Workplace safety a real issue at local hospital
Following an assault on a registered nurse at Guelph General Hospital (GGH) on March 1, 2016, the Ontario Nurses Association (ONA) launched a grievance over working conditions at the health centre. A press release was issued by the ONA on March 15, 2016, and stated that “the Ontario Nurses’ Association (ONA) [was] appalled at the lack of safety at Guelph General Hospital that has come to light in several serious incidents”
The statement also added that the “ONA has filed a grievance against the hospital and is looking for immediate mandatory violence prevention training, a system for flagging violent patients, and panic buttons for nurses working in units who do not currently possess them.”
GGH has seen an increase in violence in the workplace and has been slow to improve working conditions for nurses. The catalyst for the grievance cited in the media release from the ONA, described by ONA President Linda Haslam-Stroud, was the situation from March 1, 2016 where a nurse “was injured when a patient became suddenly violent, grabbed the RN’s wrist, hit her in the face with a full bottle of urine, bit, punched, and kicked her. Help was not readily available to the RN.”
[pullquote align=”left” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]…changes may not be coming fast enough…[/pullquote]
The patient in question was a 54-year-old local man who, after attacking the nurse, also assaulted a security officer called in to deal with the disturbance. Following his release from the hospital a few days later, the man was arrested.
The ONA release from March 15, 2016 cited another instance of workplace safety being put in jeopardy.
The ONA release said, “[It] was revealed that the hospital has failed to stock proper protective equipment. This came to light when a patient who was contaminated arrived by ambulance and there was no personal protective equipment for staff to don in order to decontaminate the patient, nor was there a proper bay to clean the patient. Staff took the patient outside to an ambulatory area to clean off the substance with soapy water.”
GGH president and CEO Marianne Walker responded to the news release by saying she was “very surprised” by it.
“Ensuring we keep our staff safe is a real priority,” said Walker, in a March 16, 2016 issue of the Guelph Tribune, noting that the hospital’s health and safety committee is very involved in efforts to make the hospital safer.
These efforts have included a hospital security audit, which was just completed, added Walker, and the hiring of a new health and safety officer to oversee safety issues in the hospital.
“We’ve made a lot of changes,” said Walker.
However, the changes may not be coming fast enough, because the ONA is still going ahead with its grievance. In May 2015, a man was shot and killed by Guelph police while in the Guelph General Hospital’s emergency room. The man involved in the shooting had allegedly been threatening other patients, along with nursing staff, with a pair of scissors.
“Guelph General should have taken workplace safety more seriously after the shooting incident in its ER last year,” said Haslam-Stroud, in a March 15, 2016 ONA news release. “Clearly, this employer must be dragged into compliance with workplace safety laws, procedures, and directives. What will it take before this employer takes the appropriate action to avoid its staff, family members, and others from being injured? It is imperative that this hospital take safety concerns seriously. Instituting temporary, stop-gap measures after an incident is not acceptable.”