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NZ Nurses Dealing With Drunk Patients


Friday, June 24, 2011
NursePoint Local News
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A new study in New Zealand of a Wellington ED shows that ED nurses bear the brunt of drunk patients who present to the department. In many cases, nurses are verbally and physically assaulted by the intoxiated patients. 

According to the survey of 47 ED staff members, the results of which were published in The New Zealand Medical Journal, drunk patients in the ED often threaten and intimidate the nurses and patients. In addition, the study shows that drunk patients have a wider impact in the ED, and they increase ED workloads, overall waiting times and the patients' triage scores.

Researcher Fiona Imlach Gunasekara, from the University of Otago, says that while all ED staff, including nurses, doctors, ambulance officers, radiographers and receptionists, are vulnerable to attacks from drunk patients, nurses have the highest exposure, and more than half of the nurses in the study admitted to being assaulted by drunk patients.

“They [nurses] were more likely to bear the brunt of attacks, and those who are physically smaller feel more threatened and intimidated,” says Dr. Gunasekara. “When there is no hospital security available, nurses often have to call the police to deal with violent patients.” 

According to one of the nurses, drunk patients have a right to be treated, but not at the cost of the ED staff's right to a safe work environment and other patients' right to feel secure during treatment. 

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Comments

Matthew

Posted Saturday, July 16, 2011 03:35 PM

I believe it's getting worse all the time, at our ED we can have up to 1/3 of our acute cubicles on a weekend occupied by drunks - and a lot of them are teenagers. I am not sure at what point in time having too much to drink became a medical emergency? When I was younger, when one of our friends had too much you took them home and looked after them - now you call an ambulance??