Ontario nurses launch guidelines to tackle workplace violence

An Ontario nurses group has issued a series of recommendations aimed at reducing violence in the workplace.

The Registered Nurses' Association of Ontario says governments should enact and enforce legislation that promotes a violence-free workplace.

It says the legislation should include mandatory reporting and whistle-blower protection for those who report such incidents.

The association also says workplaces need a prevention policy and all organizations should make eliminating violence a strategic priority.

"We’re in a profession where there’s a greater risk of violence," said Margaret Keatings, co-chair of the panel that developed the guidelines, and chief nurse executive at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto.

"Having said that, when people say ‘it’s part of the job,’ that assumes it's OK and that it’s going to happen."  

Violence must not be tolerated and should be prevented from occurring, Keatings said.

She says nurses and all health professionals need to recognize risks early and know how to respond swiftly to prevent re-occurrences.

The issue of workplace violence involving nurses came to the forefront in 2005 when Windsor, Ont., nurse Lori Dupont was murdered while on duty by her former boyfriend, an anaesthesiologist at the same hospital.

In 2006, 28 per cent of Ontario nurses who responded to a Statistics Canada survey said that they had been physically assaulted by a patient in the previous 12 months, the association said.

The report was released two days ahead of Canada’s National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women.