Levels of assault :if it dosen't hurt to bad,is it okay that you were slapped across your face?

"It takes a great deal of courage to stand up to your enemies BUT even more to stand up to your friends"  quoted in Bookreporter.com.by J.R. Rowling

How true this statement is.
 I was approached one day by a nurse that told me a patient had slapped her across her face, when she was taking care of him. She was very upset that she had been assaulted and NO ONE cared about that issue. She said she told everyone and all they did was roll their eyes and shrug. I could see the red mark that was still on her face. I listened for a little while longer and we discussed writing out an incident report for her and one on the person that slapped her. When the nurse turned to leave and write out the reports another nurse caught my sleeve and when I turned to look at who had my sleeve another nurse said "she wasn't slapped that hard, I don't know why she is telling you"
I was stunned that another nurse said that. At that time maybe I should have stood up to her and stated that she shouldn't have been assaulted in the first place, it doesn't matter how bad the assault is!
Do we really think we should allow someone to slap us as long as it isn't a real hard slap? What is the recourse when their is no defining line among the team players about being assaulted. It makes me wonder about their home life, could they be assaulted at home?
I feel as though I am planting seeds but not all the seeds have taken root.
Comments?

www.stophealthcareviolence.org

Sheila Wilson R.N.BSN MPH

The Florence Prescription ,From Accountabilty to Ownership written by Joe Tye (with Dick Schwab)

" Instilling patient-centered care is not just about changing policies and practices; it is about changing culture, which is never easily done. For the staff to be empathetic to patients, the hospital must also have an empathetic culture for staff...
To achieve a culture that is patient -centered and supportive of staff, hospital leadership and staff must share common beliefs and values. Coming to these common beliefs and values may be the hardest part of achieving cultural change"
Health Care at the crossroads: Guiding Principles for the Development of the Hospital of the future ,a white paper by the Joint Commission
  I would recommend this book. It has many great ideas and as a Nurse I would love to believe it could happen ,it would be grand to have culture changes for so many reasons.
It would seem that the right hand really knew what the left hand was doing.........
Any comments?

Is being intoxicated a reason to go to the hospital?

A person is sitting on the sidewalk near the curb, someone calls the police after speaking to this person for a very short time, the call states there is someone sitting on the sidewalk near the curb, this person is drunk, when asked how they know this person is drunk, the concerned citizen states;  because this person has slurred speech, is having trouble standing and states he has been drinking alcohol and pointed across the street to the bar.
When the police arrive the person that was sitting on the sidewalk is now trying to walk but is having trouble standing and sits down again. The police watch this person for a minute and ask this person to get up. This person states with the slurred speech "there is no law against sitting on the curb and I want to stay right here and smoke a cigarette".  The police explain ,that a concerned citizen called in that someone was sitting on the curb and they were concerned for his health. They are here to help!
This statement makes this person very upset and tells the police to mind there own business, and states to get belligerent " I am not breaking the law" Just about at this point the police say:
"You can come with us now to jail or go to the hospital and get checked out."
Now what a great choice that is.
 Do people that drink alcohol and get intoxicated need to go to the Emergency room???
Does anyone know how many people that are intoxicated are in an ER on any given day???????????
 

  There are 3,063,162 licensed registered nurses in the United States. That's how many nurses that are licensed,but there are only •  84.8% of the RN population, or an estimated 2,596,599 RNs, were employed in nursing
Men are what percentage of the total nursing population?
•  Approximately 294,063 RNs are men – only 9.6% of the total nursing population.
What is the average age of an RN in the United States?
Only 10.6% of all RNs are under the age of 30. The average age of the RN population in the United States is 46 years.
Are male nurses generally younger than female nurses?
•  The median age for male RNs licensed in 2000 or later is 35, compared with 31 for female RNs.
Source: Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Minority Health, 2009, http://minorityhealth.hhs.gov.

I was interested in the number of nurses because I felt this profession had some power!
Why are we allowing ourselves to be assaulted? WHY are we not working with the "powers to be" to help change the culture? Why are we not as a team looking at our community and learning what THEY need.
I feel if we knew the community ,we could get a better understanding of who we deal with and how better to serve them.

 

Nurses are our Guardian Angels

 

 

Nurses Around The World! You Are So Awesome!! -Keep up the good work!

 

We need to work together and stop the violence

Know your patient and you are ahead of the violence!

This is a simple trick to keep the violence down, in your place of work. It will take a while to work on it, however when it is completed, it will only take maintenance work.
The top item to work on, is communication.
If all the powers to be, sat down and talked with each other and stated what they really need, it would be grand.
 The people in administration would state what they need, to make  the changes and keep the staff safe.
The healthcare workers would speak to administration and tell them about the assaults ,physical, verbal , emotional and any other assault that has happened .Speaking how they see the problem and what they feel that could be a solution.
Now the question is HOW do they do it?
First there has to be a commitment on all parties. This isn't a job for one person....
Who are the people that assault the staff? Patients? The patients family members,? The patients friends?  anyone else?????
How has administration been notified about the assaults in the past? Do the healthcare workers feel that they are listened too?
Are the healthcare workers given administration enough knowledge that they can see an issue?
The whole point is>>>>>>>>>>>
What does the staff need to do ,to have administration pay attention and do what's needed ?
What does administration need to do for the staff ,to let them know that administration is supporting them and understand that being assaulted is not part of their job.
Being safe in a job is not asking to much.
Comments are always welcomed.

This sign was seen in a clinic Bellows falls VT. This clinic wants there customers to know their staff is very important.
Why can't we all have signage like this?