I was assaulted at work yesterday by an extremely strong patient with dementia. They have been on our unit for months, with extensive documentation of physically violent behaviours that require 24/7 physical and chemical restraints to keep staff safe. A minimum of 3–4 staff are needed for a pad change, and on a “good day,” security isn’t called ahead of time. Yesterday, I went into the room with four staff to complete a pad change. The patient was in a PINEL as usual. We were kicked and punched, and the patient managed to grab a bag from the window ledge, which they used to whip me with before throwing it at my face. Security was called, and it was a struggle just to get the patient cleaned up and safely back into five-point restraints. When I left the room, I was on the verge of tears thinking, what the hell just happened? About 30 minutes later, the patient’s spouse showed up and rang the call bell specifically to confront me. They told me that “this is pathetic” referring to the patient wearing a brief and shirt then demanded that all of the restraints be removed because they said so. I explained what had literally just happened and that I would not remove the restraints because of the immediate safety risk to staff. The conversation was going nowhere, so I told them I would have the manager speak with them because I had other patients who urgently needed my attention. It took the manager about an hour and a half to get to the room. In the meantime, the spouse repeatedly came to the desk calling staff “lazy chicken shits” and saying that “people in prison are treated better than this.” They threatened to report me and continued their verbal abuse and demands while I was simultaneously dealing with other stuff. I’m considering reporting this through our internal workplace safety process because: 1)We are not staffed to adequately manage a patient with this level of physical aggression 2)I don’t think being a patient’s spouse gives someone the right to verbally abuse or harass staff. The spouse should have been asked to leave. 3)Staff have a right to a safe work environment and therefore the right to refuse an unsafe request 4)I am frustrated by how casually these concerns seem to be treated. The response has essentially been that this is just how things are. Why is it taking the manager 12 years to address the issue?! I’m still pretty upset about the whole situation Would you report this? If so, how would you articulate the concerns? Would you specifically include concerns about whether this patient’s care needs can be safely managed on our unit given the staffing/resources available?   submitted by   /u/Upper-Assistance8712 [link]   [comments]