Nurse keen to resume job after patient choked her

A month after a patient choked her in a brutal attack, a registered practical nurse is looking forward to returning to work at Windsor Regional Hospital.

Hospital CEO David Musyj described the choking as the worst level of violence at the hospital since he’s been there — close to 20 years — and is reflective of an alarming rise in violence in hospitals and other health-care institutions, here and across the country.

He said in the last year there have been 20 staff physically harmed at Windsor Regional — from scratches and bruises to more serious injuries. There were another 200 incidents

in which staff have been threatened. Some of those threats may well have progressed to violence except for anti-violence measures put in place, he said. He described the response by staff to the choking incident as “amazing, really amazing.”

“It was a horrible thing to happen to our member,” Chris Sutton, a national health and safety representative for the Canadian Union of Public Employees, said of the attack. He praised the hospital for its handling of the incident and its quick followup to ensure nothing similar happens again.

“We are grateful the outcome for our member was not worse than what occurred and that she is recovering and looking forward to going back to work.”

Two co-workers ran to her aid within a few seconds and hospital security was on the scene in under a minute, according to Sutton, who said the system the hospital has in place to ensure staff safety worked.

The registered practical nurse activated her personal alarm system, which all staff at the hospital’s Ouellette campus began wearing following the 2005 murder of Hotel-Dieu Grace Hospital nurse Lori Dupont by co-worker Dr. Marc Daniel, who subsequently killed himself. The program was continued after the building changed hands in 2013, from Hotel-Dieu Grace to Windsor Regional.

When the alarm sounds, or when “code white” is called, it’s an allhands-on-deck scenario, with staff running to assist.

Union and hospital officials were reluctant to provide details of the attack, citing patient and employee confidentiality and concerns about jeopardizing a case that might end up in court. But Sutton said police and the Ministry of Labour were notified and that police are investigating. He also said the hospital held a forum Friday to discuss the incident and its aftermath, and tweak its policies and procedures.

“There is a good outcome,” Sutton said. “And the (RPN) has said what happened to her was bad, but she came in and participated in the forum because she wanted to make sure everything reasonable that could be done would be done to ensure it doesn’t happen to anyone else.”

Health-care unions, including CUPE, have been campaigning against a rising level of violence in health-care institutions, whether it be against staff or patient-on-patient.

Donna MacInnes, the Ontario Nurses Association bargaining unit president for Windsor Regional, said the incident is an example of the violence nurses contend with. “It does happen on a daily basis. Whether they’re spit on or name calling or hitting, it happens every day,” she said.

“But this one here, in my opinion, was dealt with properly.”

ONA has launched a campaign to end workplace violence “because of the rising and daily occurrence of violence in our health care institutions,” said ONA first vice-president Vicki McKenna, whose union cites a 6.4 per cent increase in lost-time injuries due to workplace violence in health care in 2014 compared to 2013. There were 680 violence-caused injuries in the health-care sector in Ontario in 2014, compared to just 80 violence injuries in manufacturing, 11 in construction and zero in mining.

And research shows that there are many more of these attacks that people aren’t reporting, said McKenna, whose union has been working with the province’s labour and health ministries on an action plan.

“The reports we are hearing from the field are daily,” she said.

Musyj cited two factors in the rising number and severity of violent acts: patients coping with mental health and the drug epidemic. Patients on drugs or in withdrawal can have violent and unexpected outbursts. Even while in the hospital, addicts are continually seeking and acquiring drugs. People sometimes bring street drugs in for patients.

ONA’s McKenna said in many cases, the increase in violence is caused by understaffing, and failing to appreciate that your staff numbers shouldn’t always be based on simple patient-to-staff ratios. “You have to staff based on what patients need, not the mathematical equation,” she said.

She said the violence often happens when patients are in altered states, from illegal drugs or medications, or from dementia or head injuries.

“This doesn’t mean people shouldn’t receive care,” she said. “It just means you have to have the adequate staff and support so you can care for people properly.”