Pembroke, Ont. nurse attacked by patient, raising safety concerns in ER

Staff at the Pembroke Regional Hospital are raising concerns about safety after a nurse was assaulted. CTV’s Dylan Dyson reports.

An emergency department nurse at the Pembroke Regional Hospital was attacked by a patient, CTV News has learned, raising safety concerns at the hospital.

The nurse was violently attacked on the evening of June 20.

“One of our members and a registered nurse at Pembroke, was assaulted at the nurse’s station and lost consciousness,” says Erin Ariss, the provincial president with the Ontario Nurses’ Association.

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The organization says they have filed a complaint with the Ministry of Labour.

“This nurse has pressed charges with the support of the hospital, with respect to this assault, and I fully support that as well.”

In a statement to CTV News Ottawa, the Pembroke Regional Hospital said, “We want to express how sorry we are that this event took place. From the outset, our thoughts were with our injured staff member as well as all staff and physicians who were both affected and impacted by this event… For everyone involved, our hospital has made available a variety of additional support mechanisms.”

A source employed at the hospital says the attack is raising safety concerns for staff at the hospital.

The source says they have sat in meetings with hospital management where multiple safety concerns have been raised, including the need for locks on the door of the mental health room in the emergency department, key fob access to the emergency department, and 24/7 on-site security.

In a separate incident in May, the source says a patient under the influence and concealing a knife was placed in the mental health room and proceeded to stab a stretcher repeatedly. Police had to be called to deal with the incident.

“Nurses and health care professionals are assaulted with weapons, fists, words, spat on, kicked, every single day in every emergency department in this province,” says Ariss.

Further in its statement, the hospital said, “A great deal of work has been done to improve safety and security throughout our facility and specifically, in our Emergency Department. This particular incident has been reviewed and action plans have been developed for implementation.”

Ariss says more funding is needed at hospitals to improve security measures.

“They should have security 24/7 in the hospital, not just the emergency department. There should be controlled access, so nurses aren’t assaulted.”

The Ministry of Labour says an investigation is underway into a workplace incident at the hospital last month.

“On June 23, 2025, the Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development was notified of a workplace incident that occurred at Pembroke Hospital involving an occurrence between a patient and a worker,” a ministry spokesperson said in an email to CTV News Ottawa on Friday. “A ministry inspector has been assigned to investigate. As the investigation is ongoing, no further details are available at this time.”