A survey of nurses, midwives and carers found that 88 per cent had experienced one or more forms of occupational violence in the previous six months.
The 1,300 NSWNMA members who took part in the survey reported a range of incidents, from verbal abuse, shoving, kicking and choking to sexual assault and being threatened with a weapon.
The report, ‘Occupational Violence: has no place in my workplace’, showed a worrying increase in violence and aggression, up from 80 per cent of respondents reporting in 2019.
Public sector nurses and midwives reported the highest frequency of occupational violence, with 92 per cent subjected to incidents in the six months covered by the survey. Residential aged care workers, meanwhile, are more likely to experience physical violence compared with other types of violence.
Specialties with severe clinical workforce shortages, such as midwifery, experienced higher worker-on-worker violence.
Concerningly, occupational violence was significantly underreported at work, with only a quarter of respondents saying they report all incidents.
NSWNMA Assistant General Secretary Katrina Bough said that a lack of user-friendly reporting procedures and poor responses from management has led to a loss of confidence in the system.
“We know there are significant barriers to reporting incidents of violence and aggression, which results in many physical and verbal cases going undetected and unreported,” she said.
“Hate speech and sexual assaults were experienced at a higher rate by CALD members, yet members from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds were less likely to report violence in their workplace.”
“Less than two in 10 respondents who reported occupational violence believe any action was taken as a result of their report.”
NSWNMA General Secretary Michael Whaites said the findings reinforced what the union already knew was occurring in member workplaces.
“We know occupational violence has a significant impact on our members, with many reporting psychological harm and trauma as a result,” he said.
“This leads to higher rates of burnout and workers compensation claims among nurses and midwives.”
The survey identified adequate nursing and midwifery staffing, more secure physical environments and additional security staff as among the most effective violence prevention measures.
“We need to see governments and aged care providers bolster staffing to prevent violence and aggression from occurring in the first place,” he said.
The report makes more than 30 recommendations under key themes, including risk management, sufficient staffing, incident reporting, secure health facility design and management systems for patients with a propensity for violence.