“Health care workers racked up 73% of all nonfatal workplace violence injuries in 2018, the most recent year for which figures are available, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics”

And this is why I’m the first one telling my colleagues to back away if a patient starts threatening. I always say, “I ain’t taking a punch for no one.”

Drug and alcohol withdrawal is a beast. You wish you could show all your younger cousins what it does to people so they never get themselves into that situation. Dementia patients are much more difficult because your first instinct is to jump in there to keep them safe from themselves. But if I’m injured at work, then I can’t take care of anyone else either, and that’s not fair to my family or my other patients.

I’m really lucky that I work at a small hospital where our security takes our concerns seriously. We’ve had edgy situations where they decide to just increase the frequency of their rounds on our unit and make a show of being present. It helps a lot.