Question

Which situation exemplifies both assault and battery?

1) The nurse becomes angry, calls the client offensive names, and withholds treatment.
2) The nurse threatens to "tie down" the client and then does so against the client's wishes.
3) The nurse hides the client's clothes and medicates the client to prevent elopement.
4) The nurse restrains the client without just cause and communicates this to family.

Answer 1

The second situation where a nurse threatens to tie down a client and then does so exemplifies both assault and battery. Assault involves the threat of harm, while battery involves actual physical impact.

Step-by-step explanation:

The situation that exemplifies both assault and battery is when a nurse threatens to "tie down" the client and then does so against the client's wishes.

Assault is an act that creates an apprehension in another of imminent, harmful, or offensive contact. It's a threat or attempt to inflict offensive contact or bodily harm on someone that gives the person a reasonable apprehension of imminent harmful or offensive contact. No physical contact is necessary for an assault to take place.

The battery is the actual physical impact on another person. If someone commits an act that puts another person in reasonable fear of harmful or offensive contact, and then follows through with the contact, both assault and battery have been committed.

In the given scenarios, the second situation is a clear case of both assault (the threat of being tied down) and battery (the actual act of tying the client down against their wishes).