Some health industry chains have responded to escalating assaults on hospital staff, their patients and visitors by arming their facilities’ security guards. The vice president of our AFT Connecticut-affiliated Backus Federation of Nurses offered a better approach when interviewed for our national union’s Medium blog. Emergency department nurse Danielle Berriault, RN (at microphone in photo, above) urged health executives to instead recognize that the real “imminent threat to patients and caregivers comes from inadequate staffing levels.”
AFT VOICES EDITORS: What is the current situation at your facility in terms of security? Would armed security help? Why or why not?
DANIELLE BERRIAULT: Currently, we have unarmed security on site. The hospital plans to have one armed security officer in-house starting this month. You will find many nurses on both sides of this argument.
Click here for press reporting on the issue featuring Berriault’s remarks.
As an elected union leader of my local, my duty is to represent the views of my members; my opinion is not important in this discussion. That being said, as a union local, we have a variety of proposals that address safety concerns at the hospital directly in terms of workplace violence prevention as well as marketable language to retain nurses to maintain safe staffing levels.
An armed security guard at their station will not benefit the RN who is multiple floors above caring for a patient carrying and utilizing a knife that has been in her purse for days. To that end, one of our proposals did contain safety systems like metal detectors. It is of the utmost priority to the Backus Federation of Nurses that we address these issues at the bargaining table to prevent the continued normalization of workplace violence in the healthcare setting.
Click here for reporting on our members’ efforts to resolve safety issues at Backus Hospital.
We continue to push forward in establishing a more meaningful workplace violence committee as well, so we can better address these issues as they arise and hold our employer accountable when it comes to following the law.
It is disappointing that the hospital is actively resisting negotiating over these topics that impact our members, our patients and our community to the detriment of safe patient care at Backus Hospital.
Is there state legislation in Connecticut to address workplace violence? If so, are there any provisions that would help address problems in your facility?
There is legislation that addresses workplace violence but it leaves something to be desired in terms of enforceability. One example includes our employer not abiding by the law in terms of root cause analysis. It is difficult to fully evaluate unsafe situations when they are not enough to hold employers accountable in fulfilling their general duty to keep their workers safe.
Click here for our latest report on statewide efforts to curb workplace violence in healthcare settings.
Why is adequate staffing a real solution to addressing violence?
Well before these recent concerns and well before the pandemic, our union was raising the alarm for safety at the local and national levels. Healthcare workers are an extremely vulnerable population of workers when it comes to workplace violence, but the more imminent threat to patients and caregivers comes from inadequate staffing levels.
What agitates the average person in the best circumstances? Having to wait. Can you imagine the anxiety and agitation that ensue in the worst circumstances? Having enough staff to go around provides patients and their loved ones with caregivers who can spend the time necessary to humanistically address concerns, answer questions and provide high-quality care.
Click here for the original “AFT Voices” blog post at Medium.
