Attacks on Veterinary Staff

Having a peruse of a veterinary nursing site l go on l was shocked to read about a student veterinary nurse, getting assaulted at work. I do not know what practice or where in the UK it is only that it is apparently a small branch surgery. That narrows it down to a few thousand places then.

A client who has mental health issues flung her into a door as a result she is on pain medication, very sore and scared and her state of mind is so demoralised she will be heading for depression and has no work support at all.
It is one thing to get assaulted at work, quite another when your boss not only doesn’t stick up for you but starts to make noises that they feel she may need to leave if she doesn’t feel safe working at that particular branch she obviously “isn’t up to the job”, she has a day or so to decide if she will “behave” and “feel safe”.

Her co-worker is furious that she is pressing charges as the woman is mentally disturbed and should be cut some slack, obviously the woman should be allowed to bash people around.
Apparently the client has a history of verbal abuse and “behaving strangely” but no one had put any warnings on her record and they sent the new student VN (been there a few days) out to deal with her and did not warn her verbally about possible danger despite the other staff knowing the client.

The customer has been back in to threaten the student VN and the student’s co-worker sent the student out the back and spoke to the woman. She assured the woman all charges would be dropped. I understand the student when informed afterwards said no way.

The student is scared, emotionally wrecked and physically painful but determined to make a go of it. Training places are like hens teeth they have her over a barrel, if she leaves it will probably be a long time before she can get into another training practice in her area. Added to that in this age of job losses she can not guarantee getting any job anywhere.

On the thread of sympathy to the student and anger and outrage towards whoever her practice manager/owner is that to the student’s knowledge nothing had gone into the accident book or been reported to RIDDOR. As you can guess both of those were high priorities for her to help cover her back. It turns out that until she asked for it to go into the accident book thanks to many site members advising her there was no accident book.

There are not many physical assaults on veterinary staff but there is a lot of verbal abuse towards us. Us being veterinary nurses, receptionists, students etc. Not so much verbal abuse to vets.
The attitude from the management in the post above regarding staff security is not untypical in the veterinary world though where all too often staff are seen as expendable and not worth protecting.

Veterinary Nurse Training

I thought, as this is early days on the blog l would do an early days training story. I shall call the vet who owned the practice Mr Orange or O after Agent Orange as to my mind they have a lot in common.
I would also like to say that this is just one story faced daily by us his staff, it made no difference if clients, or other visitors were present or not.

I had been at the practice about 3 weeks to a month. This was spent out the front on reception learning the computer. In this practice nurses and trainees manned reception as part of their shifts, alongside reception staff.
I would zip into the back at every opportunity to try and learn that side as well. I tend to learn computer systems fairly fast so l was in the back about 3 weeks quicker than normal.

In Tenerife, running the K9 rescue kennels l had a lot of vet type work to do, that is not done here. I decided on treatment (antibiotics and what sort, set up and placed drips, PTS etc) when l needed help Tony Boardman a UK vet was only a phone call away and l trusted his veterinary skills not the local vets. I had heard and seen to much. Things have changed a lot over the years though and now there is good vets there.
Tony would come out every so often and do all the surgical work we and other rescue groups needed doing.
He finally moved out to Tenerife and set up permanently. Unfortunately for the animals of Tenerife he passed on within a few years.

My maths has never been great and l had worked out my own system to calculate drug doses. So long as l had a calculator l was ok. Tony had always confirmed whenever l asked him on doses that l was right so l had no worries about it working.

Back to the present. Mr Orange told me to give a premed to a patient. Bear in mind l had not been there long, and although it was called a training practice, none was given, we had to rely on other qualified or student nurses, or the one other vet who was a gem to help us if they had time. I walked off and began to work out the drug dose. It had been made clear by him, with biting sarcasm when l asked about such things, that we were expected to know how to do this.

Suddenly the calculator was grabbed out of my hand and smashed against the wall.
I was under a barrage of screaming and abuse and dragged into the autoclave room where the screaming abuse continued for about 45minuites on how useless l was, l was a disgrace to the nursing let alone the veterinary profession.....on and on it went.
My sin was using a calculator.

After this l was so shattered the head nurse sent me home. I decided to go on training at the practice.
1) Because no *&$$%^&* was going to ruin my life.
2) VN training places are like hens teeth, and l was not going to run as l probably would not get another.

The net result was that it totally destroyed my confidence in working out anything maths wise. I was able to do it for the exam but even now l still worry if told to give so and so a drug, l double check with the vet on amounts.
I used to try and hide the worry as l was ashamed at my myself. Not now, now l tell any vet l work with at the start and things are always fine. In fact vet's are always using calculators, and more than one has asked how did Agent O know he wasn't under or overdosing?.

I will never allow anyone to treat me like that again. After that Agent Orange and l used to tear into each other but he never sacked me, l don't knows why. I told him to often enough, l wasn't for running away. One day l may learn to turn the other cheek.

Because of what l witnessed and went through under "Agent O" l did my NLP training (Neuro Linguistic Programming)with Andy Smith at Coaching Leaders (see links) NLP is used for helping people with psychological problems. I think it is a lot better than CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy) but l guess l am biased.

I now help adults who have been abused in the workplace , usually only via email, but some face to face. The statistics on abuse in the workplace worldwide are frightening and are the hidden side of the adult workplace.
A couple of years ago l was invited on the open forum panel held on bullying at the BVNA VN congress. Unfortunatly Mr Orange is not an isolated case.

So in the end l guess l have a lot to thank Mr Orange for. Despite all. I qualified as a veterinary nurse. I have done NLP and am able to help others, and l have walked a path l would never have dreamed of.