Post by Willow on Jan 8, 2013 19:16:30 GMT 9.5
BY: TIM PRIEST From: The Australian January 08, 2013 12:00AM 23
IF you are tempted to see what it would be like to work in a war zone, try a visit to a public hospital emergency department on any Friday or Saturday night.
The visits are free - just present your Medicare card on arrival and sit back and watch drunken and/or drug-addled individuals brawling in the public waiting areas, with doctors and nurses being abused, assaulted, spat on and generally mistreated.
This occurs around patients who are dying or seriously unwell and frequently in full view of children, who are already terrified at being ill or in pain and experiencing the daunting hospital environment for the first time.
I recently listened to a number of nurses recounting the many violent episodes they have encountered working in the emergency departments of several large Sydney hospitals. Their recollections revealed how far society's standards have slipped. Hospital violence extends across the nation. Every state has conducted studies, released reports and promised action, yet little headway has been made in reducing incidents to manageable levels.
In South Australia last year documents obtained under freedom of information revealed a frightening array of violent incidents, including patients assaulting nurses and doctors, carrying weapons and throwing human excrement at hospital staff.
The Australian Medical Association in Victoria reported that violence in the emergency departments is at an "unacceptable level" and still rising.
A NSW study showed 90 per cent of emergency department nurses had experienced physical intimidation in the workplace.
One of the nurses recounted working in a busy emergency room where doctors and nurses were desperately trying to resuscitate the father of three young children, who had been clinically dead for nearly 30 minutes.
As this life-or-death scenario unfolded, nearby a drug-affected woman, who had fallen and injured herself, screamed and abused hospital staff because they had not brought her a sandwich or a coffee, nor had they treated her quickly enough so she could return to a party. The language this woman used was offensive and threatening and could be heard throughout the emergency ward and in the waiting room, where a brawl had broken out in front of patients as drunks fought among themselves for no other reason than they were tired of waiting to be seen and treated.
Among those waiting were the wife and children of the young man desperately fighting for his life just a few corridors away. Elderly people were present, no doubt terrified at the violence and antisocial behaviour on display and bewildered at how a community has declined so badly in such a short time.
The nurses spoke of being regularly abused and assaulted, including one nurse being punched unconscious by a violent man because he didn't like her asking questions about his alcohol or drug consumption.
If these stories of unprovoked violence against people doing "God's work" were not enough, the tales of ineffectual and at times cowardly hospital management left me fuming.
Despite signs in hospital waiting rooms boldly claiming that there was a "zero tolerance" approach towards abusive behaviour within the emergency room environment, little is done to pursue violent and antisocial patients after they have been treated.
There seems to be a reluctance on the part of hospital administrators to acknowledge violent incidents in case it reflects badly on the hospital's all-important statistics, which may bring with it unwanted attention from health department bureaucrats who want only good news stories for their minister.
Anyone - administrator, politician or academic - who can suggest that violence in the emergency room is now part of the job description of a health professional should have their plush office relocated to the emergency room so that they can be part of the situation their inaction has helped create.
Recently, we have begun to publicise the domestic violence epidemic in this country, and rightly so. That campaign needs to be extended to the healthcare worker, the ambo, the nurse, the doctor or the ward clerk.
In the rarefied atmosphere of a courtroom, an aggressive stare at a judge or magistrate can get you sent straight to a cell for daring to show contempt of court. What makes a courtroom environment any more precious than an emergency ward that is treating the sick, the injured and the dying?
Health ministers should visit hospitals at midnight on weekends with their media entourage (good luck with that) so they can see at first hand what health professionals have to put up with.
In the meantime, something has to be done now. We no longer need workshops with their brain-storming ideas of security by design, negotiating skills or violence awareness courses. Those measures have had limited success and, in any event, who can negotiate with a drug offender off their face on ice or heroin?
We need a real zero tolerance approach to those who assault or abuse our health workers. Charge every one of them and start with weekend detention for a first offence.
If that doesn't wake the individual up, double the sentence for repeat offenders.
For those who want to keep making excuses for drunks, the drug-addled or the antisocial and find this a bit severe, just pretend the emergency room is a courthouse full of precious judges and magistrates who need protection, and remember the health professionals might one day be trying to save your life in the midst of mayhem and social disorder.
Tim Priest is a former detective sergeant in NSW
It's a disgrace!
IF you are tempted to see what it would be like to work in a war zone, try a visit to a public hospital emergency department on any Friday or Saturday night.
The visits are free - just present your Medicare card on arrival and sit back and watch drunken and/or drug-addled individuals brawling in the public waiting areas, with doctors and nurses being abused, assaulted, spat on and generally mistreated.
This occurs around patients who are dying or seriously unwell and frequently in full view of children, who are already terrified at being ill or in pain and experiencing the daunting hospital environment for the first time.
I recently listened to a number of nurses recounting the many violent episodes they have encountered working in the emergency departments of several large Sydney hospitals. Their recollections revealed how far society's standards have slipped. Hospital violence extends across the nation. Every state has conducted studies, released reports and promised action, yet little headway has been made in reducing incidents to manageable levels.
In South Australia last year documents obtained under freedom of information revealed a frightening array of violent incidents, including patients assaulting nurses and doctors, carrying weapons and throwing human excrement at hospital staff.
The Australian Medical Association in Victoria reported that violence in the emergency departments is at an "unacceptable level" and still rising.
A NSW study showed 90 per cent of emergency department nurses had experienced physical intimidation in the workplace.
One of the nurses recounted working in a busy emergency room where doctors and nurses were desperately trying to resuscitate the father of three young children, who had been clinically dead for nearly 30 minutes.
As this life-or-death scenario unfolded, nearby a drug-affected woman, who had fallen and injured herself, screamed and abused hospital staff because they had not brought her a sandwich or a coffee, nor had they treated her quickly enough so she could return to a party. The language this woman used was offensive and threatening and could be heard throughout the emergency ward and in the waiting room, where a brawl had broken out in front of patients as drunks fought among themselves for no other reason than they were tired of waiting to be seen and treated.
Among those waiting were the wife and children of the young man desperately fighting for his life just a few corridors away. Elderly people were present, no doubt terrified at the violence and antisocial behaviour on display and bewildered at how a community has declined so badly in such a short time.
The nurses spoke of being regularly abused and assaulted, including one nurse being punched unconscious by a violent man because he didn't like her asking questions about his alcohol or drug consumption.
If these stories of unprovoked violence against people doing "God's work" were not enough, the tales of ineffectual and at times cowardly hospital management left me fuming.
Despite signs in hospital waiting rooms boldly claiming that there was a "zero tolerance" approach towards abusive behaviour within the emergency room environment, little is done to pursue violent and antisocial patients after they have been treated.
There seems to be a reluctance on the part of hospital administrators to acknowledge violent incidents in case it reflects badly on the hospital's all-important statistics, which may bring with it unwanted attention from health department bureaucrats who want only good news stories for their minister.
Anyone - administrator, politician or academic - who can suggest that violence in the emergency room is now part of the job description of a health professional should have their plush office relocated to the emergency room so that they can be part of the situation their inaction has helped create.
Recently, we have begun to publicise the domestic violence epidemic in this country, and rightly so. That campaign needs to be extended to the healthcare worker, the ambo, the nurse, the doctor or the ward clerk.
In the rarefied atmosphere of a courtroom, an aggressive stare at a judge or magistrate can get you sent straight to a cell for daring to show contempt of court. What makes a courtroom environment any more precious than an emergency ward that is treating the sick, the injured and the dying?
Health ministers should visit hospitals at midnight on weekends with their media entourage (good luck with that) so they can see at first hand what health professionals have to put up with.
In the meantime, something has to be done now. We no longer need workshops with their brain-storming ideas of security by design, negotiating skills or violence awareness courses. Those measures have had limited success and, in any event, who can negotiate with a drug offender off their face on ice or heroin?
We need a real zero tolerance approach to those who assault or abuse our health workers. Charge every one of them and start with weekend detention for a first offence.
If that doesn't wake the individual up, double the sentence for repeat offenders.
For those who want to keep making excuses for drunks, the drug-addled or the antisocial and find this a bit severe, just pretend the emergency room is a courthouse full of precious judges and magistrates who need protection, and remember the health professionals might one day be trying to save your life in the midst of mayhem and social disorder.
Tim Priest is a former detective sergeant in NSW
It's a disgrace!