Attacks on nurses increase: Zero tolerance is the answer
Physical, verbal, and sexual attacks on hospital nurses rose again last year.
There were more than ten assaults every week, up from 559 in 2016 to 587 last year.
This year, to the end of April, 155 nurses have been attacked at work, according to the HSE’s National Incident Management System (NIMS), set up three years ago to log all assaults on health workers.
Despite those stark figures, the Irish Nurses’ and Midwives’ Organisation (INMO) said the reality is even darker, as the HSE does not log attacks on nurses who work in one of the country’s 28 voluntary hospitals.
The INMO said some attacks were so violent that they were “career ending”.
Labour’s spokesman on health, Alan Kelly, spoke for the great majority of people, when he said this unacceptable behaviour must be confronted with a policy of zero tolerance.
Most nurses work in a stressful, stretched environment, to help others, so their security must be paramount; they must be protected.
When the corresponding figures were published last year, the Government was urged to do more to protect nurses, but, according to Mr Kelly, little or no progress has been made.
This is not good enough.
It sends the wrong message to those who might assault a nurse.
It also suggests that we do not value our nurses and the service they provide.
This behaviour must be nipped in the bud, by a firm policy of zero tolerance.
