Why do patients abuse nurses?

[TigerGalLE]

Surely I'm not the only nurse that has experienced this. I had a young 40 yr old male pt today that called me every name in the book. He slammed the door in my face, cussed me out, called me names and was uncooperative. He got mad if you knocked on the door and mad if you didn't, mad when u turned on the light and mad when u didn't. You couldn't make him happy at all. After one of his temper tantrums I went and got his MD at the nurses desk and demanded that the MD go talk to his patient. He did and the patient said he'd behave. Well of course nothing changed. He slammed the door in my face about 10 minutes later. Here I am trying to precept a new nurse and I tried not to lose my cool but I definitely did. My granddad is in the hospital so I have been extremely stressed. This pt made me so mad that I actually started to cry in the break room. Here I am with 6 very sick pts. This guy acting like this and all I can think about is that my granddad is sick and I'm not with him b/c I'm here taking care of this unappreciative jerk!! I probably looked pretty stupid to my orientee....

[romantic]

"Sounds like what you really need is a hug. Big huge hugs to you."

And I hug you too.

[Rnandsoccermom]

I hate to say this, but go in the room by yourself, close the door and tell him how you feel.

Remind him that you don't come to work to hurt people and that you have no reason to lie to him.

Remind him that he is an adult, and if he lies about what you said in his room, you will deny it all.

Sounds like he has been a bully in life, and a bully needs to be put in his place, sick or not.

[imanedrn]

Document it; if there is a trend, it is in black and white and may help you or another nurse when the pt. gets physical.

Sometimes all I can do is state to the irate pt. or family member, "I will come back in 10-15 min. to give you time to calm down".

Yes, definitely document! . . . every single time it happens!

Also, what I and other nurses I know have done, POINT BLANK tell the patient that he does NOT have the right to speak to you that way -- as his nurse or even a stranger on the street! Make sure you SOUND and APPEAR confident and firm when you tell him this. If he snaps back at you, remind him that you're job is to make sure he is safe and healthy (emotionally and physically), but you are NOT expected to take his verbal abuse and will NOT do so.

Tell your charge nurse also, and ask her to get involved, to speak to the patient and basically reinforce exactly what you've said. If your charge nurse is unwilling, then ask another superior or veteran nurse. Also, if superiors are unwilling to support you, find out what policy there is for reporting this behavior. (Ultimately, they SHOULD support you in situations like this, and there SHOULD be a P&P in place for their support.)

Also, check with your hospital's P&P specifically for dealing with patients like this. There are often more "formal" ways of handling these situations.

Bottom line, you are NOT expected to take abuse from your patients any more than they are expected to take it from you! Please, for the sake of your love of nursing, do NOT let yourself fall victim to patients like these. The more you let it persist, the less you will be able to stand up for yourself . . . and then we lose yet another nurse to burn-out!