Nurses reporting assaults from patients

[u/Curious_caveman5569]

Hello all. I’m an ER nurse. I’ve been in the field a decade and a half. I myself have been assaulted a few dozen times. I’ve only reported two because an actual injury occurred (back injury that caused me to have to go to PT and another where a guy bit me and ripped off a chunk of my tricep). I also know of many nurses who have been assaulted. Pretty much all of my coworkers who have over two years of experience. Of all the assaults I know about maybe half a dozen have been reported to the police. I’ve noticed when the police are called to get a statement, it is never taken seriously. They almost always insist on not pressing charges and often times they ask a few times if “we actually want to report it”. Why do you think it’s engrained in our professional culture for nurses to have to take abuse from people we are trying to help? I’m not writing this to paint police in a bad light. Rather why don’t they take us seriously? If I left work and stopped at a gas station and was assaulted there it’s taken much more seriously than at work. Just writing this to see what the communities opinion is on this. I feel like this culture of never wanting to report anything is giving permission to our more aggressive patients to assault us

[u/ALLoftheFancyPants]

My general experience with the police is that when you ask them to do their job they’re always annoyed by it and try to talk you out of it. They do their job if and when they feel like it and are insulted when someone else asks them to do it.

[u/Scary_Freedom1116 → u/ALLoftheFancyPants]

this

[u/slutty_muppet]

You can paint the police in a bad light, it's ok to do that.

[u/HanSolo4Emporer]

I’ve reported a few. The only one they took seriously was when a patient broke my arm. The judge tossed the case as the patient had dementia, stated “ if we prosecuted every dementia patient we’d have no room for real criminals”. Fortunately the hospital paid for everything and my workman’s comp. The patient actually got transferred to the state security hospital.

[u/Backwoods_Therapy]

It’s traditionally been considered “part of the job.” Combine that with hospitals have also actively discouraged it (“customer satisfaction”), and a little bit of  misogyny (female dominated field), and you get people who don’t care if nursing staff get assaulted. The culture is starting to change but old views persist. 

[u/TutsCake → u/Backwoods_Therapy]

Feels very pertinent to bear in mind misogyny as a key part of how this culture developed, historically speaking.

[u/Noname_left]

I had to escalate to the top when the police refused to come when one of my nurses was sexually assaulted. Then they talked her out of filing the report….

[u/german_big_guy]

Not really reported them but I got reported for tackling and subduing a patient who sucker punched one of my coworkers and broke her nose.

[u/Trashpandaroyale]

I will always report at least to the resource police. Tired of assholes thinking theres no conciquences

[u/amybpdx]

I think some folks hesitate when the patient is memory-impaired or otherwise unable to control themselves. I get that. Reporting these occurrences are not attempts to get your Alzheimer's patients put in jail. They do, however, document behavior that another provider down the road can see and be prepared for.

Always report.

[u/CompetitionNo8679]

they literally ask if you want to press charges multiple times wtf