"Dealing with an Angry Patient" (May 2008)* provides some excellent pointers for managing aggressive patients. However, as a psychiatric nurse, I feel that you ignored our perspective, including our increased risk of verbal and physical assault.

Psychiatric disorders, social isolation, a history of violence, and the influence of alcohol or drugs were all named as risk factors for aggression. We deal with these issues on a daily basis, but psychiatric nursing itself wasn't named in this article as a risk factor.

In the future, please recognize that psychiatric nurses face as much danger and abuse as ED nurses when we interact with patients.

RACHEL E. CLEMENTS, RN

Boise, Idaho

^*Individual subscribers can also access these articles free online at http://www.nursing2008.com. [Context Link]