Stood up for myself today :) TW sexual assault
So I was assigned to sit for a dementia patient today, who is known to be riled up at night. I was kinda glad to be sitting because I was supposed to be on vacation tonight but was told I needed to come in anyway. He was doing good for the first hour or so, until his wife left. After that, when I got him in bed, he continually tried getting up. That isn’t the issue though. It was maybe 11 at night and he was trying so hard to get out of bed, he was throwing his legs over the side and pushing me away when I tried to put him back into bed, with all his might. I wasn’t letting up though and wouldn’t let him out of bed. When he realized I wouldn’t give in and let him up, he looked at me with this face full of rage, stared at my boobs for about five seconds, and then proceeded to grab both my boobs very hard. I quickly forced his hands away and said “do NOT touch me there” as firm as I could. He proceeded to attempt to spit on me (I don’t think he had enough saliva in his mouth to spit but he was clearly trying to). This really upset me. I called the nurse in to help me force him back into bed (he was a high fall risk and had already nearly slipped trying to get up once the previous shift so we weren’t gonna let him up, he needed to sleep anyway.) I proceeded to text the charge nurse what happened, and she kinda brushed me off. I also texted my dad and told him, and he called me and was livid. He told me I needed to get out of the room ASAP to make sure I am safe, had some unsavory words about the patient, and gave me a pep talk so I’d be confident in standing up for myself. So I called in another tech, and went to talk to her face to face. She was with the nurse supervisor at the time. She continued telling me stuff like “yeah, nobody wants to sit for him, it’s a problem”and “he just is confused” and other stuff trying to get me to just go finish the shift with him. I told the nurse supervisor what happened, and she was appalled. She said I definitely should not go back into his room, and I need to protect myself first. The charge nurse ended up switching me to be on the floor after I took some time to calm down in the break room. She ended up apologizing for how she reacted, and said she wouldn’t have been mad or surprised if I had slapped/punched the guy in response. She was apparently super overwhelmed at the time I told her. Tbh I still feel pretty awful, even more so bc of how she reacted, but I’m starting to feel better. The patients I have on the floor are super nice, and have put me in a better mood and reminded me not all patients will assault me. When my dad is back from vacation we’re going to discuss if we should take further action, and I have therapy on Thursday where I’ll be discussing the incident. I still feel like I can smell him and I’m worried other coworkers think I’m overreacting, but it’s better than being forced to be afraid, uncomfortable, and grossed out the rest of the night.