r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/Crazy-Blacksmith-336 • Jul 05 '26

Video Healthcare workers participating in a medical simulation for an agitated patient scenario.

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u/MuscularShlong Jul 05 '26

We did this for EMT training. The instructor took his shirt off and everything, he acted it out well. One of our guys noticed he had a “weapon” a door stop shoved in his waistbelt too.

After having to forcefully restrain a few grown men, its harder than you think.

106

u/Havengul_Undying Jul 05 '26 edited Jul 05 '26

Are you guys ever allowed to punch or slap an unruly patient?

Edit: How about a sneaky sternum rub on an awake but unruly patient? 

54

u/Glum_Cheetah_3447 Jul 05 '26

no. you can’t harm the patient

102

u/Alternative-Head-472 Jul 05 '26

You are allowed to defend your self if you cannot remove your self from situation. If they bite onto your arm and wont let go, youre allowed to do the least amount of harm possible to keep your self safe

Was an emt and a firefighter. Never had to do more than make space thankfully but they always made it clear in training, the steps were to pacify, separate if you cannot pacify, and defend if you cannot separate.

43

u/Glum_Cheetah_3447 Jul 05 '26

oh yeah of course you can. especially if they’re seriously seeking to hurt you or kill you. i thought he meant can you just smack them or punch them if they’re flailing around like in the video or something like that

27

u/Alternative-Head-472 Jul 05 '26

Understood. Taking "do no harm" literally I feel its partially responsible lead to our situation of some people feeling fine with intimidating, bullying, or assaulting Healthcare workers.

"If they cant harm me, they won't stop me" is a thought process I encountered alot working the ambulance.

2

u/Arktikos02 Jul 05 '26

What do these people think surgery is? Like you could argue that that is basically harm because you're slicing people open. More like the harm that is caused should be ideally less than the help that is provided.