More resources needed to protect worker safety at NRGH

By Jenn Marshall, Nanaimo News Bulletin

Nanaimo Regional General Hospital lacks the resources needed to address violent incidents, says the nurses’ union.

The Vancouver Island Health Authority was fined $75,000 by WorkSafeBC last fall for failing to take adequate measures to protect employees from workplace violence at NRGH and West Coast General in Port Alberni.

Jo Taylor, chairwoman of the Pacific Rim with the B.C. Nurses’ Union, said nurses have been calling for better violence prevention programs for years.

“We feel that violence has never been properly addressed,” she said. “We still face a high amount of violence every day.”

WorkSafeBC included NRGH in the penalty because of a series of incidents in 2005 at the hospital in which it felt workers were at high risk of being injured due to violence.

The health authority is appealing the penalty, stating the concern was addressed by further training and a revamped violence-prevention program.

But Taylor said hospital officials have only just begun the first level of violence prevention training, which covers basics such as how to diffuse the situation and not backing yourself into a corner.

She wants to see nurses trained in higher levels of violence prevention in all of the high-intensity areas like the emergency department and psychiatric ward.

Taylor said the hospital also needs a code white team – a group of health professionals with high levels of training in diffusing violent situations.

She said recently, an ambulance attendant had to take down a patient who was harming herself in the waiting area of NRGH’s emergency department.

“We have nurses who are punched in triage, they’re spit on, kicked,” said Taylor. “The violence is not just physical, we also get lots of verbal abuse. The public isn’t aware of how much violence nurses face on a daily basis. It’s not our job to be someone’s verbal and physical punching bag.”

VIHA spokesman Chuck Rowe told the News Bulletin the health authority has done a significant amount of work in workplace violence prevention in the past year.

Under the new program, all new employees take violence prevention training as part of their orientation.

He said VIHA is piloting a code white team in Campbell River’s hospital and will expand the teams to other hospitals once health officials determine if the program is successful.