Occupational violence

[watt price tully]

Big topic I know but this really shits me off big time:

In my many years (nearly 20) in acute mental health working in an ED, people get assaulted: punched, spat at, argued with, pushed, being yelled at in confronting ways to all manner of people:

To ED clerks
To ambulance people on the road
To Police
To Nurses and,
To Doctors amongst others

It's not only "patents" but also includes friends and relatives

"Mill Park man charged over one-punch assault on surgeon at Box Hill Hospital"

http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/mill- ... whqp5.html

He asked the people smoking right outside the entrance to stop smoking then was king hit by the hero - hope he languishes in jail for a long time.

I've done the same on repeated occasions & I lost it on one or two occasions when others think it's OK to friggin' spit, that's right spit a gob full of phlegm right at the entrance on a friggin' Emergency department of a hospital.

I lost my cool with one particular older male. It's friggin' men who spit most of the time too. Smokers are both sexes but mostly men but spitters are definitely men.

I've had a cup of hot tea thrown at me
I've been yelled at
I've ben spat at
I've been bitten & scratched

all before I get out of the house

I use security a lot in circumstances I deem to be unsafe. Enough is enough and health workers need to be better protected.

Nail em up I say. Heavy punishment needs to meted out to these low life perpetrators: whether friends, relatives or "patients" themselves.

[HAL]

I am sorry to hear it. A lot of people are unemployed now.

[stui magpie]

The stuff at Box Hill happened no where near the ED, it was at the main entrance. You'd have to be blind not to see the no smoking signs there and it's only a very short stroll to the footpath, probably 20m.

There's going to be a big ad campaign launching very soon about occupational violence in the health care sector. Apparently quite graphic. It's been in the making for a little while now, I was given the heads up from some people at Worksafe about a month ago.

There's definitely a correlation between Ice use and occupational violence. Drug $@&^# cock stains think they're Conor McGregor. I'd like to introduce that particular *&%%^&(*^$ to a baseball bat and see how much he appreciates health care workers when he can't feed himself or wipe his own arse for a few months.

[Skids]

In my time doing plumbing maintenance for the State Housing Commission in WA (During the 1990's... there was no meth) I was threatened many times with physical violence and so were most of my employees.

I had a screwdriver pulled on me, was pushed, spat on and verbally abused on a weekly basis. And I was there to fix their plumbing!

What I did was, shaved my head, took boxing lessons and never took a backward step. Worked wonders

[Tannin]

I was pushed, spat on and verbally abused on a weekly basis.

This is why you feel right at home here on Nick's then.

[Pies4shaw]

In my time doing plumbing maintenance for the State Housing Commission in WA (During the 1990's... there was no meth) I was threatened many times with physical violence and so were most of my employees.

I had a screwdriver pulled on me, was pushed, spat on and verbally abused on a weekly basis. And I was there to fix their plumbing!

What I did was, shaved my head, took boxing lessons and never took a backward step. Worked wonders

Back in the day, we didn't have to join the workforce for such experiences - it was possible to achieve all of that hostile response by standing under the scoreboard at Windy Hill and abusing Timmy during lulls in the game. I miss those days.

[stui magpie]

Yuk it up guys.

The people who work in the ED's cop it nightly, the people in the psych inpatient units have to cope with some of the worst behaviour while being limited by legislation and multiple other things.

If a health care worker whacks a patient, that's basically game over on their career regardless of provocation. While there's plenty of confused people who have diminished responsibility, there's also a lot more who have full responsibility and zero care factor in lashing out.

I haven't been on the frontlines like WPT but i've read enough clinical incident reports over the past few months where staff trying to restrain violent patients without causing harm to them have been injured to know it's time for the pendulum to swing back a bit.

Turning the occasional violent cock stain into pizza topping might help others think twice.

[swoop42]

I was pushed, spat on and verbally abused on a weekly basis.

This is why you feel right at home here on Nick's then.

It's what I call foreplay.

[David]

It's certainly an important topic to raise, and this kind of violence is something no healthcare worker should be subjected to, but I disagree with the call for harsher punishments. What would it achieve? These are generally people who are, by definition, not all there (whether as a result of current intoxication, past drug abuse or other mental health issues), so the deterrent value of harsher penalties is zero. Some guy off his head on meth is not going to be weighing up the outcome of his next court date while he's going psycho and trying to assault anyone in his path. And the rehabilitation will generally come from getting them off meth, not a longer stint in prison.

What's the conclusion? Better protection for healthcare workers on the frontline, more security, perhaps more power for healthcare workers to intervene with restraints and sedatives.

If we had an epidemic of zookeepers being attacked by tigers, the correct response wouldn't be "#%$&ing tigers", it'd be "how can procedures be improved?" Perhaps that takes agency away from assailants, but I dare say many of them don't have much of it.

[Tannin]

I disagree with the call for harsher punishments. What would it achieve?

It would lock the bastards up. There is a pretty fair achievement right there.

[HAL]

"It" refers to [quoteDavid]he or she disagree with the call for harsher punishments, I think.

[Mugwump]

This is the cost of a broken society. It was not like this once, and if it is now, it must be because of choices we have made. If we are not prepared to try and fix the society, however, then all we can do is administer exemplary punishment - which is part of the fix, but only a part. David thinks hugging them tighter will solve it. I think that's a large part of what caused it.

[David]

Opposing unnnecessary punishment isn't the same thing as coddling them, Mugwump.

[stui magpie]

This assault at Box Hill isn't your standard assault on a clinician trying to do their job.

The alleged assailant was a visitor who took exception to being asked not to smoke in front of the main entrance

The victim was someone walking through. happened to be a surgeon, could have been another visitor just as easily.

The alleged assailant is pleading drug and mental health issues. It's a 1 punch cowards king hit and he should have the book thrown at him.

I'm still in favour of breaking both his arms and legs, each in 2 places, and his jaw. patch him up with no pain meds and let him be totally reliant on the good nature of clinical staff to be fed and cleaned for a while and see if the penny drops.

[watt price tully]

This assault at Box Hill isn't your standard assault on a clinician trying to do their job.

The alleged assailant was a visitor who took exception to being asked not to smoke in front of the main entrance

The victim was someone walking through. happened to be a surgeon, could have been another visitor just as easily.

The alleged assailant is pleading drug and mental health issues. It's a 1 punch cowards king hit and he should have the book thrown at him.

I'm still in favour of breaking both his arms and legs, each in 2 places, and his jaw. patch him up with no pain meds and let him be totally reliant on the good nature of clinical staff to be fed and cleaned for a while and see if the penny drops.

I think cut his balls off. Drug & mental health issues doesn't explain violence or minimize his culpability. I say cut his balls off then have a trial