Hospital staff fed up with abuse
You really just have to shake your head in amazement at the amount of people who yell and carry on in emergency departments. It goes without saying that a huge number of these people are affected by alcohol, but there are also a certain percentage that are just rude individuals.
A couple of examples from this afternoon’s shift: an elderly man was brought in with general deterioration and complaints of not coping at home. He was on the stretcher in the corridor for about half an hour until an acute bed could be sought. As he came around into the bay to be offloaded into a bed, the nurse says “hello there!”. “SHUTTUP!!” he yells back! Charming.
Another man I recall was hit in the side of his face with a glass. The longer he was in the department, it became more and more obvious why he was hit! He was angry, abusive, loud, obnoxious, and frequently told the ’scum’ staff that we should ******* fix him up so he could get the **** out of there! He didn’t want anyone applying pressure to his gaping face wounds, oh no – he wanted to get in and out of bed 500 times, spraying blood all over the wall/floor/bed, yelling at anyone who tried to be nice to him.
Tonight I looked after a 16 year old drug affected boy who didn’t want to come to hospital at his parent’s request, so punched a paramedic in the face.
I’m continually amazed by people who are aggressive to health care workers. Don’t people realize that we’re not there to pamper to their every need? That they are not the only ones in hospital!??? I think I’m beginning to lose my faith in humanity.
Whenever a Pt is admitted post-assault, there are invariably comments made by many staff about how horrible it it that someone could do such a thing and hospitalise another person.
However in roughly 90% (in my experience, anyway) of cases, when the Pt wakes/sobers up, it becomes pretty obvious why they had the snot beaten out of them. Some people are just not nice to begin with…
@prn penguin – Hi there, thanks for visiting. As you suggest, I too have been in many many situations where a few of us have looked at each other and said sarcastically “gee, wonder why that guy got his faced smashed in!” For many people it becomes obvious why they got in a fight. There are that other group of people too who are just in the wrong place at the wrong time unfortunately…..
I thought they needed more nurses in Australia, so I applied for a return to practice as a Div 1 RN and was successful. However I was also told I would get a government scholarship to help with the cost of the course. After I was accepted in to the course I contacted the RCN about the scholarship and was informed that it may or may not be available and I wouldn’t get it til November; the problem is I haven’t got $5500 to pay for my course and it stars in Aug. But the government doesn’t care.
Hi RN shortage joke – thanks for your comment. I actually replied to your follow-up comment, which also applies to this one. You can read my reply here.