NHS-I was so shocked by this!

[Yellowdays]

I just read this article in the Guardian. It's really appalling. What a way to have to work, it's like a war zone.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/jun/22/over-half-of-uk-doctors-have-seen-or-suffered-verbal-or-physical-abuse-survey?CMP=ShareiOSAppp_Other

Under reporting is also not fair on other patients who have to witness these actions and will be possibly affected by it (children particularly).

No one is ever charged and the police are never involved either. Management turn a blind eye.

Yep! Normal day.

I'm surprised it's only half, to be honest. I don't know anyone patient facing who hasn't had at least one heavy dose of verbal or physical abuse.

Receptionists and ward clerks get the most - people are rude and aggressive to them almost every day.

I work in maternity and have been spat on and had death threats this month alone.

The kicker (pardon the pun) is that, all too often, the "support" following an assault comes in the form of us staying an extra half an hour unpaid at the end of the shift to write the incident report / catch up on the things we didn't get done due to dealing with the violent patient 😂😭🤯

Unsurprising and sadly not confined to NHS. Most people who work with public will have dealt with some nasty characters. Of course in medical settings it's probably heightened as emotions may be running high, the nature of what's going on. I work for a bank and whilst I am not in branch, I know our branch colleagues have to wear body cameras and have access to panic buttons for their own safety - this is more as a result of violent customers than attempted thefts which is what most people may assume.

100% This

I was a nurse for 12 years. I had my head smashed onto a toilet seat, punched in the arm and stomach, shouted at by various relatives one who stood about 5cm from my face and screamed!and called a lot of names!
First three were patients with dementia though. The man who screamed in my face was just an arse!

Am I surprised? No. Anyone who works in the public sector, as I did, will probably be verbally or physically abused at some point. It doesn't matter how patient you are, it doesn't matter how calm you are, it doesn't matter how much you empathize with the customer, there is always one who flips because s/he is not getting what they have come in for and doesn't understand it can't happen. I've been verbally abused before I've even opened my mouth and then had items thrown at me. All because the customer doesn't want to listen to reason. I could tell you such stories! But sadly can't.

I'm surprised you're surprised. I only lasted 2 years in the NHS but in 24 months I was spat at in the face, had my arm grabbed so hard I had cuts from the patient's finger nails and was swore at more times than I've had hot dinners. DH was a GP - he had a brick put through the windscreen of his car, numerous tramlines scratched on the car by keys and had eggs thrown at our home. No one was ever charged - management told me to make sure my jabs were up to date. We've now left the NHS.

Same in schools sadly

Ah thats alright then! Although keen to hear what other jobs include people routinely having blood, faeces, urine, spit thrown at them as well as being verbally and physically abused? Sure in any customer facing role or roles like teaching some people get treated appallingly which obviously is also unacceptable; but honestly if someone in a shop had shit thrown at them by a customer I doubt management and whoever would turn a blind eye and shrug it off.

It is awful OP I am sadly shocked it's not a higher amount though. Often there's little to no support from management and there aren't any realistic procedures in place to mitigate the risk and deal with it. DH has had his nose broken (and was told he needed to go straight back to work as soon as it was assessed), he's had all sorts thrown at him and nothing ever gets done. He's leaving the NHS soon thank goodness, lots of others are also jumping ship- the gov doesn't give a crap about them and neither do swathes of the public.

People are in hospital because they are sick, sometimes dying, often confused and very scared.

If you are privileged enough to never have been in for anything serious that effects your mental capacity then you dont really get to judge but it usually happens to everyone eventually.

When I was 4/5 year old I was rushed in for poison control and had to have my stomach pumped + a whole bunch of testes.

I managed to injure 5 different nurses through biting and scratching who where trying to pin me down to get needles and tubes into, it took about 12 people in the end to over power me enough to complete it.

Don't underestimate the strength of a confused and terrified child who doesn't understand why adults are hurting her and repeatedly stabbing her with sharp things.

At the same time surely you can understand WHY people in that scenario fight back though?

It certainly wasn't because I'm a horrible reprobate who just hates nurses and shouldn't be allowed in society.

''Horse whispering''....
What a great term.

I have been in therapy groups of people and the conveners have basically been just like horse whisperers.

De ~escalating, being very calm, but make no mistake, clients can tell when a convener is out of their depth.

A few times I have been awed , literally, by how flares of aggressive behaviour was de-escalated without a punch being thrown- but staff {and clients} shouldn't have to face this level of poor behaviour.

A Teaching assistant I knew was badly attacked by a pupil she was assisting- Why is there so much violence in the community about these days?

These aren't just people in this scenario though, some people are just horrible, nasty and violent thugs. Of course HCPs recognise the risks with some patients, doesn't make it acceptable that this happens on a large scale with nothing ever being done though. If you are privedlged enough to never have had an injury inflicted on you at work then I guess you don't understand.

It doesn't just happening in the NHS. It happens in any job where you have to deal with the public, teaching, till staff, traffic wardens, politicians the list is endless.

Like many others I'm surprised that the figure is so low. A lot of the time the NHS is dealing with people at their worst through pain or fear. Add to that an awful lot of patients have had to wait years for treatment so a level of resentment has built up, logically we all know that it's not the receptionist fault. There is never any excuse for violence though.

I agree as a nurse I am intimidated or verbally abused on nearly every shift, I don't even feel it anymore I guess I have become immune to it. I do appreciate how hard being sick is, how out of control and vulnerable people are, and of course we want to do our best.
Management does nothing at all to support us, they just ask what we could have done better and is our conflict training up to date?

@JusthereforXmas People who lash out because they're in pain, confused etc - that's a totally different kettle of fish from people who are just abusive.
My dh is a doctor and he understands and doesn't mind when he is attacked by people who are lashing out in fear, self-defence etc - sometimes he has to do painful procedures and people's survival instincts will kick in, and that is understandable.
But unfortunately there is a large number of people who are cruel, verbally abusive and violent when they have absolutely no need to be. Sometimes this is related to drug addiction, not always.
I just started my own thread about this because it really upsets me how he is treated regularly at work, I don't know how he stands it. Many people judging from afar wouldn't last a day dealing with what he has to put up with. It is totally traumatising some of the stuff he goes through, just in a standard issue night shift.

I work in paediatrics and we regularly have mental health/behavioural patients as they have no where to go. I’ve been assaulted and in some very dodgy situations as many of my colleagues have. Just because they are children or young people doesn’t make it less scary.

Then we still have the parents and families of medical patients. Who can often shout, threaten, swear, stand over you when they feel annoyed or angry. Quite often in front of their own kids. Dread to think if they are happy to act like that in public, how they act at home! We make lots of allowances for stressed and worried families but sometimes it’s all too much.

Thing is, we understand many of the reasons people might lash out. Fear, frustration, confusion. What we lack is appropriate support to manage it. We don't have enough staff to spend the time safely deescalating situations, we don't have security who can manage serious incidents and protect staff, we don't have space on wards where we can offer low stimulus environments that might help people feel calmer, we don't have doctors available to talk to people or write up the medications they need as quickly as they need it and even once it's written up we might still need to get it from pharmacy.

Give us the resources to support people properly and we can reduce the number of incidents in the first place and deal with the ones that do happen with less risk to people just trying to do their jobs.

I also don't understand how it can be only half. Every single one of my dh's colleagues is regularly verbally abused or physically attacked

Not surprised, sadly. My dd did work experience at a local GP surgery and it was evident that abuse - including racist abuse - and aggressive/violent behaviour were very much a feature of the staff's day to day experience.

It is awful that people have to deal with that level of threat, but my dd was completely in awe of the professional way in which the staff dealt with it, and of the care and compassion that staff showed even to patients who were treating them so dreadfully. Hats off to those who work so hard in such a challenging environment. I really hope that NHS managers can do more to address this issue effectively as nobody should have to endure that kind of abuse in their working environment.

We're always told its not tolerated and have to fill out a radar report then nothing happens. I had less abuse when I was a member of the medical staff in a men's prison.

@Marteenie men's prison!

Work in LD & MH unit, we are assaulted very very often, can be low level but we also have big incidents.
Not many a shift goes by when I don't come home with at least a bruise or a scratch.