With violence in health care rising, B.C. announces new protection service staff for high-risk facilities

The province has announced it will train 320 in-house protection service officers and 14 violence prevention leads to address increasing levels of workplace violence faced by health-care workers. 

Health Minister Adrian Dix said the move, in which the new staff will be deployed to 26 hospital and mental health facilities across B.C., is an effort to improve the recruitment and retention crisis in the health care sector and will result in better patient care.

"Making our health-care facilities free of violence will ensure all health-care employees have safe and healthy workplaces and that the patients that count on them are accessing care in a safe environment," he said. 

In roughly the past year there were 4,438 reported incidents of violence in the B.C. health-care sector, with 721 time-loss claims and WorkSafeBC compensation payouts of approximately $7 million, Dix said.

The B.C. Nurses Union (BCNU) said workplace violence experienced by its members is exacerbated by understaffing and is greatly under-reported and understudied.

"Our members get punched, kicked, grabbed, spat on, as well as being verbally and sexually harassed," said BCNU president Aman Grewal.

"Desperately short-staffed facilities are often leading to understandable frustration and fear among patients and their loved ones, something we are seeing at rising levels across the system."

Grewal said the BCNU has been advocating for years for additional staff to protect nurses.

Dix said the new workers will be prioritized to emergency departments and mental health units and will be trained in a "relational security model" with an emphasis on anticipation, de-escalation and violence prevention.

"All protection services personnel will be trained in workplace violence prevention, mental health and advanced customer service. They will also receive trauma-informed practice training that will help them interact with patients, families, clients and colleagues safely and knowledgeably." he said.

The new staff will function separately from existing security personnel, according to Dix, and will be visible within facilities and recognizable by uniform.

Additionally, the government announced funding of $2 million to SWITCH B.C. for its provincial violence prevention curriculum. SWITCH B.C. is a workplace safety organization established in 2019.