zero tolerance.

in the past few years i've seen some pretty ridiculous things, but the events of the past week shocked even me.  i am no stranger to those with the entitlement mentality, but this weekend we had a family who put even these people to shame.

 this particular family began their reign of terror by bringing a dozen people into the room, including grandma with the double-wide wheeled walker, whom they parked right in front of the door.  they came up to the nurse's station repeatedly demanding ice and water, so much so that the final cup count in the room at the end of the shift was over 40.  one child had sunburn, and the patient's mother demanded antibiotic cream for her.  the nurse went out of her way to get something to put on the sunburn, telling the child "i know that it hurts, i have fair skin and i get burned too", the patient's mother got up in her face and accused her of being racist, yelling "you ain't the only race that get sunburned!!".  on the way out the door, the nurse was stopped by another member of the family who told her that she was going to "beat her ass to a bloody pulp".

at this point management and security was called and a standoff began.  the family continued to be rude, belligerent, and threatening to them, so the sheriff was called.  the entire family was escorted off the floor, and we were told to call security to walk us to our cars at the end of the night. 

the next day, the antics continued.  the nurse who had been threatened spent the night hiding out in the back hall, far away from this family and their drama.  we also learned that the family had called patient relations and complained about the nurse...i'm sure leaving out the part about the threats of bodily harm that were made to her.  as the night wore on, the patient's sister came up to the nurse's station demanding personal information about the nurse, including her last name and the hours that she works. when told that we would not be giving out that information, she spent an hour yelling at then threatening management, leading the entire family to be removed from the floor by security and the sheriff for a second night in a row.  

at this point we were told that the patient's family was banned, and his room was moved so that they couldn't get to him.  we all breathed a collective sigh of relief and went about our business.  

but sure enough, the next day the family showed up AGAIN.  they harassed the secretary for awhile, demanding to know where the patient was.  when she held her ground and called security, the patient's mother walked around the unit and looked in every single patient room until she found him.  the family was removed from the unit by security for the third time.  

no less than 15 minutes later, the house supervisor waltzed in with 3 family members and delivered them to the room.  at this point i was done, and paged both of my managers to deal with the situation.  sadly, it was too late.  the family got their foot back in the door and the ban was over.  

i am LIVID about this.

this is how i feel:

you would not be able to walk into a walmart and act this way, you would be dragged out the door by their off duty police officers and not allowed back.  if you tried to pull something like this FOUR DAYS IN A ROW, you would probably be arrested.  but walk into a hospital and act a fool?  you can do whatever you want, apparently.  and everyone is willing to make excuses because "it's a stressful time" and "people are in pain and scared" or whatever it is, but i'm going to say this: IT'S NOT OK.  ever.  i don't give a crap about all the rationale, you don't get to threaten another person with bodily harm, especially not someone who is taking care of a member of your family.

so here's what i'm proposing.  ZERO TOLERANCE for this kind of nonsense.  you decide to threaten a staff member?  you are gone.  no questions asked.  and you can't come back.  seriously, eight year olds who bully other kids get punished harshly in today's society.  there are policies in place in schools, why not in the hospital?  i should not have to come to work and be threatened.  this kind of behavior is not ok, should not be tolerated, and should definitely not be normalized.

i said as much, to my managers, the house supervisor who brought the family in, and to her boss.  and i was disappointed but not surprised, when they acted like the idea of zero tolerance for threats was absolutely crazy.  as i want to keep my job still make money, i decided to keep my mouth shut, but what i wanted to yell is YOU ARE THE PROBLEM!!!  this kind of acceptance of violence is ridiculous.  everyone kept piping in with things like "i've been hit before" and "if i had a penny for every time someone got in my face", like this kind of behavior is just par for the course.

at this point, i don't think any of the powers that be will give a damn about this until somebody actually gets hurt.  how sad is that?  i'll have to actually get punched in the face before anyone will listen to what i'm saying.  and, while we're being honest, we'll be lucky if it's just a fistfight.  in the land of trauma, where people don't hesitate to shoot/stab their problems away, does anybody really think that they'll think twice about attacking a nurse?

let me spell it out:
*i don't care if nurses do get threatened/abused on a regular basis, we shouldn't.
*i don't care if it's happened to all of us, maybe it's time to say NO MORE.
*most of the time, i like my job.  but i wouldn't take a bullet for it.

and you can say i'm being overdramatic, but i'll enjoy the 'i told you so' when an angry visitor pulls a gun.  or at least i'll enjoy it if i'm still alive.