Data shows more than 2,500 nurses attacked in a nine-month period
Staff are coping with an ‘increasingly violent and abusive’ public, INMO warns
New figures reveal more than 2,500 nurses were attacked physically or verbally in hospitals across the country in the first nine months of last year.
The figures, obtained by the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO), show nurses continue to be the most abused workers in the health system, bearing the brunt of physical and verbal aggression from patients or members of the public.
Assaults on nurses account for more than half of all attacks on HSE staff recorded on the National Incident Management System, which documents incidents and near misses in the health service.
Between January and September last year, 4,382 health staff were recorded as being assaulted in the workplace. Of those, 2,553 were nurses.
The second-largest group subjected to assaults were unspecified “staff ” — believed to include porters, health workers and others — with 1,432 incidents logged.
There were 63 assaults on medical staff, a group that includes doctors and consultants.
The figures cover all physical, verbal and sexual assaults reported by staff and recorded on the internal system. The INMO obtained the data under the Freedom of Information Act.
The HSE said it encourages all staff to report assaults. However, the INMO said many assaults are still going unreported, by HSE management as well as staff.
Nurses in particular are facing increasing levels of aggression from the public, with staff shortages and longer waiting times contributing to the pressures.
Phil Ní Sheaghdha, general secretary of the INMO, said there is more interaction between patients and nurses than any other grade of worker in the health service.
“We are now dealing with increasingly violent and increasingly abusive members of the public. We are also experiencing an increase in assaults in paediatric hospitals and maternity hospitals which is new,” she said.
“We believe there is a lot more that employers can do. Some employers are stepping up to the mark, but after really bad incidents have occurred in their hospitals.”
She said assaults don’t necessarily have to result in physical injury to cause lasting damage.
“A nurse was assaulted very badly in a nursing home. She was on her own. The incident required her to be absent from work for a prolonged period,” said Ms Ní Sheaghdha.
“She didn’t have a physical injury but she had a very traumatic experience and psychologically she was not able to face the workplace.
“She enquired two weeks after her incident had the issue been reported to the Health and Safety Authority and she was told ‘no’, she didn’t have an injury.”
Ms Ní Sheaghdha said it is often the case that management are unaware of a no-fault compensation scheme agreed with the HSE that covers employees in emergency departments and related areas for both physical and psychological injury.
The Health and Safety Authority, which is responsible for enforcing safe workplaces, is to hold its first meeting of a new advisory committee for the health and social care sector next month.
The committee will focus on preventative measures to reduce the number of injuries and attacks in the sector. It was set up following lobbying from the INMO and others.
A statement from the HSE said it has “long been proactive” in encouraging staff to report all incidents and in directing managers to review all incidents.
“Staff are encouraged to report all ‘near misses’ and incidents — even those that do not result in harm,” said the HSE.
“Hence, the number of incident reports should not be considered as indicative of a level of harm. There may also be multiple reports relating to the same incident.”
Staff who are victims of assault are offered a level of counselling, including trauma counselling, depending on how the staff member has been affected, the HSE statement said.