What would you do?

[mizfradd, CNA]

What would you do if a nurse walked up to you, (very close range) and squirted a syringe full of vaccine onto your upper body clothing and then laughed about it being "wasted" on you?

[JB2007, ASN, RN]

I would ask them what exactly they thought they were doing. What a totally asinine and unprofessional thing to do.

[HealingBalm]

Document, document, document this absurd and dangerous "gag". What if it were blood in that syringe? Suppose you had an adverse reaction! My nurse manager would have been notified pronto, while the evidence was still fresh (on me). I think that this was cruel, vile, and very unprofessional behavior. Would this be laughed off if it were done to a patient or the Dr! Sounds like assault.

[elizabeth321]

Number one it would never happen to me! I have set the tone of what I expect from my co-workers from the beginning....it would be confronted and she would be told to tell the manager or I would.

[NurseLoveJoy88, ASN, RN]

Remain calm(text book answer,lol) , document, tell the nurse its unaccpetable, and report to don

[mizfradd, CNA]

Would it be considered assault?

A friend told me this happened where she works. The nurse tried to laugh it off as "just goofing around."

[Kim, HHRN]

Not cool, don't know what I'd do. I know I'd be really mad.

I think it would definitely be considered assault.

[nrsang97, BSN, RN]

I would deffinately be going to management. Totally unacceptable.

[Sparrowhawk]

How old were they? Ten? Report that, document it...get very very testy about it. Completely juvenile and unprofessional and aggressive abuse of a nursing license.

[krissy_mack]

i would DEFINITELY report that. that was very unprofessional and also very wasteful! not only would have i reported what she did i would tell her (in a very calm voice) that was very unprofessional and to NEVER do that again!

[SlightlyMental_RN]

Okay, honestly, my first response would have been, "What in the he*% do you think you're doing??" Which would have led into, "That was soooo not cool. If you ever do anything so juvenile, stupid, and wasteful to me or anyone else, I'll personally see to it that your butt gets booted out the door. Got it?" I would have then let my co-workers know what an idiot the other nurse had been. But that's just me...I don't take a lot of crap or tolerate fools, but I also don't feel that it warrants an assault charge. I think a good tongue-lashing and general humiliation by peers is good enough.

[sslickerson]

Technically assault is defined as a threat to commit some act of aggression while battery is the physical act of harming someone. Thus you can have assault without battery but not battery without assault. At the very least this action would be considered assault (and should be reported as such to your supervisor and a claim made with the local police department). From a legal standpoint I would argue assault and battery given that the threat was there and physical action was taken. No matter what was in the syringe (even if it was only water) a physical action was taken against this person with the intent to harm or harass.