4 ms·

Thanks for the story. I was in the hospital yesterday for unfortunate reasons and it stuck in my mind that working in healthcare is one of the few sectors that

Thanks for the story. I was in the hospital yesterday for unfortunate reasons and it stuck in my mind that working in healthcare is one of the few sectors that feels worth spending one's productive years in (to me).

randycupertino 5y ago
Well, one time I had a patient masturbate underneath his blanket and throw his semen in my eyes so it's not all sunshine and roses. After that I started wearing my glasses every day to work. We found back wayyyyy back in his chart like 250 pages deep "DO NOT LET PATIENT BE ATTENDED TO BY ANY FEMALE STAFF" that the other facility had deliberately obfuscated so that our place accept him! There's a lot of burnt out healthcare workers for sure, it's a hard job but I would say it's always interesting, you're always learning, there's lots of diversity and ways to specialize your career path (I went into oncology research) and it truly is rewarding. Just keep your head up for flying projectiles at your face :P Hope you're feeling better!
- ntSean 5y ago
  Thanks for sticking to it! My mum is a nurse and so I’ve heard a lot of stories of this being common - as if being physically abused is a part of the job.
  - not2b 5y ago
    It's gotten really bad lately, with antivax covid patients and their family members assaulting doctors and nurses in hospitals. In some areas, health care workers are quitting in droves.
- thakoppno 5y ago
  That is insane. What happened next? Does a patient get tossed for that? Are criminal charges brought? Did you test for any STI? Your perspective on life is fantastic. Cheers.
  - randycupertino 5y ago
    > What happened next? I pounded on the ambulance partition to my partner up front, hollered, "STOP THE GODDAMN RIG!!!!" while I grabbed a bottle of normal saline from the back, jumped out on the side of the highway and rinsed off my face like a crazy woman. The patient was like, "teehee, I'm a bad boy" and I took over driving and my male partner sat with him in the back. We filled out an incident report form, I had some more thorough rinsing at the ER by submerging my face in cups and talked with the docs to find out you can't really fortunately get many STDs from that other than like... a stye. So I was all good although I think I got tested to be sure. Patient got a big note in the FRONT of his chart and wasn't ever again attended by female staff. I don't think charges were worth it to be filed for serial assaulters like that, a lot of people who live in long term care facilities are demented and have no assets so not sure exactly what they would do other than just transfer them around in the system or keep them drugged up/snowed so they don't assault people, I'm not sure. At that time I was only prehospital so we didn't get a lot of case followup on patients!
deleted 5y ago
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randycupertino 5y ago

Well, one time I had a patient masturbate underneath his blanket and throw his semen in my eyes so it's not all sunshine and roses. After that I started wearing my glasses every day to work. We found back wayyyyy back in his chart like 250 pages deep "DO NOT LET PATIENT BE ATTENDED TO BY ANY FEMALE STAFF" that the other facility had deliberately obfuscated so that our place accept him! There's a lot of burnt out healthcare workers for sure, it's a hard job but I would say it's always interesting, you're always learning, there's lots of diversity and ways to specialize your career path (I went into oncology research) and it truly is rewarding. Just keep your head up for flying projectiles at your face :P Hope you're feeling better!

ntSean 5y ago
Thanks for sticking to it! My mum is a nurse and so I’ve heard a lot of stories of this being common - as if being physically abused is a part of the job.
- not2b 5y ago
  It's gotten really bad lately, with antivax covid patients and their family members assaulting doctors and nurses in hospitals. In some areas, health care workers are quitting in droves.
thakoppno 5y ago
That is insane. What happened next? Does a patient get tossed for that? Are criminal charges brought? Did you test for any STI? Your perspective on life is fantastic. Cheers.
- randycupertino 5y ago
  > What happened next? I pounded on the ambulance partition to my partner up front, hollered, "STOP THE GODDAMN RIG!!!!" while I grabbed a bottle of normal saline from the back, jumped out on the side of the highway and rinsed off my face like a crazy woman. The patient was like, "teehee, I'm a bad boy" and I took over driving and my male partner sat with him in the back. We filled out an incident report form, I had some more thorough rinsing at the ER by submerging my face in cups and talked with the docs to find out you can't really fortunately get many STDs from that other than like... a stye. So I was all good although I think I got tested to be sure. Patient got a big note in the FRONT of his chart and wasn't ever again attended by female staff. I don't think charges were worth it to be filed for serial assaulters like that, a lot of people who live in long term care facilities are demented and have no assets so not sure exactly what they would do other than just transfer them around in the system or keep them drugged up/snowed so they don't assault people, I'm not sure. At that time I was only prehospital so we didn't get a lot of case followup on patients!

deleted 5y ago

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