Dissatisfied with my doctor’s response to an acute medical condition that suddenley came upon me I went to my local hospital seeking to get a second opinion. I got into a verbal dispute with a nurse there before eventually seeing a doctor who, after examining me, arranged for me to go by ambulance to a larger hospital. The nurse I’d upset told the ambulancemen that I’d put my hands around a nurse’s neck. They passed this on to the person in charge at the place I was sent to … who, just before I was due to be seen by the doctors, asked me if I had done so ("Someone told me you put your hands around a nurse’s neck. Did you?) She said she believed me when I denied it. I have a very large beard and do look a bit like Rasputin.
This is a serious allegation. In the US, in many states, it is a felony to assault a healthcare worker. I am not a lawyer, but I think you should attempt to get this straightened out.
After spending five months bedridden in hospitals, I have a low opinion of hospital nurses. On several occasions, I learned that nurses had put lies into my record. These lies didn’t benefit them in any way, but they made me look bad and at times complicated my treatment.
I am not a difficult patient.
What was the dispute concerning, and how heated did it get? Also, did you do that thing, you know, with your hands and the nurse’s neck? I suppose if you were going to be charged with a crime, you would know it by now.
It happened to me once.
I went to the emergency room once (not especially relevant what). After a doctor had seen me, and I’d had some tests, they decided to admit me.
OK, no problem, but I had to call home. Seemed unreasonable to leave my wife and kids wondering where I was all night.
I didn’t have my cell phone with me. So I left my room, went down the hall to a pay phone, and was starting to make the call, when an angry nurse ran up to me and said that hospital rules prohibited me from leaving my room.
I explained my situation to her, to no avail. She insisted that I go back to my room immediately. I told her I’d go back as soon as I finished making my phone call.
She wasn’t having any of it. She said that if I didn’t return to my room immediately, she’d consider that I had voluntarily discharged myself, and I could just go home.
I told her, again, that I’d be happy to return to my room, but that I was going to make this phone call.
She grabbed my arm, pulled out (painfully) that thing they stick in your arm so they can hook up IVs, and told me that I’d voluntarily discharged myself and had to leave immediately.
Which I did.
The “voluntary discharge against medical advice” she put in the record did cause some problems with my insurance.
Christ, I hate people who are so into their non-existent “authority” that they do shit like that.
You should’ve asked to speak with the house supervisor.
My elderly father had had breathing problems and was taken to the ER, where he was scared and couldn’t understand what was being said to him. My elderly mother was in with him, and she, too, didn’t understand and couldn’t hear what people were telling them, so I was trying to explain to them what was going on. But an ER nurse came and said that I had no business being in there because I was not a spouse, and I had not been cleared to hear any of his medical information. So I went into his room and asked him if he gave his permission for me to get his condition. The nurse followed me into the room and told me that I had to leave because there could only be one visitor in a room at a time. I pointed to all of the other ER patients that had five, ten, fifteen people, including little children, in with them, and she told me that they were not her patients, and if I didn’t leave, she would have me arrested.
I went looking for the hospital ombudsman, but it was a weekend late at night and they were closed. I did call Monday morning and complained. My father had many other ER visits after that, but I never saw her again.
I’d calmly raised my hands (a passification gesture) as she berated me (for not following the rules and going back to my doctor and asking him to arrange a second opinion … which he could refuse) and said, in an even voice: “I’m a member of the public, you’re a public servant. You shouldn’t talk to me like that.” Her reaction caused two other nurses to come rushing over. This was in the waiting room where other people were present. I verbally “throttled” her in mid flow.
The stupider they are, the nastier they get if you stand up to them or try to correct them.
A friend of mine used to complain about “uniform authority”. Issue any kind of a “uniform” to any worker, even if it is just a lanyard to a janitor, and their power immediately becomes something they assume the right to abuse with impunity.
When I watch cop-authority TV shows, I wonder if one can just swagger into any secured situation and flash a wallet that has something in it that appears to be a badge.
You should’ve asked to speak to the house supervisor.
Yes, they should have. However, that is a special title that non-medical people generally do not know, and would not know to ask for. I was a nurse for 6 months before I knew who or what a house supervisor was!
Fair to say, and I apologize for not getting back sooner, I had intended to expand (I hate trying to be comprehensive with my phone).
The house supervisor is a nursing position that is basically the charge nurse for the whole hospital, there should be one even when pt advocates, ombudsman and social workers, who often have bankers hours, are gone. Although their job involves staffing, codes, tracking various care and safety goals, conflict resolution is definitely on their list.
SeniorCitizen007 I would expect your state nursing board would take a dim view of this kind of false accusation, if you want to pursue it.
How in the world would anyone investigate this, unless perhaps there were witnesses or it got caught on a security cam? If it boils down to his-word-vs-her-word, who wins?
Well first off, he said it was in the waiting room with other people, second, nobody has to win, as such, for the nurse to be scrutinized.