Inapropriate patient

On my neurology placement I had an experience with a very inappropriate male patient. He was a new patient, so I did not have any warning about potenial inapropopriate behaviour. I was very shocked to say the least and think that I did not handle the situation in the best way.

The patient was elderly with a history of right CVA (LACS)and intially seemed a very pleasant and refrained person. I began my subjective amd after a little while the patient began to make subtley inappropraite comments. I ignored them and continued with my assessment. They continued and grew more uncomfortable as the asssement continued but I chose to stick it out, trying not to let it phase me.

I then came to the objective part of the assessment, and this is were things got really inappropriate and I felt very uncomfortable. I reached my wits end when the patient touched me on the buttocks: I was no longer uncomfortable, I was angry. However I remained calm, and told him, as politlelty but sternly, that if he continued with his inappropriate comments or if he touched me like that again, I would stop the assessment and never treat him again. This had the effect I hoped, with the patient behaving for the rest of the assessment. By the end of the treatment I really felt like we had build a repoire and that what had happened previously was behind us. I chose not to tell my supervisor, as I didn't see the need.

The patient cancelled his appointment and I felt compelled to tell my supervisor what had happened. My supervisor said not to worry about it, and left it at that, which suprised me (I was lucky to have a pretty cruisey supervisor me thinks). But I started to think about how I could have handled the situation better, particularly as a student, especilly since this was the second time a patient had cancelled, seemigly due to what, or how, I had said. I really should have excused myself and went to my supervisor with what had just occured. The supervisor could have then come out to assist me, making it look like he was helping me ect.

I am a pretty honost and straight forward person, and am realiseing that maybe I need to learn to be more discreet when handeling situations like this, to seek more advice from my supervisors, instead of trying to handle things I have no experinece with myself. In future I will consult with my supervisor about touchy situations instead of trying to deal with them myself.