BC Health Minister announces $2-million to keep nurses safer

Four facilities in B.C. have been identified as highest priority: the Forensic Psychiatric Hospital in Port Coquitlam, Hillside Centre in Kamloops, Seven Oaks Tertiary Mental Health in Victoriam and Abbotsford Regional Hospital.

“Everything we do will be evaluated with the potential to be scaled up and applied elsewhere in the province”, says union president Gayle Duteil. “That’s why we’re working to make health-care facilities throughout the province as safe for staff and patients as possible, starting with funding safety improvements at these four sites”.

One of the most recent attacks in April saw a nurse seriously assaulted by a patient at Hillside Centre in April, four months after another nurse was attacked in the same hospital. An emergency room nurse at Abbotsford Regional Hospital required stitches in March after being struck in the face by a patient. “These sites have high levels of violence”. “We hope to move quickly into improving conditions at the remaining eight sites”.

“The threat of violence is present in virtually every care setting, including in residential care”, she said. Each site has a plan to tackle their individual needs, which were developed during consultations with the ministry and BCNU. The improvements will be rolled out in the coming months, said Duteil.

The provincial government and BC Nurses Union are putting $2 million towards preventing violence against healthcare workers. Duteil said the union’s contribution comes from money that it negotiated in its last contract for violence-prevention issues.

“For far too long the risk of violence has simply been seen as part of the work nurses do, part of the job”, she said.

“It’s a good start”.

Duteil also said the union intends to upgrade the training of nurses so they can better anticipate and short-circuit violent incidents.