Nurse suffers violent attack by mentally ill patient

A young nurse suffered a violent attack at the Hillside Centre (Royal Inland Hospital) in Kamloops December 13. She was punched in the face, knocked to the ground and pinned down by a mentally ill patient with an extensive history of violent attacks. It took eight staff members to get him off of her. While being taken to jail in handcuffs, the patient assaulted an RCMP officer.

The nurse was alone on the ward at the time of the attack. Earlier requests for more staff were denied by management. The baseline is 3 for staffing on the unit.

"This attack might never have happened had safe staffing levels been in place," says BCNU Executive Councillor Marg Dhillon. "This nurse is a new grad in her 20's and she was knowingly put at risk by the Hillside Centre, which has ignored our calls for safe staffing levels."

The BCNU has repeatedly raised safety concerns with Hillside. The facility has been systematically under-staffed and the union has met with the employer on more than one occasion to emphasize contract language on safe staffing.

The Hillside Centre is a 44 bed psychiatric facility which provides services for patients with severely dysfunctional behaviours. This year alone, there have been 64 reported incidents of physical violence. During Saturday's assault, two other patients began fighting in another unit. Once the nurse was rescued, staff rushed to contain the second altercation.

The patient who attacked the nurse was transferred from a forensic facility less than two weeks ago. While at forensics, he was required to have four staff members on duty, at least three of them male. After his arrest, the patient's behavior was so difficult, staff from the jail requested he be sent back to Hillside. The next day he was returned, once additional staffing was secured.

BCNU's Thompson North Okanagan Chair, Tracy Quewezance is demanding Interior Health and the Hillside Centre provide safe staffing levels - not just minimums - at all times. "Nurses are working short, caring for patients that even the jail can't handle. A young nurse has been severely traumatized. She'll never go back there. It could have been a lot worse."

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