A former affected person on the QEII Halifax Infirmary is talking out about security considerations, alleging she witnessed firsthand the sort of violence health-care staff expertise.
Mandie Pitre is sharing the story in mild of a Code Silver incident on Wednesday within the hospital’s emergency room, the place three staff had been stabbed.
“If nothing is done to make sure that there is better safety and security for staff and for patients in the hospital, it’s just going to keep happening,” she mentioned.
Pitre was hospitalized within the orthopaedic unit with a dislocated ankle in September 2024. She says she awoke in the course of the evening and heard one other affected person talking with the nursing staff on the opposite facet of her alcove.
Instantly, she remembers, the tone shifted.
“There’s no security on the floor right now, and it’s just these six female nurses, that are all not very big. So then, they’re starting to freak out, and you can hear in their voice something significant is happening and it’s not good,” she mentioned.
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Pitre says she later came upon the affected person had gotten into the nurses’ station and was threatening them with a pair of scissors. Employees referred to as police, who arrived on scene and tried to deescalate the state of affairs.
“They’re like, ‘You need to put down the scissors, you’re scaring the nurses and it’s making them not feel safe,’” she recalled.
“All of a sudden, just out of the blue, I hear this blood-curdling scream.”
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Pitre says she noticed the person run down the hallway previous her, and witnessed him hurting himself.
“And then he gets taken off the floor eventually and then it’s a whole crime scene in the hospital,” she mentioned.
A Halifax Regional Police spokesperson confirmed officers had been referred to as to the QEII on Sept. 11, 2024 for a weapons-related incident. Police mentioned workers in that state of affairs weren’t bodily injured.
After the newest assault, Pitre says she was disheartened to listen to nothing has modified.
2:06Calls for higher safety at Nova Scotia hospital after assault on 3 staff
Office violence is a serious concern for nurses — present and aspiring.
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Tiffany McEwen, the president of the Canadian Nursing College students Affiliation, says it will possibly hamper college students from getting into the sector.
“I thought to myself, ‘Is this really what I want to do? Do I want to go to work every day afraid that somebody might just lash out for no reason whatsoever, that I may end up off of work for six months a year, lose my income, be afraid, have post-traumatic stress from the incident?’” she mentioned.
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“Violence doesn’t stop as soon as the assault is over.”
In keeping with the Nova Scotia Nurses Union, violence could be prevented.
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Janet Hazleton, the union’s president, spoke up concerning the problem in the course of the Federal, Provincial and Territorial Ministers of Well being assembly, which occurred this week in Halifax.
“We’re saying that we need security in all our facilities 24/7,” mentioned Hazelton.
“We need security cameras. I think we need metal detectors. I spoke to the health ministers yesterday and the federal minister of health and I talked about this, and said it’s time.”
Karen Oldfield, CEO of Nova Scotia Well being, mentioned it’s doing what it will possibly to make the province’s ERs safer.
“I want them to know I’m doing everything in my power to ensure that they can feel safe in their workplace,” she mentioned in an interview Thursday.
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She confirmed that Nova Scotia Well being had bought 5 hand-held metal-detecting wands to allow workers to seek for hid weapons, and that coaching to discover ways to use them has begun.
As properly, she mentioned contract negotiations with the province’s nurses had led to an settlement to spend $7 million on new safety measures, resembling threat assessments and teaching programs. And he or she careworn that the well being authority and the nurses union had been deciding collectively on methods to make investments these funds.
In connection to Wednesday’s incident, 32-year-old Nicholas Robert Coulombe, of Halifax, is dealing with one rely of tried homicide, three counts of aggravated assault, three counts of assault with a weapon, and two counts of possession of a harmful weapon for the aim of committing against the law.
— With information from The Canadian Press
