The government has revealed its nurse safety strategy - more than two years after it was announced - to combat a string of nurse assaults and alarming rates of code blacks at Canberra Hospital.
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The strategy will be implemented over the next two years and aims to reduce code blacks, improve workload management and safe rostering, and establish a commitment to safety across management.
Statistics made public earlier this year showed there were on average more than four code blacks at Canberra Hospital - internal emergencies that threaten personal safety- every day in the first six months of 2018.
Health Minister Meegan Fitzharris said the strategy built on the processes already in place to protect Canberra’s nurses and midwives.
Feedback from nurses, midwives and stakeholders during the consultation period led to recommendations that security staff should be available at all times, emergency alert systems and security cameras should be updated and personal duress alarms provided in high risk areas.
Canberra Hospital should also include violence and aggression incidents in its annual report and additional staff requests should be addressed promptly, the discussion paper said.
"There are also messages for the community in this plan and that is to respect the nurses and midwives who do an incredible job, sometimes in very difficult circumstances," Ms Fitzharris said.
"There is not one simple fix to these issues, they involve leadership, training, procedure and practice."
Mental Health Minister Shane Rattenbury said mental health was a particularly challenging area with a disproportionately high number of assaults.
"[Patients] are often at their worst. Our frontline nursing staff really are at the coalface of that risk," he said.
"We have a responsibility to do our best possible job of putting the right systems in place.
"People should not go home at the end of the day having been assaulted in the workplace.
“Violence against health workers is not unique to the ACT, however we need to be sending a very clear message to the users of our health system – look after and respect our nursing and midwifery staff because they look after and respect you."
The Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation ACT secretary Matthew Daniel said the union had worked with the government for many months to establish the strategy.
"It's been a little while coming but it's required a lot of input, a lot of work, a lot of thought about incorporating the research," he said.
"We're going to be looking for decreasing reports of assaults, decreased absenteeism, decreased Comcare claims and all those sorts of very observable and measurable outcomes.
"It has been important for the [federation] to work closely with the government to ensure that the drivers of workplace violence are addressed and that there is a fundamental shift in the way we think and act to protect the nursing and midwifery workforce.
"Nurses and midwives want to provide excellent care to the Canberra community and the strategy will positively influence workplaces in which that care is provided."
