Union calls for change after Vancouver nurse strangled by patient

A patient in the psychiatric unit of Vancouver General Hospital strangled a nurse unconscious in the latest outburst of violence targeting health-care workers.

It’s the latest prominent case of a B.C. health-care worker facing violence on the job – a nurse strangled to the point of losing consciousness earlier this month.

It happened on March 13 at the Segal Health Centre, and it’s prompting the B.C. Nurses Union to call for change.

“The patient that assaulted her also assaulted another patient,” Adriane Gear, union president, told CTV News on Tuesday. “Her colleagues ended up dragging her lifeless body behind the nursing station, which was a secured area where she regained consciousness.”

This is the latest in a series of assaults on nurses including one earlier this month where a nurse was allegedly punched at Langley Memorial Hospital.

“It wasn’t that long ago that a student nurse was actually stabbed,” Gear said, referencing an incident last year. “Now, obviously not fatally, but nonetheless, a patient turned a knife on a student.”

While the province has added in-house security guards in recent years, Gear says the Segal building has only one guard patrolling it, and the guard is not permanently stationed there.

“We want to see more relational security officers,” Gear said.

“There also needs to be more improvements in the communication of the risk of violence. In this instance, there was a history. The full history was not communicated.”

Beyond security, there’s a call for consequences for those who assault nurses and other health-care workers.

“If it happened on the street, what would happen? If you [assaulted someone] on a street, you would be charged,” B.C. Conservative health critic Dr. Anna Kindy told CTV News on Tuesday. “This is not happening. Rather than charging people, we’re having a nurse take a course on how to prevent this from happening again, as though she’s at fault.”

Health Minister Josie Osborne was not made available for an interview but said in a statement she wishes the nurse and everyone impacted by this all the best in their recovery, adding the NDP government has doubled the number of hospital security workers in the province. She says there are now 750 full time equivalent security staff at 30 sites around B.C.