unrelenting, continuous, loud, right to your face verbal abuse, insinuating you overdosed the patient, pointing his fingers right to your face, claiming he is going to sue me and the hospital.
I froze, because this is the first time something like this happens to me, my ears hurt.
I don’t know how long I stayed there, completely still because I didn’t know what else to do. At some point I stopped listening to him and simply walked away to a restroom. Miraculously, he didn’t follow me. I was ready to punch him if he touched me.
Out of the workplace, if somebody acts like that I either walk away or answer back or defend myself physically, should it escalate. Enduring that level of verbal abuse is something nobody enjoys, nor is something I am willing to tolerate.
The rest of my shift wasn’t funny. Incident was reported.
Don’t engage. Make sure you are the closest to the door and not in grabbing distance. Remove yourself from the situation. Implement whatever response system your hospital has for threats of personal violence. Acknowledge that grieving people are not rational people while understanding that this does not give them an excuse to berate you.