NYT: Nurses Step Up Efforts to Protect Against Attacks

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/08/health/08nurses.html?_r=2&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&ref=health&pagewanted=1&adxnnlx=1215615907-hnbGVzDcjncxyep2Jn6/8Q&oref=slogin



By DAVID TULLER
Published: July 8, 2008

Karen Coughlin, a psychiatric nurse in Taunton, Mass., remembers the evening four years ago when her 14-year-old son asked her if any patients had tried to kill her that day.

“I was astounded, but he was serious because he’d heard about co-workers going to the hospital for injuries,” Ms. Coughlin said. “I’ve been hit, I’ve been kicked and spit on. I’ve had a knife pulled on me. I love what I do and many of the patients I work with, but I don’t love the conditions I work in.”

Three years ago, an enraged patient — 6 feet 4 inches and 275 pounds — smacked another patient, bit a health aide, threatened to kill Ms. Coughlin and lunged forward to strike her. He was restrained before he reached her.

“I really thought that my life was in danger,” she said. “It was probably the most terrified I’ve been in my 24 years of nursing.”

In recent years, nurses like Ms. Coughlin have sounded the alarm about workplace violence, most of it committed by patients. According to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, half of all nonfatal injuries resulting from workplace assaults occur in health care and social service settings.

Nurses and other personal care workers bear the brunt of such attacks, with 25 injuries annually resulting in days off from work for every 10,000 full-time workers — 12 times the rate of the overall private sector, according to the bureau. The most dangerous settings are psychiatric units and nursing homes, where patients are often confused, disoriented or suffering from mental ailments, as well as emergency rooms, where long waits for care can anger patients, and the people with them.

FULL story at link.

[Adsos Letter]

1. True indeed...

...my wife started her career in Psych nursing at a California State Hospital...she hasn't worked in Psych for over 20 years, but still has neck and back problems from violent episodes there.

As with most things an increase in staffing would reduce the risk of serious injury in those situations...

[benddem]

2. I vividly remember

being kicked in the chest by a patient having a reaction to a drug and punched in the nose (that hurt) by a patient who was delusional. Nursing isn't a safe job.

[Adsos Letter]

3. It is a much tougher job than many realize...nurses earn every cent they make.

[Mojorabbit]

4. I still have back pain

from when a five hundred pound patient fell on me. Still, I loved the work and wish I could still be nursing. Nothing like it.