What to do when Nurse is attacked and employer doesn't file police report?

[Nurse GreenBean, ASN, RN]

JKL33 said:

Get a lawyer who is familiar with workplace injuries/worker's comp immediately.

I know you were referring to the other poster, but I did get a lawyer as soon as I found out that the incompetence of the WC doctors was about to effect my ability to ever get a job in nursing again. All I've ended up with so far is clearance to work again, a few months of WC partial compensation for lost pay for the months I was on my back (barely able to get out of bed), and a lot of debt from not being paid for months with no clearance to work and no compensation. Now that the pain is finally managed, I'm cleared to work. And MAYBE I'll get a settlement that helps with future medical treatments for what happened (I'm on cymbalta and injections for life now). In my state, mandatory payouts for permanent restrictions have shrunk from 10 years pay (for a permanent injury preventing return to the job), down to a few weeks pay. 

I'm finding out that WC is there to protect the employers, not the employees. 

[Brenda F. Johnson, MSN]

Just a question, what stopped you from filing an incident report?  I am on your side, and I think what happened to you is criminal - from the pt and the facility. But doing a report that day would start a paper trail.

[BeenThere2012, ASN, RN]

OMG!  

Apologies if this sounds like a “rant”! 
I recently resigned from an Acute Psych Hospital. My first and only psych position, but many years experience.  Not a new grad.  I saw most of what has been said in this post in the facility I worked in.

1) Filling beds as the priority as opposed to placing the patient on an appropriate unit. We constantly would be trying to transfer patients to appropriate units and many times were unable to do so due to no bed availability.

2). Very poor staffing where patients needed 1:1 or Q5 checks but didn’t have the staff to do so.

3). Code “greens” called without timely response for assistance or where 1 person shows up, or the supervisor not even showing up as they were supposed to do by policy.

4). On-call doctors not responding to pages to get emergency or sedative medication orders to calm the patient before escalating beyond control or even after they did become out of control delaying our ability to safely care for the patient.  

5). The physical facility and equipment so out-dated with malfunctions occurring on a regular basis such as the medication dispensing system where you couldn’t access what you needed in urgent situations.  
 

6). And finally, frequently management/administrative staff NOT following policy/procedures with regards to reporting, being available to assist staff when needed etc...  There was one situation where the supervisor refused to call a staff member’s wife to inform her that her husband had just been transferred to the ER (911) for injuries he sustained after being attacked by a patient. She said she was “too busy”!  

I could go on...Why are so many Psychiatric Hospitals so poorly run?  Apparently it’s not just the hospital where I worked.  I’ve heard many stories similar to this post, and saw several staff members, RNs, and Techs alike seriously injured in the relatively short time I worked there.  Some with lifelong sequelae.

I applaud ALL healthcare workers in the Psychiatric specialty.  You all are brave hero’s in my book.  I will never go back.

[S.I.C.]

I sincerely sympathize with the assaulted nurse.  The employer should be responsible of what happened and should pay compensation in terms of money.

Policies should be made to protect nurses from violent patients and I think, unless if a patient is mentally ill, otherwise he should pay the penalty.

As a nurse, if patient start to hit me, and assault me physically, I have to defend myself.  However, I have to search if there are laws that can protect me in that kind of scenario. 

[Spiker, ASN, RN, EMT-P]

I am so sorry this happened to you!  Were you treated in the ER for your injuries? That would have gotten the ball rolling as far as reporting, both with a facility incident report, & the police report.  Then worker's comp would be the next step.  Please, advocate for yourself!  I know our patients are important, but NOT at a cost to your physical - & mental - health!  Where was the Nursing Supervisor during all of this?  He (my hubby was a Supervisor) or she should have been there, giving assistance, making phone calls for security help, & most importantly, sending you for treatment!  What normal manager leaves an injured RN in the same area, to finish a shift?  You have some reasons to call a lawyer! 

And PLEASE!  After my 40 years in the OR, I want to pass on to any other nurses who are in an unsafe situation, that you owe it to yourself to advocate for your own health & safety.  Find out how to put out a facility-wide call for help in an emergency.  We have a "code blue" cardiac arrest hospital code; we also have a "Y'ALL COME" ("response team, room 123") code that means security, any male staff, supervisors, etc respond stat. Please, take care of yourselves. ?

[brandy1017, ASN, RN]

This situation reminds me of one a couple years ago in NYC where an older nurse 60-70 ish was still working and tried to discharged a pt, but who was angry he wasn't getting the pain meds he wanted.  So he ambushed her and beat her practically to death with the IV pole, hitting her in the head over and over.  She was brain injured and unconscious.  So close to retirement!  She should have been enjoying herself, spending time with family, friends and grand kids if any.  Instead she was hospitalized and I never heard anything in the news about whether she lived or died and if she recovered from her injuries.

So sad, does anyone on the East Coast remember this incident?  Does anyone know if she survived and recovered?

[Allgood2016, LPN, LVN]

Approximately 20 years ago I had a patient punch me; in the face; dislocating my jaw.  I continued to work my shift (3-11).  I went to the ER; was given Versed; had my jaw put back in place; was placed in a soft cervical collar; then had the 11-7 Supervising Nurse drive me home.

I went in the next day to do the paperwork. The 3-11 Supervising Nurse had not filled out; nor, had he started the incident report.  I filled out my portion; talked with the DON and the CEO about what happened.  (Thank goodness I had a CNA with me.)  The CEO asked me if I wanted to press charges; stupidly I declined.  2 days later the same patient beat up a CNA; she had to admitted.  The CEO then called me to his office.  The CNA pressed charges; the CEO then asked if I wanted to press charges. I said yes.  

The patient was arrested at the hospital; had 2 police gaurds - one in the room and one outside the room.  Anytime anyone went in the room it was 2 people at all times with both Police gaurds in th room with staff.

I got 3 weeks paid leave; the CNA got 4 weeks paid leave. The 3-11 supervisor got fired for not following protocol.

It is every health care workers right to press charges when attacked by a patient; or if a nursing home or rehab facility to press charges when attacked or assaulted

[NurseJones6]

Thank you so much for publishing this. 

[Hirene Onne, ASN]

The hospitals don't help because of patient rights advocates. They have gone way overboard.   Unfortunately, the legacy of Florence Nightingale is not as great as it seems.  Nurses were viewed as obedient parlor maids in England and not life-savers.  

[Nurse GreenBean, ASN, RN]

On 10/8/2020 at 9:26 AM, Nummber Onne said:

The hospitals don't help because of patient rights advocates. They have gone way overboard.   Unfortunately, the legacy of Florence Nightingale is not as great as it seems.  Nurses were viewed as obedient parlor maids in England and not life-savers.  

I disagree that this is due to patient rights. We don’t need to traumatize patients in order to keep them -and ourselves-safe. Actual safe staffing levels, with mandated extra staffing on higher acuity units would go a long way towards reducing issues like this. 

But then CEOs and shareholders wouldn’t see the same profits they do now, soooo....

[JKL33]

Nurse GreenBean said:

I know you were referring to the other poster, but I did get a lawyer as soon as I found out that the incompetence of the WC doctors was about to effect my ability to ever get a job in nursing again.

[....]

I'm finding out that WC is there to protect the employers, not the employees. 

I'm very sorry to hear what you have been through and what you are up against.

I mentioned an attorney familiar with WC because in my mind it seems like they of all people would recognize a situation where even more remunerations than worker's comp would be available as a remedy to you all who are victims of preventable workplace violence. But maybe a lawyer with a different specialty would be better. I don't know. I am so sad to hear that when they learn the details of your cases they aren't finding ways to gain permission to sue your employers. As in your case you were told point blank that your employer's agent "doesn't believe in" providing what we all know is safe(r) care or undertaking necessary precautions. To me this is direct and gross negligence on the employer's part and they should answer for it beyond worker's comp. To know that you are even having trouble with the worker's comp process is beyond human understanding. I'm so sorry.

[Nurse GreenBean, ASN, RN]

JKL33 said:

I mentioned an attorney familiar with WC because in my mind it seems like they of all people would recognize a situation where even more remunerations than worker's comp would be available as a remedy to you all who are victims of preventable workplace violence.

I initially contacted a personal injury lawyer to see if I could sue for negligence (this psych facility is beyond a hot mess). As soon as he found out there was WC involved, he said that meant it's almost impossible to sue for damages or negligence. That WC is set up to protect employers from that very thing. He referred me to a colleague with decades of experience in WC. 

There is apparently no such thing as extra damages in WC. You MAY get an Approximation of what your medical costs are estimated to be for life, but that's only because from then on it's understood that your own insurance will never cover that injury and you will have to either go to WC doctors for life for that injury (and my experience with WC doctors as a patient has been pretty awful overall, with a single doctor standing out as someone who cares about his patients recovery. The rest simply don't), or pay for management of that injury out of pocket. That's it. That is all they are ever going to pay. 

It's a system that I knew was flawed, but I had no idea how awful it was until I was stuck inside of it.