Hospital ER's have become the dumping grounds for drunks. Unfortunately ERs also act as the holding place for mentally ill patents waiting for a disposition (either being admitted to a psych facility or discharged home). Often our intoxicated patients have underlying mental health issues which can make a bad situation worse.
A few months ago a known "drunk" with a psych history got dropped off at our ER by an ambulance squad. He was assigned a stretcher.
A few minutes later he got up and headed over to another patient's bed and started yelling and threatening to kill him because the other patient was the guy who tried to steal his wallet at a bar (the patient wasn't even at a bar earlier).
I managed to calm him down and divert him away from the other patient.
A few minutes later the drunk got up again. He began walking towards another patient bed, where a patient with a traumatic brain injury started screaming and flaying about. Seeing what was about to happen and the crazed look in the drunks eyes, a male nurse and myself positioned ourselves so that he could not attack the other patient.
I calmly talked to the drunk patient attempting to redirect him, but it wasn't working. My co-worker, a male nurse also attempted to talk him down with no avail. In the blink of an eye the drunk man lunged at my co-worker enclosing his hands around his throat. Two visitors, myself, and a lab tech attempted to free this drunk psychotic man's hands from the nurses throat, my co worker was being choked. Two other people came to the assistance. The lab tech pulled the man's elbows back, myself and another nurse tried to pry his fingers off, while visitors secured his legs from kicking. Our secretary called security, paging them nearly 10 times with no response, she finally had to call the local police. We finally got the nurse free from the choke hold. I ordered for someone to get the leather restraints and bring a stretcher closer.
We wrestled the man onto the stretcher. From the look in his eyes there was no remorse. He continued to fight as we moved him to a private room. He attempted to bite, spit, punch and head butt the staff. Security looked stunned. As I began drawing up Ativan I told security to put the restraints on him, they continued to just stand there looking at me. "Put on the damn restraints" I ordered again.
Just as they began doing their job a very tall intimidating police officer entered the room. The patient immediately knew that the game was over. Security looked at the officer, but they were working at a snails pace. The police office looked at the security guys saying, "any day now".
The patient remained in the ER overnight until he was sober. While the charge nurse filled out an incident report the nurse who was choked did not press charges. The incident was not debriefed, nor did the head of security ever meet with the staff that was involved.
While one nurse was choked, luckily in view of others who could come to his aid, another nurse was punched int her face.
I wish that my friend who was choked had pressed charges. My profession for some reason just lets this stuff go. Being assaulted is not part of the job description but we have adopted it as such.
Perhaps we should have let the patient go, let him attack the other patient. If that should have happened then there would have likely been a lawsuit, and possibly a change.
As if rubbing salt in the wounds, a few weeks later, I was talking to some of the security guards about the incident. One of them responded, "I don't get paid enough to get hurt", as he was looking at his Facebook page on the hospital's computer.
Safety in the workplace is an issue for everybody. It doesn't matter how much money you earn. I work in two ERs one in the inner city, and one in the suburbs. I can assure you that I am far safer in the one in the inner city. Our security there is top notch.
Nobody wants to go to work and get hurt, just as nobody wants to go to work and see someone getting attacked.
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