PrintWorkplace safety a focus on the Day of Mourning
By Dewey Funk
UNA OH&S Advisor
Today is the International Day of Mourning, when we reflect on workers who have lost their lives and jobs due to injury and those who have been injured either physically or psychologically.
This year we are focusing on security services that the employer is required to provide.
UNA conducted a survey of members across the province and asked how they reported incidents of violence and if they had been trained how and where to report. With an 80 per cent response rate to the survey, it was clear that there is a lack of training on policies and procedures.
We asked questions about who members call when they need help and some sites have been told by the police that they are not a security service for Alberta Health Services. What are the response times? Some response times are over an hour.
What do you do when you are waiting for the police to arrive? Some members said they hide, pray, and cope as best they can while protecting other patients.
Here is what the Occupational Health and Safety Code says about violence in the workplace:
Part 27 Violence
Hazard Assessment
389 Workplace violence is considered a hazard for the purposes of Part 2.
Policy and procedures
390 An employer must develop a policy and procedures respecting potential workplace violence.
Instruction of workers
391 An employer must ensure that workers are instructed in (a) how to recognize workplace violence, (b) the policy, procedures and workplace arrangements that effectively minimize or eliminate workplace violence, (c) the appropriate response to workplace violence, including how to obtain assistance, and (d) procedures for reporting, investigating and documenting incidents of workplace violence.
Response to incidents
392 (1) Sections 18(3) to (6) and 19 of the Act apply to an incident of workplace violence.
392(2) An employer must ensure that a worker is advised to consult a health professional of the worker’s choice for treatment or referral if the worker (a) reports and injury or adverse symptom resulting from workplace violence, or (b) is exposed to workplace violence.
We need front line nurses who are subjected violence in the workplace to report these incidents. I understand that nurses are very busy in workplaces with increasing demands and filling out another form feels like the is the last thing you need to do. When you do not report incidents of violence, the employer can legitimately say they do not have a record of violence in the workplace. The employer then has the right to say if no employees are reporting that everyone must be satisfied with the status quo. A different term for employers having roadblocks to reporting is called gate keeping.
The employer is required by legislation to provide this education to nurses. We need you to start reporting these incidents of violence on health care workers to your Occupational Health and Safety Committees so that records of these incidents can be tracked and that action can be taken. For You.
Only when murses are provided a safe workplace can you as a nurse feel safe, thereby giving you the ability to advocate and provide safe patient care.
On this Day of Mourning, please take a minute and ask yourself, am I safe today?
As the Occupational Health and Safety Advisor for United Nurses of Alberta, I want you to work safe, play safe, and as I want to talk to you, not about you.
