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Discussion

Something flew in my eye!!!

Im a student nurse extern and was at work over night sitting for a patient that OD on heroine, cocaine and wellbutrin. He was constantly trying to get up about 15 times within 30 minutes. He continuously pulled off pulse ox sticker. In about 45 minutes sitting for him, he rose up in the bed once again, this time snatched off his BP cuff, pulse ox sticker and as i tried to calmly orient him and help him back to lay down he jumped up and his IV tube popped and something flew in my eye. He ran down the hallway and tackled a nurse and we had to get security stat. The attending physician in the ER told the nurse this patient cannot be restrained. However the typical medications like Haldol and Ativan were not working and the nurse eventually after the incident took place was able to give Geodon and restrain him on all 4s. The nurse then told me he was positive for hep C but doesnt know about hiv etc. I washedmy eyes out and will be going to get blood work done in the morning and have filled out an incident report. Im so upset that it took all of this to happen just for the doctor to go ahead and give the okay to restraints after first saying no. I feel like my health and safety was jeopardized. I just don't know what to do because i come to work to do my job but I do not like feeling like my life is threatened. Nursing school definitely did not mentally prepare me for situations like this.

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    I'm sorry that you are so freaked out by this, but it is definitely part of nursing. When I was in nursing school there was a patient on a med-surg step down unit that freaked out and picked up his IV pole and hit his nurse in the head with it. She passed out and had a severe concussion from it. Nurses in psych facilities have been killed by their patients, and exposure to various diseases happens often. If you do a search for "exposure" or "needlestick" you will find tons of other posts here talking about this kind of stuff. Unfortunately it is just part of the job in a lot of places. If you find you can't deal with the risk then consider areas of nursing where your exposure risk isn't as high. Critical care areas seem to be the most prone to injury due to the critical fast-paced environment.

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    I'm sorry to hear this happened to you. However this does not mean you dont have to right to practice in a SAFE work environment. We always talk about patient safety but health care provider safety is equally as important. It seems like your taking the right steps to assure your health is not affected. Unfortunatly things like this do happen. Just remember to advocate for your own safety as well as the patients in the future. It doesnt matter what the attending says. Safety is key! Hopefully everything turns out okay.

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    Sorry to hear this happened to you. When I was a nursing student, I was learning to do IV's in a clinic one day.... A nurse supervisor was supposed to be helping me, but wasn't. She helped me get it started, then something went wrong, and he was bleeding around his heplock really bad because he was on blood thinners. She was charting, and I called her over to help. During all of this she said remove the heplock and we will try sticking him again... In the process, blood splattered all over me! I didn't have a face shield on... I think I was hit in the face as well. I had a blood test done afterwards, and it turned out to be OK. Chances are you're probably alright... but definitely get some blood work done, just to be sure... Remember, we all learn from each experience as a nurse... not that you did anything wrong.

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