June 2004

Call to action on nurse abuse

The Government is tackling workplace violence in nursing with the establishment of the Victorian Taskforce On Violence in Nursing.

‘The Taskforce will identify strategies to reduce the level of violence experienced by our important front-line health care staff, said Health Minister Bronwyn Pike.

‘It takes up recommendations made by the Nurse Recruitment and Retention Committee, which identified the rising incidence of violence in nursing.

‘A broad range of public and private sector health care organisations and hospital representatives, health unions, WorkSafe and the Police have nominated members for the 22-member Taskforce.

‘The work of the Taskforce will be supported by research currently being conducted by Melbourne University and funded by the Department of Human Services.

‘The study aims to define best practice in the training, management and debriefing involved in internal security alerts that threaten the personal safety of nurses.

‘The research, which will be finalised soon, is being carried out in conjunction with the Royal Melbourne, the Alfred, St Vincent’s and Ballarat hospitals.

‘The project is looking at the number of code black—an armed threat against a nurse—and code grey—unarmed threats to the safety of staff or other patients—incidents in the selected hospitals.

‘Through the Department of Human Services, the Taskforce is also conducting a survey of public health facilities to identify the methods in place for the prevention and management of occupational violence and bullying.

‘This information will be an important resource for the Taskforce in formulating action which can reduce violence and aggression in nursing.

‘It is essential to develop a uniform approach across the health sector to address the incidence of workplace violence,’ Ms Pike said.