Emergency Department (ED) staff at the Royal Melbourne Hospital have released a confronting video that shows incidents of patients lunging and hurling chairs at staff in a bid to stop the violence and aggression that occurs daily against hospital workers.
“We hope the video, which incorporates examples of what emergency staff experience and CCTV footage of actual incidents, has a positive effect on people in the ED waiting room and watching this on social media,” Emergency Department Nurse Unit Manager Susan Harding said in the media release.
“We want our patients and visitors to understand we are committed to providing the best possible care for them, but to do this we must ensure the absolute safety of the people who provide that care,” she added.
The graphic video shows examples of patients hurling verbal abuse, flinging chairs towards hospital staff, smashing glass doors and lunging towards workers.
“In healthcare we sometimes tend to think that occupational violence and aggression is ‘just part of the job,'” Harding said.
“Sometimes its non-verbal violence, while physical violence has an obvious effect,” Harding told Fairfax.
“It’s the psychological trauma and emotional distress that’s harder to deal with. It’s not only the verbal aggression, it’s the threats that are made. To be told someone is going to wait for you outside of work, they'll follow you home, they know you have children, that has a terrible effect.”
Harding said many staff at the hospital have been injured due to these incidents.
“We’ve had lots of staff injured, I had a staff member off work for 11 months following an incident where a patient pulled her finger back and tore her tendons,” she told Fairfax.
She said there needs to be a “significant mind shift in the workplace and in the community about what is acceptable.”
“We really wanted to change the thinking and help our staff to understand that violence and aggression in their workplace is unacceptable, and that’s not what they come to work for every day,” Harding added.
The video was developed by the ED team at the hospital and was presented at a national conference last week. The hospital said it intends to play the video in the ED waiting room and on social media to remind people what is unacceptable behaviour.
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