Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Jaime Aragon is a retired community health nurse who was nearly killed in 2008 when a patient
stabbed him multiple times. Image via: pef.org
When a nurse is injured in an assault, the incident should be managed as for any other
work-related injury as required under laws dealing with health and safety in the workplace. It
should be reported and investigated, and the nurse must be provided with the necessary
treatment, including trauma counseling if required.
Ask your supervisor to arrange for medical attention according to institutional policy for
injuries on duty. Also, ask for trauma counseling to prevent Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
There are several reports of nurses suffering post-traumatic stress syndrome after an attack
and being unable to return to work. One nurse with over 30 years of experience in ER had
suffered many attacks, but after having been strangled with her stethoscope, she felt that to
keep herself safe, her only choice was to end her career. She stated that there had been no
support from co-workers and management. The incident was taken lightly, and no one cared
when she resigned.
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Keep personal copies of all your reports, photographs of your injuries, as well as a diary of
all related events (who, what, when, where, how) before, during and after the incident.
Return to work only once you feel safe and confident.
Nurses within an organization can advocate for improved policy. This policy would include
preventive measures such as reporting of incidents and follow-up investigation which could
point to possible causes (e.g. understaffing) and ways in which similar incidents can be
avoided. Other techniques include training of staff in techniques for de-escalation of
violence; as well as flagging of patient records where there is a potential for or a history of
violence. The policy should further highlight how incidents of violence should be managed,
including the support which must be given to the staff member involved. Human resources
departments should be responsible for ensuring that the policies as carried out.
Assistance in dealing with the employer can be obtained from the Nurses Union or
Association and the ideal timing for advocacy would be when a recent incident is still
grabbing attention.
Because of the wide-spread concern about increasing violence against nurses, nursing
organizations across the world are seeing this as a priority issue and lobbying for stricter
laws and penalties for incidents where nurses are assaulted. Every nurse should support
this actionwithin their own area of influence.