‘Health care facilities are like pressure cookers right now’: Nurse attacked at Metro Vancouver mental health facility

Two recent incidents in Metro Vancouver show violence against nurses is on the rise, according to the nurses’ union, which is calling for better protections.

CTV News has learned there’s been another assault on a nurse in Metro Vancouver.

Earlier this month, RCMP were called to Alouette Homes in Maple Ridge, a mental health facility providing involuntary care, after reports of a nurse being assaulted by a patient.

Mounties say the worker was taken to hospital with minor injuries and a police investigation is ongoing.

“Staff responded quickly in accordance with established procedures and safely resolved the issue, as appropriate,” Vancouver Coastal Health said in a statement.

“VCH can confirm there have been no other reported assaults on staff at this location,” the statement reads.

Just days before this incident, police in New Westminster tasered a man who allegedly threatened workers at Royal Columbian Hospital with an “edged weapon.”

“The nurses were very concerned and had to remove…the other patients to keep them safe,” said BC Nurses Union President Adriane Gear.

She said there have also been other disturbing incidents.

“We’re actively involved in supporting members who are currently dealing again with a patient or resident that has mental health challenges and...has attempted sexually assaulting the female staff at this facility. And we’re having to currently advocate for increased presence of security to keep the nurses, particularly the female nurses safe,” said Gear.

Gear said based on what she’s hearing from members, violence against health-care workers is on the rise in B.C.

“Nurses that have been in the system for some time are saying things like they’ve never seen it so bad,” she said.

“Health-care facilities are like pressure cookers right now,” she explained.

When asked about the most recent violent attacks, Health Minister Josie Osborne said, “I’m very alarmed to hear about these things.”

She said she is continuing to work with the union and her counterparts in other provinces to find answers.

She said she’s “particularly interested in a conversation I had with the minister from Manitoba around the use of AI weapons detection technology and of course, that is something we are actively considering.”

The union wants more nurses hired and said when there’s enough staff to provide timely care, assaults on workers decrease.

Anna Kindy, the MLA for North Island and opposition health critic, is also a doctor.

“I agree with more nurses and more staff, but also more hospital beds. Because if you’re doing hallway medicine in an emergency setting, that in itself is not safe,” she said, adding that it’s further risky if staff are dealing with someone who is in psychosis.

She also said that the violence against health-care workers being reported is “just the tip of the iceberg.”

Kindy said, “Nurses often have been discouraged in a way to complain because nothing gets done. So, there’s a lot of things maybe not involving sharp objects, but that are assaults that are not reported.”

The BCNU also wants more specially trained relational security officers to work in health-care settings.

“There’s many, many facilities within in British Columbia that there isn’t any provision of security” Gear said.

Union representatives have gone to Victoria this week to meet with elected officials and urge them to do more to stop the violence.