Ok - I’ve been a lurker here for a minute now and joined so that I could flag something based on a post from the other day.

I’ll preface with the fact that I am a psychiatric nurse, so aggressive pts. are my breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

DO NOT pull in your PSW/CNA staff for aggressive and combative pts. If you have PA’s and part of their job is to assist with mild aggression, that’s one thing. But farming this off to UCP’s is not delegating, you’re further putting other staff in the way of potential harm, when it really is not their job. They are not trained to deescalate and can’t PRN.

Use your duress alarm (if you have one - if you don’t, why?) or call security if you are unable to redirect the pt., as that is part of their job.

For example - I had an elopement attempt yesterday while returning a pt. to our constant observation unit. My first thought wasn’t “better get a PA” - I hit my duress alarm and within 60s I had 3 guards and 6 nurses from the 3 units in the hall with me.

This is what is meant by critical thinking, ok?

As above, UCP’s are not cannon fodder.