Display at St. Joe’s Hamilton highlights abuse against healthcare workers

According to healthcare officials at St. At Joseph’s Hospital Hamilton, at least four staff members are verbally or physically assaulted everyday and they say the number is likely higher because not all victims report issues.

A display at St. Joe’s for the next few weeks explains how big of a problem workplace violence is at the hospital.

Hospital workers say they are yelled at or abused by patients daily and one woman even said she is worried that angry patients follow her to her car at night.

“I really thought if I said anything it meant I was weak, it meant I was bad at my job,” says Javaria Bhatty who has worked in healthcare for about four years.

She runs an exercise rehab program at St. Joseph’s Hospital for people with different medical issues.

“I can expect a comment at least daily. People talking about wanting to grab me, someone trying to slap my butt, things like that,” says Bhatty.

She’s not alone, everyday at least four hospital workers are assaulted at St. Joe’s, roughly 1,400 a year, and hospital officials say those numbers don’t reflect the unreported incidents.

“They either hit, kick, yell, call someone a racial slur or even sexually touch a staff member,” says Michael Heenan, CEO of St. Joseph’s Health System.

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The exhibit in the hospital lobby is to show the public how big of a problem violence in the workplace is for healthcare workers.

“61 per cent of Canadian nurses will be assaulted at some point in their career. Here at St. Joe’s. We want to talk about it because if we can talk openly about improving the quality of work-life for staff, we are going to improve the care the patients receive,” says Heenan.

Staff say they’ve experienced either physical or verbal assaults on an almost daily basis and one woman said she had someone follow her to her car at night.

“I’ve had patients threaten me and my safety. I’ve had to navigate how I walk to my car. Always having eyes over my shoulder to see what’s happening, if anyone is following me,” says Christina Bowman.

Bowman worked as a front line nurse for 10 years before switching positions. She says it’s gotten worse since the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We have more patients in here who are on drugs, use drugs, bring drugs in, bring paraphernalia in. Mental health doesn’t have as many resources in the community, so unfortunately we’re dealing with a lot of mental health issues on units not equipped to deal with mental health,” says Bowman.

Javaria Bhatty is open to sharing her experiences with new healthcare workers so they don’t go through the mental trauma she did.

“I don’t want them to have that burnout. I don’t want a few bad people who have these verbal, physical abuses towards healthcare workers to be the reason why we lose good, quality healthcare workers,” says Bhatty.

Hospital officials say the daily abuse has led to higher levels of absenteeism, and unfortunately healthcare workers leaving their profession.

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