Question:
OT: Nurses report high levels of abuse, stress ?
Answer:
Almost a third of nurses are physically assaulted by patients over the
course of a year, according to a Statistics Canada survey that found nurses
face high levels of abuse, overwork and stress.
The survey, which questioned nearly 19,000 Canadian nurses from October 2005
to January 2006, found the working conditions take a toll on nurses' health.
The survey found:
a.. 29 per cent of nurses providing direct care said they had been
physically attacked by a patient in the previous year.
b.. More than 40 per cent had been emotionally abused by a patient.
c.. 48 per cent reported injury from a contaminated needle or a sharp
object over the course of their careers. About 11 per cent had this type of
injury in the previous year.
d.. 46 per cent were expected to work overtime. Half were not paid for
their overtime hours, an average of four hours a week. Thirty per cent were
paid and did five hours a week.
e.. 40 per cent of nurses don't have full-time jobs. As a result, 19 per
cent work more than one job.
f.. 51 per cent of male nurses (45 per cent of female nurses) don't feel
supported by their co-workers. But 90 per cent report good working
relationships with doctors.
g.. Nursing is more physically demanding than the average job in Canada.
Gail Beatty, a spokeswoman for the Toronto-based Registered Nurses
Association of Ontario, said she has faced abuse personally.
ain't it the truth, ain't it the truth...as the lion in Wizard of
Oz would say!!!
I was in training to be a nurse (LPN) when I had to drop out toward the
end cuz I couldn't walk on concrete floors anymore. This was due to my
last job, which is why I went into nursing ...I was an aide for the
State Mental Institution in Bolder, Montana when I was attacked to the
point a pt. crushed the ball of my foot...required 2surgeries, sped up
my ddd(degenerative disc disease) & then, onto CMP/FMS. We were
trained w/the same tests they gave nurses (cuz we had to administer
drugs) so I figured why not?!! Little did I know that because we were
short-handed as usual at the instit. I would get attacked & not have
help. Same guy crushed a woman's hands & broke anothers' back in
7places so I guess I was lucky:-} They put me to work w/the worst of
the worst in the instit. because I had so much experience & was doing
music therapy ...wrote programs for some.
ack. talk about PTSD, (((Rene')))!!! I still can't be around dd's
(develop. disabled) even if they are supposed to be gentle! I get ill
& have bigtime panic attax.
the other thing that no one has mentioned is the
horizontal violence that nurses impose on their co-workers.
Administrators like to pretend that in 'their' hospital there is none
of the nasty back biting and sabotage that all nurses experience
especially when they are entering profession. It's more damaging in
many cases than the physical violence that we have all experienced and
witnessed. Another darned good reason to work nights. There are
rarely chiefs at night everyone really does pull as a team, because
it's a given that you have to depend on each other. I have to say that
nursing has provided me with the most interesting career I could have
wished for, I have worked in patient, out patient, jails, locked units,
methadone clinics, addictions units and crisis teams. I have to say
that crisis intervention is the best of all worlds, I always felt going
in that I would have the opportunity to really change someones life.
It didn't always happen, but it did often enough that I looked forward
to each nights shift. But the things that you have both mentioned make
it a younger persons career and that's a shame, all that experience
leaving nursing, because it's just too damned hard to continue
