner drug store, gas station or medical surgical nursing floor?
I actually got kicked in the face this past November (it was T-day night) and was told by HR and workman's comp that it should be "okay" because he was confused and didn't know what he was doing. I didn't get compensated for the time I missed.
meeshellrn, it is unfortunate that your employer did not provide the support that you needed. in a time where staffing is critical one would think that supporting staff would be a priority; certainly ensuring they are safe. verbal and physical abuse/violence is not apart of nursing. we as nurses should not have to take sefl-defense classes in order to care for their patients while protecting ourselves.
~kelrn24
"some people think that doctors and nurse can put scrambled eggs back into the shell" dorothy canfield fisher
inava
35 Posts
How could it possibly not be?