Law Commons^™

Nurses working at a community hospital ward in a poor section of the city were both frustrated and irritated with their middle-aged female patient and were ready to put her in physical restraints.1 The patient had been admitted for attempting to harm herself. She refused to comply with the nurses’ requests, behaving belligerently and repeatedly throwing herself on the floor. In a hospital that serves many homeless, drug-addicted, mentally ill, and violent patients, this troublesome woman was a particular challenge in a day filled with difficult patients. And, after several hours, the nurses’ empathy for their patient was waning.

The …