Nurses. Have you ever been assaulted by a patient?

Question

have you ever been assaulted by a patient ? and what do you think of nursing?

Answer 1

Yes been hit, kicked, punched, bitten & gummed, knife drawn on me, used junkie needle thrown at me, been verbally abused.... and no I dont antagonise my patients!
I hate nursing sometimes, but most of the time it is good - but hard demanding work!

Answer 2

I'm 44 and nursing was a career change for me after 15 years in the business world. Today, I've been a nurse for slightly over 10 years. I have ***loved*** every second of it. Nurses make a difference, and these days the money can be great, especially if you go on to get a 4-year degree or even a Masters. My personal doc was a nurse for 6 years in Med school and is the best doc I ever had. Plus, becoming a nurse is quicker and WAY easier than becoming a doc.

At my job (a county alcohol Detox), I wear street clothes, work only when I want, and when I'm working I have no docs around to interfere... it gives me incredible freedom to run my station in the way I think it should be done. Best job ever!

As for assaults, they are EXTREMELY rare outside of an E.R. or a detox facility like mine. I have been assaulted dozens of times, but never once actually hurt (they are too drunk to be a real threat). I'm a big guy with some martial arts training, so that helps. We have had some injuries by drunks, one or two a year seems to be the average, but in seven years only two that resulted in lost time, both of which could have been prevented by better decision making on the nurses part. Most of the injuries were not to nurses, but to techs who work closer with the intoxicated client than we nurses do.

I have worked with homeless street people outside of Detox for 2 years now. We are cautious, use buddy systems, and don't go certain places except during the day, and in 20 years of this program, no nurse has ever been hurt.

You could probably get official stats on nurse assaults from the American Nurses Association or the various state Nursing Associations. Call your nearest county hospital and speak to the Charge Nurse or Nurse Manager in their ER and they might have more specific info...

Ed, RN, BSN

Answer 3

Yes. I like nursing but hate the management of the hospital I'm working in. Coz they are making nursing very task orientated. Most of the time we are nursing the documents rather than our patients. As for patients, there are some very nice ones and some very demanding ones and some nasty ones.

Answer 4

i was assaulted by a patient i had just nursed in the recovery room, he was a drug addict and suddenly reacted to the anaesthetic, luckily my colleagues rescued me but the patient rampaged through the hospital and smashed up the hospital shop. gave us something to talk about in the coffee room though!
as for what i think of nursing, read my answer to you other question, as a completely disheartened nurse i finally left the proffession after 14 years, 2 years ago and its the best thing i ever did...these days it is not a job id recommend.

Answer 5

During a nursing career of 30+ years I have been physically assualted manty times. Some by mentally impaired/ confused patients. Sometimes by terrified patients, grief stricken relatives. frightened children, during physical episodes - head injury, fitting, cerebral vascular accident(Stroke) all these you can accept as being part of your role, but the yob/ignorant culture, or intoxicated abuser is just too much.when all we want to do is help.

Answer 6

there's no shortage around here - one community scientific institution is shedding nurses. What I actual have seen, even whilst there replaced right into a shortage, replaced into administration spending each and every style of money on recruitment, yet not doing ordinary issues to maintain the sturdy nurses chuffed. ordinary issues, like having achieveable schedules, parking subjects, room assignments - stuff it extremely is comparatively hassle-free to restoration, in comparison to hiring people. dissimilar sturdy nurses flow to diverse jobs, on an analogous time as the lifeless wood floats to the perfect, so all of us go through.

Answer 7

Yes I have been assaulted. But I also get a lot of praises and thank-you-so-much. The part I like best is watching someone getting well.

Answer 8

yes, nursing is the job i always wanted to do, but its not easy.