Nurse reports being assaulted at Royal Columbian hospital, sparking renewed calls for better security
B.C. Nurses' Union calls for security guards trained to deal with violence after nurse says she was attacked
A nurse who says she was assaulted while working at Royal Columbian Hospital in New Westminster on Halloween night is demanding better security for health-care workers.
CBC News has agreed to withhold the name of the nurse who says she fears the potential employment consequences of speaking out.
In the early morning hours of Nov. 1, the nurse says a man entered the emergency room waiting area at the hospital and demanded a place to sleep after verbally abusing staff at the registration desk.
The nurse says when she went out to question what he needed, he began hitting her several times with his backpack. The man then made his way into the emergency room and lay down on a stretcher.
The nurse says security guards were not in their booth since they have other responsibilities such as patrolling the building but help eventually arrived.
CBC News has contacted Paladin Security, which provides security for the hospital, for a comment on the incident.
New Westminster police confirmed officers arrested a man after being called to the hospital for what appeared to be an unprovoked assault.
A statement said the man was not a patient and added officers will be recommending charges in connection with the attack.
Fraser Health said that even with "safeguards in place, recognizing violent behaviour can be difficult" and that the health authority had debriefed on this incident to seek lessons learned.
The health authority said the matter is being investigated internally and will be reviewed to ensure an appropriate level of security and other measures are in place for staff and patients.
Union calling for improved security
The vice president of the B.C. Nurses Union says she was "deeply troubled" by the attack.
"We are doing everything we can to support that nurse and their colleagues," Danette Thomsen told CBC in an interview.
The union has been advocating for increased hospital security for the better part of a decade, she says.
Representatives have been calling on health authorities since 2014 to provide better training, appropriate staffing, immediate reporting and investigations and proper support for nurses who have been attacked.
Thomsen said violence against health-care workers still needs to be addressed at health-care facilities across the province.
"We need security officers that are actually trained in protective services," Thomsen said in an interview with CBC. "Many security officers are not."
There is no universal requirement for security services in B.C. hospitals, and many sites throughout the province do not have any contracted security services, according to the union.
Thomsen says the guards on site at Royal Columbian Hospital on Halloween night did not have protective services training.
She says steps taken by Island Health and the Provincial Health Services Authority (PHSA) to improve security should be expanded.
Island Health has hired protective security officers to work at hospitals in Victoria, Nanaimo, Comox and Campbell River. They're trained to help violent patients with de-escalation tactics and, if necessary, takedowns.
PHSA has similarly trained forensic security officers at the Forensic Psychiatric Hospital in Coquitlam.
Data from WorkSafeBC shows the number of violent incidents in the health-care and social services sector that forced injured employees to miss work actually went down slightly from 2019 to 2020.
There were more than 1,600 incidents last year across the sector, which includes registered nurses, licensed practical nurses and nurse aides.
Improved security a high priority: health minister
On Tuesday, Health Minister Adrian Dix, acknowledging the effects on morale and personal security, said this case and others over recent months show a need to improve worker safety and it is a high priority.
He says work on the safety issue has been ongoing with the B.C. Nurses' Union, Hospital Employees Union, the Health Sciences Association, and doctors in the province.
"We're with them and we're going to continue to work to improve — improve security, which may involve, in different places, different actions, because there are different requirements in different places. But it's our strong intention to do that."
Dix did not specify what actions are being taken and how long it will take to have improved security measures in place.