Sexual harassment of nurses by patients

When nurses provide compassionate care for patients, they sometimes ask for more. Sexual harassment of nurses by patients is a growing problem, which runs the gamut from offensive jokes and sexual comments to inappropriate touching and sexual assaults.

The harassment creates a professional tension for nurses, who must walk a fine line between their professional responsibilities to the patient and protecting themselves. Meanwhile, medical institutions have legal requirements to care for patients that can limit their response to patient harassment of nurses.

A survey that examined how nurses respond to being sexually harassed by patients found that they often crack jokes or sternly reject the patient’s conduct, but few have been trained on how they can respond.

Nurses should be protected by their organization's sexual harassment policy. If harassment occurs, they can also:

* refuse to care for the patient
* ask for assistance from a second nurse
* report the behavior to a supervisor who can speak with the patient
* in extreme situations, institutions may be able to send the patient to another facility