Melissa McGillivray, a nurse in Saskatoon, says she sees staff on the job being threatened all too often.
The St. Paul’s Hospital nurse, who has been in the industry for over a decade, says it’s the worst she’s ever seen — with workers facing incidents such as yelling, verbal threats, aggression and physical assault on a daily basis.
McGillivray is speaking out after a man entered the hospital’s emergency room on Nov. 27 with a sawed-off shotgun and several knives.
The Saskatchewan Union of Nurses (SUN) is calling on the provincial government to implement additional security measures after the incident, suggesting metal detectors.
The hospital nurse says incidents like these are causing her coworkers to reconsider their futures in the health care industry, with many of them choosing to leave or relocate.
“I have a coworker who is going on leave because of this most recent event,” said McGillivray, adding that this is especially troubling given the health care retention issues in the province.
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“You know, we have people are crying every single day at work and it’s not right.”
McGillivray says St. Paul’s is not the only hospital in Saskatoon to be seeing an uptick in violence, but rather City and Royal University Hospitals are also noticing a change.
The nurse notes that violence towards health care workers is going beyond health care environments as well.
“Just this morning I had reached out to somebody who works in the community and they told me about a knife being pulled on a health care worker at Market Mall two weeks ago. So it’s not even unique to hospitals,” she said.
“We can’t keep going on like this. I am here today to say enough is enough.“
McGillivray joined the provincial NDP in calling on the government to engage with health care workers to address safety concerns Monday.
“We need to see whatever health and safety protocols are in place escalated immediately,” said Nathaniel Teed, Saskatchewan labour critic.
Teed also said St. Paul’s hospital was promised a metal detector by the province but it later went to another facility due to a lack of security officers available to manage it.
In a statement to Global News, the Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) confirmed that it is seeing an increase in violent incidents and “weapons entering emergency departments and hospitals,” adding that it remains “committed to strengthening the safety and security of our facilities.”
The health authority added that it’s engaging in several initiatives to enhance safety, including client risk assessment raining and piloting the use of AI-assisted weapon detection technology at Royal University Hospital.
The province did not indicate whether St. Paul’s Hospital will receive this AI technology or whether it will allocate metal detectors to the facility.
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