Nurses push an anti-violence message in the remote town of Nyngan.
There was a time when nurses in country towns weren’t too worried about violence in the workplace. Nurses at small rural facilities often knew many of the locals on a first name basis.
Nyngan, with about 2000 permanent residents served by a multi-purpose health service (MPS), is one such town.
Almost 600km northwest of Sydney, Nyngan MPS has an emergency department, six acute beds and about 30 residential aged care beds including a lock-up dementia unit.
Like health services everywhere, it has not escaped increasing violence in emergency departments, which is often related to drug and alcohol use.
An increase in aggressive incidents over the last eight months has prompted the NSWNMA Nyngan branch to take a public stand against violence.
The branch has begun a campaign to educate the community that violent behaviour is ‘not okay’.
“Years ago, you knew everybody in town, drugs and alcohol problems weren’t big problems, people were a bit more predictable,” says Nyngan MPS Branch Secretary, Paulette Meldrum.
“Now there is a bigger proportion of transient people around and we don’t know their backgrounds. Use of ice and other drugs seems to be out of control.”
Numerous aggressive incidents
One serious Saturday night incident saw people smash their way into the ED through an 8mm glass window. In other incidents nurses and doctors have been verbally abused and physically threatened and intimidated.
“When there are only three of you on duty to care for 36 patients you can’t always get to the front door immediately,” Paulette said.
“We are also hampered as the police are not on duty 24/7, which leaves us feeling quite alone at times.
“In the weeks after someone smashed through the ED window I really didn’t want to come and do an afternoon shift. Every time the ED doorbell rang I felt agitated about responding to the door.”
The nurses organised a NSWNMA branch meeting and staff from the union’s head office in Sydney, including assistant general secretary Judith Kiejda, went to Nyngan to help find solutions.
“We decided to launch a community campaign to spread the message that aggressive behaviour will not be tolerated,” Paulette said.
“We need to let people know we’re not going to put up with it. Not only at the hospital – it’s not acceptable anywhere.
“We didn’t want to make it just about us nurses so we decided to bring together all affected services at a public gathering in a park on the main street, which got good media coverage.
“We got support from the police, fire brigade and our local council, which helped to organise support from local businesses.
“The union took the initiative from the get go. They have been out to see us several times and they are always available to talk to us.
“A senior manager from the Local Health District attended a union branch meeting to reassure us of their support and discuss our needs. They have been very supportive in their meetings with the union.”
Some safety measures introduced
The LHD agreed to several safety improvements.
The door has been reinforced with thicker glass, the voice intercom has been replaced with a video intercom so nurses can see who is out front, and new duress alarms have been ordered.
The mayor of Bogan Shire, Ray Donald, told ABC radio the nurses have council’s full support. He says council is worried that safety concerns will make it even harder to attract people to take up emergency services jobs in the district.
A council meeting resolved to contact the CEO of the Western NSW Local Health District, Minister for Health Brad Hazzard and local member for Barwon Kevin Humphries on the issue of nurses’ security.
The resolution said the council “wholeheartedly supports our local nursing staff in the vital services they provide to our community and strongly condemns the alleged threats of violence to them and their families.”