Workplace Violence

workplace violence is alive and well in the bush. i have been a victim and noone was prepared to do anything about it at the time. the union couldnt, the CEO couldnt, my peers couldnt. the perpetrator was a GP with VMO rights (the only one) to the local hospital, so I was considered expendable & he wasnt. I resigned eventually but couldnt leave the area because of my husbands work. as the manager at the time i lost my career path, my self esteem, my confidence and my job. I found another but it has taken years to get any of the confidence back that i lost at that time. i couldnt practice as a nurse for 5 years & feel that even now, this situation would still not be handled any differently by the area health service.... no support at all

Workplace violence - used to be zero tolerance ...now half tolerance to full tolerance at the moment where I am working. Why? Customer image or customer satisfaction. Well excuse me , patients are not customers - customers are always right - patients (especially delirious ones) surely cannot be right! Never mind that . I knew of 3 colleagues who had to be off work for being assaulted by patients , for at least 4 weeks . I had to do Hep C tests because a patient FLUNG his URINE on MY FACE and he was hep c positive . I have been physically assaulted so many times that I THINK I CAN QUALIFY AS A PROFESSIONAL PUNCHING BAG . One of my colleagues was punched by a patient's husband who was lucid and knew what he was doing . Why he punched her? She had told him she couldn't just lift his wife up as he DEMANDED and she needed to wait for another person to help with the hoist because it was against our no-life policy - bearing in mind that patient weighed at least 120kg. She wanted to make a police report - guess what ..hospital admin dissuaded her ...bad for our customer image etc. Then we started to do incident reports for every assault and abuse that takes place because we we fed up of the crap and lack of support from management - our NUM has tried so hard to help us out but without management support - WE CANNOT DO NOTHING . So incident reporting shot up sky high. Nursing Management came down on us - instead of looking at the situation - guess what they said in not so many words ...IT WAS OUR FAULT ...WE DID NOT KNOW HOW TO DEAL WITH PATIENTS THAT IS WHY WE GOT ABUSED ( to put it mildly ) . Wait....how about the medical staff? Well they don't want to give any form of restraint for the patient .....sorry nurses u have to work a lil harder ( navigating and deflecting punches and items thrown) . I actually refused to do a VIOLENT patient's obs because he was threatening to punch anyone in his way . The doctor insisted but refused to order the sedation or SHACKLES while the security guards were on their way . Guess what I had to do to prove a point - I gave her the obs machine and ask her to do it herself because according to OHS rules , I am to put myself away from harm's way . She was actually not the brightest spark in the sky because she actually went near the patient without the security guards and GOT PUNCHED. Suddenly our dear resistive doctor who said shackles were not her thing - ordered every possible chemical and physical restraint while she was whining to her registrar AFTER SHE WAS ASSAULTED. It pisses me off when I see medical staff not reading the 2 page report we have written to indicate a patient was violent. WHoa when I come back on shift ...behind that 2 page report - I see a small paragraph written by the medical team - Patient well. No confusion /aggression/ agitation pm. .....WHY DO I EVEN BOTHER WRITING TWO PAGES OF what went on during my shift to indicate that patient is VIOLENT and poses a threat to everyone ...and we had to call security 3 times that shift to hold him down before he actually injures someone . As far as I am concerned ....I am going to quit nursing. We have no support at all not from management , not from medical staff ( unless they get hit ) . I didn't come into this job to be abused by patients or their families - the injuries they caused are not even worth the money I earn

Hi GuysI am assuming the majority of those people who have posted are metro based nurses?? As a 2ndyear student I have completed all of my placements in regional/ rural SA. I am yet to encounter any violence towards staff from the public/ patients.There has been a bit of "cattiness" between staff but nothing major.The MAJOR issue I have experienced so far is pt's self harming. It has happened on all three placements.The last one (I have just completed) involved a female who 'aquired' a glass coffee jar out of the pt's kitchen broke in the tiolet (Which I heard) and inflicted superficial wounds on her upper arm for the purpose of "seeing blood".I have expereinced working with plenty of people with sucidal tendcies but seeing their attempt first hand is another thing all together. This same venue/ ward also had a pt hang themselves in the toilet last year and hence had massive pshyc style renevations undertaken. My question as a student is what do you with/ for the individual who is in the act of self harming?? There is plenty in our course for the lead up to the event but nothing for the student/ toilet/ pt with glass in her hand/ nursing staff down other end of ward (where the pt should have been herself!!) scenario??regardsMorgan

Fedup, the situation you describe was a common response at my last workplace, and your right there is little or no support for appropriate responses to this from upper management, especially in the obove NUM arena. Sometimes one has to demonstrate anger with ones feet. Regards

I see this was a topic started in 2006, but thought I'd continue it on. I could really relate to some of you, including the person who spoke about the doctor being hit...I've seen the same thing! Amazing how that changes things? I've found that zero tolerance is a joke, we are told the patients are sick so we have to tolerate it, but here, fill out these extra forms...it'll help us gain evidence. As if we don't have enough paperwork...

I have come across bullying in many forms throughout my career. There is the overt bully - the boss that yells at you and gives you tasks that are impossible to complete, the sniper who shoots you down in flames at every opportunity, but the most insidious form of bullying that I have ever encountered is "Mobbing". Mobbing is rife on hospital wards, especially in Public Hospitals.

‘Mobbing’ refers to covert collective behaviours of ‘ganging up; and targeting co-workers and managers as well as subordinates using passive aggressive behaviours with malicious intent to cause harm.

There are five phases of the ‘mobbing syndrome’ commencing with a ‘conflict’ (first phase), followed by ‘aggressive acts’ and ‘psychological assaults’ (second phase), after which management becomes involved to the detriment of the target (third phase), the target is “branded as difficult’ or ‘mentally ill’ (fourth phase), and the final and fifth phase is termed the ‘expulsion’ where the target is forced to leave their position .

In addition to gender, other personal characteristics such as race, culture, impairment, age, marital status, and sexual orientation, are high risk factors for becoming a target of ‘mobbing’ in work environments where there is a dominant group. Researchers on workplace diversity issues, suggest that there is a ‘human preference for the familiar’ reflected in expressions such as ‘like seeking like’ and ‘birds of a feather flock together’. They argue that the ‘dark’ side of diversity is that there is a ‘fundamental fear’ of the ‘difference of others’. Diversity, or difference, is not likely to be valued in workplace cultures where there is a sense of ‘You don’t look like me, you don’t dress like me and you don’t think like me; therefore I don’t want to know or understand you’.

Employees who are in the minority due to their inherent characteristics are especially vulnerable to bullying and mobbing behaviours as recognized in human rights and anti-discrimination legislation in many countries, including Australia. Those who are different to the dominant group including those with differing political, religious, and trade union beliefs, or those displaying behaviours that threaten the dominant work group, for example being ‘conscientious’ or ‘enthusiastic’, are also more likely to be targeted.

I was a victim of this "Mobbing Syndrome". Management decided to assess my abilities through a "Performance Management Review". My performance would be measured by my colleagues feedback. In other words my future/career was now dependent upon the feedback of my perpetrators. It was then that I realized that I would never be able to beat them, but I could outlast them, and I did.

Has anyone else come across this "Mobbing" behaviour? I would like to hear about it if you have.

I worked there for 7.4 years most of which I had nil problems the last 6 months I have been a target for a group of girls who have had other staff leave due to bullying and or intimidation
I have had some complaints leveled against and when I stated my case I was not believed and a note was put in my file, I was accused by these same staff of an incident with a resident which I was again not believed and was 'counselled' by management and again a note in my file. I went on leave in Oct and after I came back was again accused by the same girl of another offense against a resident who had just been admitted to the home and as a result was stood down and then sacked over it.
In all my 35 odd years of nursing I would never do anything to a resident or a patient and certainly held my professional status dearly I would not say I am a perfectionist but I like to do my work properly and help out other staff when I can
IThese allegations and subsequent dismissal have left me reeling and destroyed me both psychologically and financially
If not for the fact that my previous managers who do not work there any longer believed in me and gave me a good reference for other employment I do not think I would have coped at all
My new employers are really kind and supportive which have helped restore my faith in human nature a little as to my self esteem and confidence that will take a lot longer I think

I have a work cover claim going through the system but I don't hold out much hope of a good outcome mainly due to the management claiming they thought they were doing the right thing and they can claim they followed due process of the law no matter if you were guilty of the accused crime or not. the sad thing is the bullies get away with it because they can remain anonymous and protected by the same law that they can use to discredit someone unfairly.. totally sucks