Lame

The training was stupid, and the instructor actually admitted that it was designed to absolve the hospital of any liability of a patient were to attack a nurse, because now we can’t sue the hospital for not providing us with training. If a violent event happens, it must be the nurse’s fault for not properly de-escalating the patient’s behavior.

Today’s class was 8 hours long. The first four hours was on how to redirect the patient’s behavior. The training said that all behavior is a form of communication, and the patient is simply trying to tell you that there is some sort of problem that the health care provider needs to address, but doesn’t have the words to be able to express it, so this manifests as “Risk Behavior.” The only proper reply to this “risk behavior” is to safely, and in a non-confrontational way, control and redirect the patient until the patient can realize that what he is doing isn’t productive. It’s called nonviolent crisis intervention, and I think it is bullshit that is designed to cover the employer’s legal ass, and who cares if employees get hurt? Healthcare systems hide behind the workers’ compensation immunity shield, so you can’t sue them if they trained you to avoid violence. They can, however be sued if one of their employees defends themselves from a violent attack using a violent response.

The next hour was all about how employees need to remain detached and not allow the patient that is in crisis to goad or bait you into engaging them.

Then we broke for lunch before returning to learn the practical skills. The first step to each one is to “take a non-threatening stance that is designed to not provoke the patient into engaging in risky behavior.” Then, if the patient tries to hit, grab, bite, or shove you, how to break free and escape to run away and call for help. The key is for the employee to avoid violence.

I was the only male there, so I got to be the one that the instructor kept using for demonstrations. One of the scenarios was how to escape a front chokehold where the patient is facing you and attempts to grab you by the throat. The instructor, was roughly my size, had us watch a 1 minute video on how to escape this and said let me demonstrate, then spun around and grabbed me by the collarbones with both hands. I swear with all of my being that I didn’t do it on purpose. He caught me by surprise because I was zoned out and not really paying attention. What happened was reflex.

I brought both hands up through the middle of his arms, then palmed his face with my left, causing him to lean backwards slightly. Once he was off balance, I stepped into him, put my right leg behind him and shoved. He landed on his ass. The entire class got to hear about how what I did was a violent response, and would get you in a discipline issue of we were ever to do that to a patient.

I don’t give a shit. I will not allow myself to be some crackhead’s punching bag and spend the rest of my life eating through a straw from my wheelchair. A couple of events from Florida this year drive that point home:

A nurse for Palms West Hospital had every bone in her face broken by a patient who attacked her. It was two months before she could walk well enough to go to a rehab center. She is still there, and hasn’t yet returned home, as far as I know. The hospital responded by designating a desk in the ED for the use of a sheriff deputy, to encourage them to hang out there. Also, that makes them a substation, which many hospitals use to declare that they are a police station, so concealed carry is off limits. Most hospitals only use unarmed security, and many times those security guards are unarmed women and old men.

A pair of nurses in Port Charlotte, FL were attacked in March. No one was arrested.