Jéaux Rinehart, RN, has been a nurse for more than 30 years, working primarily in the emergency care arena. He is currently serving his second term as president of the Washington State Emergency Nurses Association (WSNA). With such deep experience, Jéaux is familiar with the escalating trend of violence against nurses.
In recent years, Jeaux has had a number of violent incidences in the workplace, but recalls rarely worrying about violence during his earlier time as a nurse. Working in an ER today, Jeaux and his colleagues are constantly vulnerable to any number of acts of violence and assault by patients or patients’ family members and friends.
Five years ago, while working in a triage room, a patient came in complaining of pain and protested when he was not given the medication he requested. When Jéaux noticed the patient’s anger escalating, he stood up to leave the triage area and was struck in the head from behind by the man wielding a billy club. He was seriously injured and endured a lengthy recovery process.
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Jéaux’s personal experience and his involvement with WSNA at the state level has provided an opportunity for him to speak out about the need to shift the culture of nursing—both at the administrative and personal level—to reduce violence. “Because nurses are care workers, I see a trend of nurses justifying a violent patient’s actions with their condition,” he says. “There’s a fear of loss of job and not being believed that makes it uncomfortable to report.”
“It’s also astounding that hospital administration across the country perceive nurses’ role to be a take it and put up with it attitude. These are strangers that attack us and administration acts as if violence is a part of our job. Patient satisfaction scores matter. Complaints lower those scores,” Jéaux adds.
Additionally, Jéaux remarks on the unique situation males in nursing find themselves in as it relates to violence. He cites a 2010 report published by the Emergency Nurses Association that found that male nurses are attacked more frequently than female nurses. “It almost always expected that if men are around, we will take care of the violent situations,” says Jéaux. “This puts male nurses in a difficult position to navigate.”
Jéaux is speaking about his experiences by telling his story in hopes that others will tell their story, or come forward and report their own assault. “I’ve been really affected by my experiences, and I’ll admit: I’ve considered leaving the field of nursing,” Jéaux says. “But I care about patients and I care about my colleagues and that keeps me going.”
He is a guest speaker at NFN’s 2011 Labor Academy, sharing his story to actively help identify barriers to reporting assault in the workplace.“National Federation of Nurses is very supportive and I’m appreciative of the additional platform NFN has provided to tell my story,” says Jéaux.