Abbotsford, Canada – 25th September, 2019: A brutal assault that left an Abbotsford nurse with a broken jaw is prompting calls from the BC Nurses Union (BCNU) for the province to address violence in hospitals.
The BCNU said Wednesday the nurse was on shift at Abbotsford Regional Hospital around 2 a.m. Tuesday when she went to check on a patient.
The patient — who had already been identified as exhibiting violent behaviour — ambushed the nurse and hit her in the face with an exercise weight, sending her into the wall of the patient’s room.
The attack left the nurse with a broken jaw, fractured cheek bone and damaged teeth among other serious injuries to her head and face. The union says she’s expected to go into surgery Wednesday.
“We’re all shocked this has happened,” BCNU president Christine Sorensen said.
Abbotsford police confirm the 62-year-old patient has been charged with aggravated assault and is being held in custody at the hospital, where he has been receiving additional treatment.
The union has raised issues at Abbotsford Regional Hospital before, alerting Fraser Health president and CEO Dr. Victoria Lee just last week about “deteriorating” conditions in the emergency room due to overcrowding and chronic short-staffing.
In this case, Sorensen says a specially-trained safety officer should have been monitoring the patient.
“This patient … was identified as needing one-on-one support,” she said. “That person is not another nurse.
Sorensen is calling for safety officers to be installed at all hospitals throughout B.C. to ensure violence-prone patients are not at risk of harming nurses and other hospital staff.
“One nurse a day in this province reports a serious violent event to WorkSafeBC,” she said. “The government needs to provide enough resources to hire these safety officers.”
Minister of Health Adrian Dix said the province and Fraser Health is working with the union to address safety in Abbotsford Regional Hospital and other emergency rooms.
“None of us are at our best when we go to hospital for obvious reasons, but we have to ensure that there’s no tolerance for violence and that we have to provide support for our employees,” he said.
Fraser Health says Abbotsford’s emergency room has a dedicated security guard and other security measures. Nurses and other health care workers are also required to complete violence prevention training as a condition of employment.
“Violence against any of our health care workers is unacceptable,” Lee said in a statement. “We need to ensure as an organization we are caring for our health care providers.”
But Sorensen says safety officers are different from security personnel, who are tasked with maintaining security of the overall building from outside threats.
She added a pilot program that saw those safety officers installed at Kelowna General Hospital proved to be successful.
“Nurses felt much safer, these people worked as part of the team, and the health authority has continued those safety officers positions working in the emergency room,” she said.
The province announced earlier this month the Abbotsford emergency room will be getting a $16.2-million facelift that will include a 825-square-metre expansion.
The announcement did not mention whether the expansion will come with resources for additional staffing.
Sorenson said she’s hopeful the province and health authority will address the staffing shortage, including safety officers.
“I’d like to see [Lee and Dix] actually work a shift with one of these nurses, or work an entire week in the emergency department of [Abbotsford Regional Hospital] to understand what nurses are dealing with,” she said.
“Maybe then, they’ll do what needs to be done.”
Source: https://globalnews.ca/news/5952288/abbotsford-nurse-assault/