Rally highlights knife incident at local hospital: Nurses protest workplace violence at Queen’s Park

By Lisa Queen, The Scarborough Mirror

The trauma suffered by nurses when a distraught teenager knifed himself in the emergency department of Rouge Valley Health System’s Scarborough Centenary site was highlighted at a rally protesting workplace violence at Queen’s Park on Thursday, May 1.

“Just two weeks ago, Centenary hospital nurses experienced a near-miss when a patient accessed the nurses’ lounge and obtained a weapon,” Ontario Nurses Association Linda Haslam-Stroud said, reading from a prepared speech.

“Hospital management cut back security 18 months ago and is poised to do so again to save money.”
Rouge Valley spokesperson David Brazeau said the security presence in the emergency department was reduced by 30 hours a week 18 months ago, but security had been ramped up during SARS.

“When we reduced by 30 hours our security coverage in emergency, we were returning to pre-SARS level,” he said.

The province’s Special Investigations Unit is investigating the April 16 incident at Centenary because the teenager was seriously hurt following an altercation with a police officer.

The officer found a 19-year-old patient armed with a knife in the kitchen threatening to harm himself. After trying to calm the teenager, the officer used pepper spray.

The teen then injured himself, causing a serious but not life-threatening injury. The officer was not hurt.

But nurses were left traumatized, Haslam-Stroud said.

Brazeau said the hospital offers an employee assistant program that offers counselling staff can access to deal with events such as the one that took place April 16.

Unfortunately, nurses are often the target of workplace violence, Haslam-Stroud said.

“I am here today to demand safer workplaces for nurses and allied health professionals. In Ontario, front-line caregivers face the threat of workplace violence every day while caring for others,” Haslam-Stroud told the rally.

“RNs (registered nurses) are three to 12 times more likely to be assaulted and injured on the job, more than any other profession including police officers and firefighters.”

She urged the Ministry of Labour to treat workplace violence like any other hazard and demanded employers take every reasonable precaution to protect the health and safety of their workers.

“This certainly is not happening now,” she said. “Incidents of violence and aggression account for eight per cent of lost-time injuries in health care in Ontario. Stop the violence, protect our workers.”