Emergency room violence growing concern for nurses

[nursinghumor]

Emergency room violence growing concern for nurses:"Charlene Richardson has been bitten, kicked and punched by patients during 13 years as an emergency room nurse.
She knew the job could get rough. But one night in March 2003, Richardson said, the abuse went too far.
A drunken, 50-year-old Salem man was brought to Beverly Hospital for treatment. As Richardson helped him get ready to leave, he lunged at her, grabbed her crotch and tore through her hospital scrubs. He refused to let go."
http://www.ecnnews.com/cgi-bin/04/s/sstory.pl?fn-ervio2

Yet another reason why nurses are leaving the bedside?

Andrew Lopez, RN
http://www.4nursing.com

(Posted under news also, thought it bore repeating)

[woofinrain]

I was recently attacked by a pt because I didn't use a 3cc syringe to draw her blood while using a 24g cath. I had just got enough blood to fill pedi tubes and she demanded I stop and change syringes. When I said I have it she went ballistic and lost syringe, cath and refused to allow me to remove tourniquet. Called me a number of unsavory names and beat at me with her fists. Now she and her husband have made a complaint to the head of the hospital accusing me of telling her 'shut up' and then she says I held her hand between my legs.....needless to say neither happened. However, I was told today that I should not plan on working next week, and could possibly lose my job over this. I will say I had one other complaint 8 months ago, and nothing since. I am devastated. I like my job, enjoy the people I work with, and feel like I am an excellent nurse. But I just haven't clicked with this nurse mgr and I just don't know what to do. I just worked 12.5 hours, spent another 1.5 for a staff meeting and then stayed til 0930 while this subject was discussed. I drive 35 minutes to and from work...and then the nurse mgr called me at home and wanted me to drive back so this could be rediscussed and a solution arrived at. I told her I was in bed, tired after my shift, and I would be glad to come in on Monday. I was scheduled to work 7p to 7a Monday and she asked me to come in at 9am. I asked her if I should plan on working Monday night and she said no she didn't think so. I am a good nurse, experienced ER and am a team player. Nobody I work with has ever seen any kind of attitude or behavior that suggests I would lose my 'cool' with a patient or their families and my mgr said yes, that is true but that doesn't count. Hey, I need my paycheck like all of you do, and I am terrified. Any advice or support available? oh by the way, this patient is a known noncompliant and has frequently abused other nurses and throws temper tantrums often. However, I had not dealt with her and was unaware of this at the time. My mgr said well you are the only one she has ever made a complaint against. I really wanted to tell her that maybe I was the only one who identified myself by name. But I held my tongue.

[nursinghumor]

Sounds like you need to consult with an attorney and countersue the patient. If you let your employer handle the situation, you'll end up getting fired and screwed.

If you spend the money to hire an attorney and let the patient know that they are going to be charged with among other things verbal abuse, assault, etc they may very well change their tune and decide to drop it all together.

What I would not do, is leave it in the hands of your manager to resolve. Management usually bends over backwards to appease patients at the expense of the nurse.

Protect your job, license and reputation, get an attorney. You might be able to find on sympathetic to your situation at:

The American Association of Nurse Attorneys:"TAANA serves as a resource network and support group for nurse attorneys and educates the public on matters of nursing, health care, and the law."
7794 Grow Drive Pensacola, FL 32514
Toll Free: 877-538-2262, Fax: 850/484-8762
Email: taana@puetzamc.com
http://www.taana.org/
************************************************** ****

Wish you luck, kindly keep us posted.

Andrew Lopez, RN
httop://www.nursefriendly.com

[marylou]

violence in the emergency room is a problem in israel too/ first we thougt people are violent because more than others we live in a violent country but it is not the major cause. i did a little research about this phenomena . to understand why people become violent against people that want to help them? that is the big question/ and i dont have THE solution but i am sure that nurse image and violence against nurses are in big correlation. people think that a nurse can support everything / like pain' death and everything ugly// so they can support violence too. people think that a nurse is " not important" and they dont have to respect her.it is part of her job
the difference is that in israel they cant tell you not to come to your work! the laws are very strong for the worker and in this case i think that the nurse had to explain and analyse why she got into such a situation and how can she improve her attitude in same case.

[Joshua]

I have been perusing this thread about violence toward nurses and I have a question.
I am a male and I have an extreme amount of patience and self control. I also boxed for quite a few years. If I am attacked by a patient and I mean seriously attacked at what point am I able to defend myself? If I am being pummeled or assaulted with a weapon by a patient and cannot get away would I be fired for punching and possibly knocking the violent patient unconscience and/or causing even more harm to them than what they originally came to the ER for? I hate even thinking about it but the "what-if"scenarios do sometimes happen.
Has anything like this happened before? Nurses fighting back?

[medi]

Joshua I don't think being a nurse means you give up the right to defend yourself when being attacked. I do think anyone in that position has a duty to theirself to do what they can in self defense -- trying to do what's necessary without overdoing though. I guarantee you if I was being attacked I'd do whatever I could to defend myself!

I have been perusing this thread about violence toward nurses and I have a question.
I am a male and I have an extreme amount of patience and self control. I also boxed for quite a few years. If I am attacked by a patient and I mean seriously attacked at what point am I able to defend myself? If I am being pummeled or assaulted with a weapon by a patient and cannot get away would I be fired for punching and possibly knocking the violent patient unconscience and/or causing even more harm to them than what they originally came to the ER for? I hate even thinking about it but the "what-if"scenarios do sometimes happen.
Has anything like this happened before? Nurses fighting back?

[MRS. ERNURSE]

Woofinrain,

In California, it is a felony to assult a helathcare worker. The first place I would go is to the police to make a report. You wrote that this patient beat you up. If this happen in a supermarket, you would call the police. Why would we not defend ourselves at work. We are nurses, yes. However, we are US citizens that live in a country that has laws TO PROTECT US, even in Georgia. Go get 'em!!! :mad:

[Drum RN]

I have a lot of thoughts on this issue.

Other hospital ER's I've been at in Wisconsin and Oregon actually ban repeat offenders from the ER. They either show up to the ED drunk, an ambulance is called for them because they are passed out drunk, or they get violent with the staff. I wish more hospitals did this.

One of the things that really irks me though is that I'm paying to give them care. The over 1/3 of my paycheck that is taken out in taxes goes for paying for these people. And yes I too have seen people with fur coats, driving pimped up cars, with a lot of bling and cell phones that are on Medicaid. They use the system.

I have been spit on, scratched, verbally threatened, and choked in my 6 years as an ED RN. Did I defend myself? No. Did I press charges? No. Will I next time? Yes. I'm soon to be a 2nd degree black belt and next time I'll use my training.

I had an incident where I've lost all my faith in my hospitals public safety (security) to help me. And I've lost faith in my co-workers. Its sad to know that no one has your back. And its sad to know that the rest of the staff and administration except it.

[Teeituptom]

Unfortunately as we are becoming more tied up with press gainey scores and such. Plus all the other legalities we have to deal with. Plus highly ineffective security guards. Violence will continue to escalate.In the years past I would protect all the nurses I worked with. And I did so very well. I did lose a few teeth, and cracked a few of my ribs, Bit by someone who swallowed a silver dollar sized meat out of my forearm. Thats the old silver dollar, not these new ones. However now due to legalities, and my get older, thus I dont heal as well as I used to. I am no longer the RN Protector. Except for the few of my old friends still working there.
Cracked ribs, strained shoulders, lumbar strain can all most certainly take their toll on me and really mess my golf game up. But the last straw for me is I had to take a patient down to the floor, and the young muscular doctor, saw me and said he would go get some help and haldol. He is in his early thirties Im in my late 50s. He should have held the pt down and let me go get the med.
Bottom line is nothing is allowed to cause me pain or adversley affect my golf game