Nursestories

Posted on January 24 , 2010

Violence in the ED rss

After reading an article in the Medscape Blog about violence in the emergency department, it made me realize how much we are exposed to verbal and physical abuse from patients. From the intoxicated, to the psychotic, to the homicidal and to the plain ‘I’m fed up of waiting in the waiting room 1 more minute’ type of person. About 3 years ago, our staff was the victim of a series of physical assaults. From punching, to biting, to shoving, to kicking, you name it. Since, we had to increase the security staff and limit certain access to the department. It has created an improvement, but it’s not the ultimate solution. A lot has to do with our instinct and the ability to foresee someone’s decline to aggression. Ex: I won’t nurse a patient who is known to hate women and who give me the demonic look every time he sees me. Our attitude is also important to consider. Ex: I’m not going to try to reason a patient who’s in full psychosis mode. I’ll just end up provoking him and be the focus of his negative attention.

Even if we possess experience we do end up being very vulnerable in front of violence. Lately, the ED has been a dumpster for all cases that are difficult to manage. Why will police send me a woman who just stabbed her mother 3 times. Her place is in prison, not our psych emergency. If during her trial it’s established that she needs a psych consult, then it will be done at that moment. More and more we’re getting criminals who after being arrested they’re sent to the hospital instead of jail for strange behavior. Eventually, we’ll have to build a jail section in the ER for all those people. Hopefully at that moment we’ll have some sort of commando training and be allowed to carry guns.

If you’re interested to read the article ‘I’m Going to Kill You’, by Dr Mark Reiter, go to http://boards.medscape.com/forums?128@655.25nTauIAlox@.29f8e46c!comment=1

Posted by: RN13 0 comments