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Abuse of staff by patient

Posted By Rhaja

"Abuse of staff by patient"

About: Pilgrim Hospital / General medicine

(as a service user),

After tests in the ED at Pilgrim Hospital, I was assigned a bed in the Assessment Unit. Late in the night (I'm not sure of the time but it would have been around midnight)

I was woken by the raised voice of a patient in the bed opposite. They were being attended by a young nurse who was trying to adjust his canula, something that this patient resisted both physically and verbally, frequently shouting and using the most outrageous and profane language, in effect, telling her to go away.

She continued calmly trying to set up the drip while the patient kept pushing her away. I was totally shocked by their shouting and most outrageous language and regret, to my great shame, that I did not use my call button to summon help.

The nurse would have been completely justified in running out sobbing after the really terrible things the patient shouted at her, but she remained calm.

I was moved to Ward 9 later and had little opportunity to ask about the outcome, but I feel strongly that two aspects need follow up: 

1. the emotional damage to the young nurse;

2. the need for due process to stop (and sanction) abuse of staff.

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Responses

Response from Jennie Negus, Head of Patient Experience, United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust 14 months ago
Jennie Negus
Head of Patient Experience,
United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust

Submitted on 11/04/2024 at 08:17
Published on Care Opinion at 08:17

picture of Jennie Negus

Dear Rhaja

Thank you for posting this. It is a sad fact that our staff are, at times treated badly be that verbally or physically or both. There may be an underlying reason why these patients act this way; it could be a mental health problem or a confusion related to their medical condition and I suspect this may have been the case here – the fact that our nurse persisted with giving him the treatment tells me it was important to do so. That said we don’t want any of our staff to feel threatened or fearful and we do have systems in place. These include the ability to call a response team and / or security, or an urgent medical review if the issue is such. We will not tolerate abuse and violence towards our staff. I have no doubt that this incident was reported by the nurse and any necessary action taken; this may be a formal warning to the patient if there is no mental or physical reason and we have, when necessary involved the Police. The nurse will have reported this to her nurse in charge and been supported and checked she was ok. But to be doubly sure we have passed this on to the lead nurse for her to touch base with the ward, check in with the staff and debrief if necessary. Please do not worry about not saying anything there and then – I am confident it was raised at the time – and if not she would have handed it over to the oncoming shift; it is also standard to document such issues in the patients records.

Thank you again for sharing this sad episode; I am sorry you had to witness it which in itself is upsetting. I hope you have made a good recovery and thank you too for thinking about our staff.

Regards

Jennie

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