Page 2847 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 17 September 2014
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What is more, the government’s own modern work health and safety regulations require that they fight this tendency and protect workers. What a conundrum the minister has! She has to protect the workers but she is also so stuck in her political ideology that she cannot see the new victims for the trees. It is tough being at the top. However, in the case of this facility it has meant that a new group of victims has emerged and it is just too much for the people to cope with, I think. It is possible to look after both workers and clients. That really has to be possible and the balance has to be fair, not weighted all one way or the other.
The story of this health minister is, “I am working on it, I am working on it.” While that seems a very reasonable response, it is not acceptable for nursing staff in this facility or across Health. It is not acceptable to just say, “It is a dangerous place.” How will this government and this minister resolve the danger that staff are in? It is all very well and good to get up in this place and claim to have the lowest seclusion rate in the country by far but, as to the nurses, it is a tough place to work. That would not be acceptable in any other workplace. If staff ratios have to rise, then it needs to be done. If wards people need to be rostered on during the day time as well as the night time, then it needs to be done. If patients need to be proactively assessed more times per day to assess their exact state of mind, then do it.
Are we ticking off best practice? Do the staff in the facility undertake critical incident stress debriefing to understand what has happened to them in these incidents, and are all the steps necessary for proper care of employees to re-enter the workforce after such incidents taken?
There is no such thing as a super nurse. Nurses are just people like you and me, and they can only take so much physical and mental strain. They are not soldiers or police. They are not trained for assault. Even those personnel have their limits. Is it because this is a predominantly female workforce that we are used to saying, “Dear, that’s tough but you choose to work in this facility so you have to cope”?
The minister needs to guarantee that safety in this facility will improve. So I call on the government to review security and nurse safety at the adult mental health unit and for the review to be tabled no later than November, to update the Assembly in March and August next year on progress in changing the situation, to introduce permanent measures to very significantly reduce the incidence of abuse and violence, to adopt a model of care which serves employee safety as well as patient care, neither being weighted more important than the other.
This minister is manifestly and evidently failing the nurses of the adult mental health facility. She has a duty to make the workplace safe within reason. With a rising number of assaults and a facility that appears to never have been safe for employees since it opened and is progressively worsening, the minister must effect a change and demonstrate that such a change has occurred.
It is not acceptable in a modern workforce to say that a workplace is dangerous and that is it, end of story. It must be made safe by whatever means necessary. For the sake of the nurses and their families, let us see a significant improvement to this facility immediately.
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