Kicked, pushed, beaten, bitten, choked, stabbed. Not the words you associate with health-care workers unless you’re thinking about the injuries suffered by patients who seek their care.

Yet those are exactly the words to describe what happens daily for thousands of nurses and health-care professionals in Ontario – and across the country.

Workplace violence for our front-line first responders is on the increase. That is not news.

What is news is that the predominantly female profession of nursing is no longer prepared to tolerate being assaulted at work and then blamed for it by their employers.

Nurses and health-care professionals have been treated differently from other first responders when they have been assaulted at work. A rare and recent news story about repeated attacks on nurses in Peterborough illustrates this. In this case, a court found a man who had repeatedly assaulted nurses at the local hospital unfit to stand trial.

I was struck by this case not because of the ruling, but because charges actually had been laid against the man. In the vast majority of workplace assaults on nurses, no criminal charges are laid.

In this case, multiple nurses at Peterborough Regional Health Centre (PRCH) had been assaulted over a two-year period. In one incident, a nurse was repeatedly punched in the face and head by the patient and “was triaged by the emergency department after she finished working her night shift.”

Contrast that with what happens when other – often male-dominated – first responders are assaulted. Rather than being asked what they should have done differently to avoid the assault, as nurses are, and made to finish a shift before having their injuries assessed, other first responders are immediately relieved of duty and provided with support.

Our health-care employers point to their written policies stating they have zero tolerance for violence as somehow being protective of nurses. Yet, as a long-time emergency department nurse, I know that a written statement hanging on the wall does nothing to protect us.

I have been assaulted at work more times than I can count, had my bones broken, been kicked, punched and more. No amount of ongoing education and training for staff would have prevented any of the violence. Nurses are so used to being blamed for the violence they face that most assaults are never even reported. And when they are, charges are rarely laid.

With inaction from government and employers to stem the rising tide of workplace violence – namely, the need to implement safe staffing ratios – we are putting them both on notice that nurses and health-care professionals no longer accept being assaulted or facing other forms of violence at work.

Violence is a staff retention issue. Without safe levels of staffing, we will continue to see many new nurses leave the profession, fleeing violence, burnout and heavy workloads that make it impossible to provide the level of care our patients deserve.

The most recent data on retention shows that for every two nurses who join the profession, one leaves. This is turnover we cannot afford if we want to maintain access to health care and retain skilled professionals.

The Ontario Nurses’ Association (ONA), the union I am proud to lead, has launched an advertising campaign to raise awareness about this pervasive issue and to advocate to stop workplace violence once and for all. The campaign, called “Code Black and Blue,” features front-line nurses and health-care professionals talking directly to Ontarians about their working conditions, the courage it takes to show up for a shift with the real likelihood of being assaulted, and the need for action.

Our campaign is a call to action for Ontarians. If we want to maintain and improve access to health care, we need awareness and public support. We need Ontarians to join our campaign and speak out to call for safe staffing and healthy workplaces for nurses and patients alike.

If employers and governments do not listen to their nurses, perhaps they will listen to citizens.

No one should be hurt at work, least of all those who care for others. It’s time to protect nurses and make safe staffing a priority.

---

Erin Ariss is a registered nurse and Provincial President of the Ontario Nurses’ Association (ONA). This article originally appeared on HealthyDebate.