Hospital assault highlights security need

An assault on a nurse at a Charlottetown hospital earlier this year has highlighted the need for better security at P.E.I. hospitals, a nurses union president said.

Joseph Feehan, 53, was sentenced in provincial court earlier this week to six months in jail for assaulting a nurse in the emergency room at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital on Feb. 25.

Crown prosecutor John McMillan said Feehan was drunk and faking an epileptic fit when he arrived at the emergency room. When nurses tried to take his vital signs, he hit one nurse in the face with the back of his hand.

The incident has raised questions about security in the Island's emergency departments, P.E.I. Nurses Union president Barbara Brookins said. There is no security guard at the QEH, only commissionaires.

"To have someone that's trained and on-site, I believe, is definitely a step forward in the safety of our membership," Brookins told CBC News this week.

Hospital administration and the Canadian Corps of Commissionaires both say the current security staff has some training in physical restraint, but Brookins said some other P.E.I. hospitals have security guards who have more training.

"We need to know why some facilities have security and yet our largest acute care facility does not have security."

A growing problem

Brookins, who spent 15 years as an emergency room nurse at the Prince County Hospital in Summerside, said it can be a scary job. People coming in, perhaps with a mental illness or under the influence of drugs, can behave in unpredictable ways.

Health Minister Doug Currie said the problem does appear to be getting worse.

"We've certainly got more complaints forwarded to us," Currie said.

The government has budgeted for a major redesign of the QEH emergency department, and Currie hopes that will help. That will begin in June. Currie also said the government might look at changing the type of security staff at the hospital.