Violence and aggression towards staff working in hospital emergency departments is widespread across New Zealand and it isn’t getting any better.
That’s the assessment of Dr John Bonning, an emergency physician with more than 15 years’ experience and president of the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine.
His comments come following the publication of an audit into the levels of aggression in Christchurch’s emergency departments.
The report, which has been published in the New Zealand Medical Journal, looks at the period between 2014 and 2020 during its annual ‘May – it’s not OK’ campaign.
The most commonly reported event was verbal abuse. This, combined with verbal threats represented an average of 69% of all reports.
Meanwhile, incidents involving physical threat or assault accounted for about 20% of all reports.
Patients were found to be the aggressor in the majority of reported cases, with mental illness and intoxication found to be the most common associated factors.
Those in their 20s have continuously been the most common instigators of violence and men were found to more often be the aggressor than women.
The result of exposure to occupational violence, the report finds, has the potential to initiate, contribute to or exacerbate conditions like excessive drinking, depression and burnout.
Dr John Bonning says the country needs to do better to call out violence and aggression towards healthcare workers. (Source: Breakfast)
Bonning says he suspects the problem could be even worse, with the time and hassle of lodging a complaint likely meaning there has been under-reporting.
He believes all people working in emergency departments will have experienced some form of abuse and wants the public to be more aware of this so they can help prevent and call out bad behaviour.
“It’s pretty ubiquitous across the country,” he told Breakfast when asked how widespread the problem is.
“It’s not getting any better.”
Bonning says just this week he witnessed someone who was threatening and racially abusive to a nurse.
“It was really disturbing. I saw that nurse feel really quite hurt by the words that were used when she was trying to do her job.
“There’s no excuse for it and we really need, as a population, to try and do better.”
Bonning says longer wait times are contributing to the stress people are under and the entire system underpinning New Zealand’s hospital operations needs looking at.
“We need more resource. We need more staffed inpatient ward beds and we need more nurses.”
Overall, he says the combination of stresses and shortages off the back of a global pandemic are contributing to a “malaise” in the healthcare profession.
“Times are really tough. Staffing levels are low, there’s been mass resignations.
“We’re certainly concerned.”
However, Bonning says the vast majority of interactions that healthcare workers have are positive and that overall, New Zealand has a great healthcare service.
“It’s not all doom and gloom.”
SHARE ME