Stop the violence

Jean Dobson, a nurse at University Hospital in London, Ont., has been strangled with a stethoscope, stabbed with a metal fork, and spat at by patients. Once a patient kicked her so hard in the face her nose broke. She’s not alone. As the Star’s Katrina Clarke wrote recently, reports of violence against hospital staff by patients and their families are increasing. At Toronto’s University Health Network alone, for example, they doubled in two years, jumping to 331 incidents in 2014 from 166 in 2012. (The network includes hospitals such as Toronto General and Toronto Western.)

It’s not clear why the numbers are up so dramatically. Violent attacks on health workers may be increasing, and more attacks may be reported due to an improved reporting system.

Regardless, it’s a situation that cannot be allowed to continue. That’s why the establishment of a roundtable on violence against health-care workers, starting with nurses, is such a good idea and so long overdue.

The situation is urgent, as one example illustrates. Last year, the Ministry of Labour laid charges against Toronto’s Centre for Addiction and Mental Health for failing to protect staff from workplace violence after a nurse was dragged, kicked and beaten.

Labour Minister Kevin Flynn has made it clear the attacks must stop, calling workplace violence “a serious hazard in the healthcare sector.”

How bad is it? The ministry reports that claims of violence make up 10 per cent of lost-time injuries in hospitals. And workplace violence in the health-care sector costs about $23.8 million annually for hospitals alone. The Ontario Nurses Association (ONA) hopes the roundtable will address such key issues as improving security in hospitals; ensuring there is enough nursing staff on units; and requiring mandatory reporting of all incidents. (Nurses say they are discouraged by managers from doing so now.)

That’s why it’s welcome news that the roundtable is made up of some of the top leaders in Ontario’s health-care field with the power to make changes, including the deputy ministers of health and labour, hospital CEOs, the Ontario Hospital Association and the ONA. They will begin meeting in September.

Nurses and others should never face violence on the job. The roundtable should be the first step toward stopping it.

A roundtable on violence against nurses is long overdue