A few months have now gone by while working at the hospital and I was now learning Brazilian Jujitsu to go along with my Shotokan training so that I had more options when dealing with a patient.
It was now around Christmas time and I had gotten a call to go to the ER for a standby with a possible psych patient that the family wanted to commit.
I had learned by this point to try and get as much information as I could so that I knew what to expect in the way of the patient's behavior. At this point too I had a partner with me that night who had worked there full time.
As we arrived at the ER I found one of the staff so that I could get some information on the patient. My partner at that time though had already found which room the patient was in and was standing in the door way of the room with his hands on his hips like Superman. The patient looked up at him from the stretcher and asked him who he was. My partner than told him "I'm security. I'm here to make sure you don't get out of line." Well this did wonders for a guy that had paranoia of people out to get him. After I heard this I told my partner what I had learned about the patient and that maybe we should just step back a bit from the room so he would calm down. The patient heard this and asked if we would in surprisingly a very poliet manner. My partnter just told him "no, keep your ass on the bed." The next thing I know my partner is on the floor doubled over. Turns out the patient had hauled off and did a field goal kick right between my partner's legs.
The patient wound up getting restrained but the whole time he kept saying he was sorry but that my partner was scaring him and intimidating him.
I really did not need to use any of my skills that night but I learned that even though you may be a great martial artist there are actions and just body language that get people to act in an aggressive way.
For those that don't know what some of the body language is I will tell you the do's and don'ts I have learned.
Don't stand square with a patient no matter how non threatening. Your vital spots will be too easily struck.
Don't stand with your hands in your pockets, on your hips or even fold your arms across your chest. You will not be able to block an attack and the patient will see these as signs of being aggressive or while they are trying to talk to you that you don't care.
Do stand at a 45 degree angle with your hands in front of you by your groing with one hand cupping slightly over the other. This will come across as a nonthreatening posture yet will give you the chance if need be to quickly block any attack as well as keep vital spots from being struck easily.
Do treat each patient with respect and act with kindness. Just because it is not a big deal to us does not mean that it is not a big deal to them.
Always try and see if there is any way to come to some sort of an agreement where you can get the patient to do what you want by making them think that it was there choice and make them look better than the rest of the staff. *Now this one is a catch 22. You don't want to bad mouth the staff yet you need to make it look like that the staff is been dupped by the patient.*
Try and come to an agreement of some sort with the patient. If the patient wants to go out for a smoke break but refusing to let the staff take the blood than see if the staff will allow you to take the patient out for a smoke break right after they draw the blood. Normally the patient will agree to this but you must get okay from the medical staff and will have to go with them and also explain that they need to come back in.
