So I’m a nursing student that’s currently working as a CNA in the hospital. I’ve been a CNA for 9 years, but only working in the hospital for 5mo. I usually work oncology, but I was floated to med-surg today.
When I was going in for second vitals, I walked in the room, introduced myself, and asked the pt to let me put on his BP cuff. He then told me “I have something to show you” and whipped his blankets off, showing off his erection. I asked him if he needed to go to the bathroom, and he said no, so I tried to cover him back up and stepped away. He continued with “what’s wrong? Do you have a boyfriend?” I said nothing and put on the oximeter. He then said “I need to go to the bathroom” and tried to uncover himself again, so I handed him the urinal and backed away.
He tried to grab my wrist with one hand and started manually stimulating himself. I said “That’s inappropriate, you look like you need some privacy”, left my dynamap and moved so he couldn’t grab me. He asked me what was wrong and said “Don’t tell anybody!” As I backed out of the room.
His door was wide open this whole time. I shut the door, ran to the nurses station and told my charge nurse what happened, and she took me into an office to talk alone about what had happened. She asked what happened and I told her the truth, down to the fact I could describe his disgusting penis. She asked me if I wanted to report it, because that is considered sexual harassment/assault. She then told me he’d pulled things similar to this before with the “I have something to show you” line, but that he’d never physically crossed the line like this.
He was a past stroke patient, but is fully alert and oriented x4 and knew what he was doing. He told me not to tell anyone, and he’s done inappropriate talk and gestures towards his penis towards other staff in the past, so I decided to report it.
The cops came, and talked to me, my charge nurse, house supervisor, and then the patient in question. They believe me, but because he didn’t actually touch me and is a patient here he didn’t get arrested or anything. The officer said I was right to report though, and that he’d “Put the fear of God” into him and that a paper trail with my complaint would be started.
I feel so awful about the whole thing. I know he didn’t touch me, but I still feel so gross and violated. I also feel a little bit bad about reporting him, because nothing “serious” really happened and he didn’t actually touch me, just himself. I do have a past history of CSA and this has caused me to completely shut down at work today. I still have 2 hours left on my shift, and I feel numb and dissociated. I still have to tell my fiance what happened….and I just feel so upset and detached.
I don’t want to be here anymore. I want to go home. I know this is kind of stupid, and nothing serious happened, but I’m having to suppress really bad past memories right now and I’m having to shut my emotions down to get through the day. I hate this.
Comments
I think you did the right thing, we must not let such disgusting behavior get away without any consequences.
If you hadn’t reported this, he would have done the exact same thing with another nurse. You probably saved multiple people the trauma of having to deal with this idiot’s antics.
You people within the medical sector already have enough on your plate. No clue why people like that guy try this kind of disrespectful stuff with some of the most respectable people we have. Sorry about what happened.
Go find your fiancé after your shift’s over and tell him everything, he’ll be more than happy to comfort you, and it does sound like you might need a hug from someone you trust.