Source: Radio New Zealand
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A survey of emergency department nurses shows a majority were subjected to abuse over the festive season.
The New Zealand Nurses Organisation survey of showed 84 percent of those who worked over the Christmas/New Year reported dealing with unacceptable behaviour.
The union said more than half felt the emergency department was understaffed at the time, and safe staffing levels and more security was wanted.
According to the survey:
The union’s college of emergency nurses spokesperson Natasha Hemopo said a “chronic shortage” of health workers had contributed to increased wait times in emergency departments, which was causing frustration for patients and whānau, and compromising the quality of patient care.
Hemopo said she was not surprised by the survey’s results, which in itself was disappointing.
“Nurses constantly raise concerns about the link between patients’ frustrations which lead to abusive behaviour and short staffing in EDs. This survey further highlights the correlation between under-staffing and unsafe staffing,” she said.
“When your system’s under-funded, under-resourced, then one of the trade-offs I guess is you’re going to see a high increase in violence towards our staff.”
Overall, 58 percent of respondents said they ‘usually’ felt safe generally, while 33 percent said ‘sometimes’.
The holiday period was different, Hemopo said, as patients were often coming in from outside their own region or unable to see their GP.
Of those who were assaulted over the survey period, 55 percent said they reported it.
“Concerningly, the main reasons for not reporting incidents were lack of confidence in the system or lack of time,” Hemopo said.
She said the expectation was to report an incident verbally to a senior or duty manager, and then log in through an incident reporting system.
“Honestly, I’ve done it, and sometimes they can take you up to an hour. And when you’ve done a long, busy shift, sometimes up to 12 hours, the last thing you want to do is stay in your own time and fill out a reporting system.
“Sometimes when nurses do it, they don’t necessarily get the feedback that is helpful or the feedback that helps that situation. So our nursing staff just become despondent about doing these reporting forms.”
The survey showed 55 percent also felt the emergency department was under-staffed at the time of the incident.
“Patients need nurses to have safe staffing levels, not the government’s artificial target of having 95 percent of patients admitted, discharged or transferred from an ED within six hours,” Hemopo said.
“The ED target doesn’t change the reality of under-resourced EDs for patients or for nurses.”
The NZNO also wanted 24/7 specially trained security in all EDs, to protect patients and allow staff to do their jobs safely.
Health minister Simeon Brown said the government had committed $31 million in Budget 2024 towards strengthening hospital security, including increasing security in the country’s eight busiest EDs, boosting security surge capacity for all EDs, and providing additional training for Health New Zealand’s security team of more than a thousand staff.
“Our nurses, doctors, and other healthcare professionals work tirelessly to care for patients in emergency departments and hospitals every day. They deserve to come to work feeling safe and to be treated with respect,” Brown said.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
