Nurse critically injured with life changing injury after being stabbed by a patient

[Ohthedaffodils]

She was just going about her work - what on earth has this country become.
Happened at The Royal Oldham Hospital.

i hope the nurse who was attacked is recovering. Where’s the respect gone for the people who try to help make us better?

I sat in A and E with my daughter on Saturday night with at least 10 other frustrated families. Waiting was exhausting especially combined with a crying unwell baby- which the mother was desperately trying to calm down and kept apologising and the incessant music video played on a loop. The conditions were less than desirable. I understand all that combined could make a person snap. But I couldn't dream to physically stab someone- to intentionally and potentially taking a life.

But all I kept thinking how hard the nurses and doctors were working and how lucky we were to have access to free Healthcare.

I hope that nurse has a speedy recovery.

I feel quite passionate about this as nurses and doctors.....all healthcare staff really....gp receptionists too (I feel gp receptionists get a really rough time)are often at the receiving end of a patient and relatives distress/aggression. There's very little to no protection for nursing staff.

My partner is a paramedic who has been attacked on a few occasions only once did the police and CPS take any action.

We are currently planning his exit away from NHS emergency work, it's unsafe, undervalued and underpayed.

That's horrific, I'm so sorry. Is her attacker in prison?

In a way it's even worse that I'd never heard about her case. That such attacks on NHS staff are common enough not to be headline news beggars belief.

Bloody hell, @ThewrathofBethDutton and @OhcantthInkofaname . I'm so sorry to hear that.

Thank you for the work you and your colleagues do.

Yea I've been punched in the face and got a black eye, had hot tea thrown at my chest and was scalded, various minor scratches, slaps etc, a good bit of sexual harassment including unwanted touchjng and lewd comments and loads and loads of verbal abuse

One of my friends had her arm broken and another had his teeth knocked out and stitches to his head.

It's scary sometimes how inured I am to it. My PT asked me about the black eye so I explained I was punched by a patient pretty matter of fact and it was confronting to me to see how shocked someone outside the system is as NHS colleagues honestly just commiserate and swap war stories. In acute services getting assaulted is seen as part of the job. Verbal abuse is a daily occurrence. No wonder people burn out

We often get personal blame for system issues. Even if he was frustrated by the long wait how in the fuck is it this individual nurses fault!? Of course he is criminal to have stabbed her and everyone will agree it's beyond the pale but I bet plenty of people would excuse verbal abuse in this scenario (he's ill, he stressed, he's in pain, maybe he's mentally ill..) As staff we excuse it ourselves. No one actually reports stuff or acts on zero tolerance policies. It's amazing what people put up with especially my ethnic minority colleagues who get racist abuse on a daily basis.

Completely agree @ThePure and sorry but not shocked at all to hear how you’ve been treated. Did any of the perpetrators get charged?

And my thoughts and thanks to @ThePure and your colleagues too.

You shouldn't be subjected to this.

[edited for typo]

BTW neither the man who broke my friends arm nor the one who knocked out my other friends teeth had any legal consequences as both were mentally ill at the time as was the one who gave me a black eye. Reported. NFA.

I wonder sometimes that anyone wants to nurse anymore. Hard work for insufficient pay and awful hours.

^

Agree with this

The pay should be double and the training should be free.

Security guards should be on a great wage, as should HCP's, cleaners etc etc

That’s outrageous @ThePure there needs to be some consequences even if it’s been held in a psychiatric ward because clearly that person is unsafe around the general public.

As staff we excuse it ourselves. No one actually reports stuff or acts on zero tolerance policies. It's amazing what people put up with especially my ethnic minority colleagues who get racist abuse on a daily basis

The whole culture needs to change. Every single act of violence and abuse needs to be reported and dealt with. And then they have a nerve to complain that so many people are off on sick leave. Zero tolerance must be upheld.

Yes. It's why l left teaching too

Dear God. There are no words. What has the world become?

I doubt it’s a coincidence that teaching and nursing two female dominated professions are ones where violence and constant disrespect against them seems to be minimised as well as the low pay.

It’s all “be kind woman, don’t you realise what that person who spat/hit/abused you is going through. Don’t provoke them next time”

Nah wouldn’t be me, I’d raise hell. Every single time.

I left teaching in 2016 and my experiences were overall fine, but hearing now what people put up with is awful.

I used to work at an children's hospital and the abuse I got there from mainly the parents was horrific- death threats, rape threats, sexual harassment. I once had a 6year old child tell me I was 'a fucking ugly slag) when I called him from the waiting area.

It’s not a new thing, I was screamed at, threatened and sexually assaulted as a Student Nurse in A&E 30+ years ago.

It would have been life changing with or without the life changing injury.

Anybody working in public facing roles will have a story to tell about the condition of the general public and how a very, very large minority of all ages, races, both sexes, socio economic status seem to project the worst of their character upon those in public facing roles.

The surprise is how many seem surprised by this stabbing.
Britain, at least England and most.definitely the cities have suffered with a steep rise in coarseness and entitlement in behaviour in all publicly shared spaces.

Worse, because of the weirdness of a lack of shared aspirational culture in Great Britain, down to even the food.....there is no shared expectation of behaviour outside of one's home.
Standards have become "standards"; "oppression" to a loud subset from the lower end of the socio economic strata, "bourgeois" to the entitled of those better off.

And "respectability politics" to those who see every verb through the prism of Identity Politics.
It's a British thing, not a Tory thing.
We do not like to keep things nice, especially if we have to share them.
We are very crap at sharing spaces, as a prime example.

Absolutely no surprise unfortunately.
The same with paramedics. They are assaulted really regularly. They and nurses get paid rubbish money and have to work shifts. They deserve a lot more.

I was screamed at by a patient a few weeks back. He kindly told me that he hoped my kids and my husband die a horrible death, he is in his 50s with no mental illness. Just another day of NHS Nursing.

Am not in the mood to explain/justify or go through my finances with MN crowd, but usually after all my bills etc.... are paid each month I have approx £100 a month (on a good pay) to spend on just me. The pay is shockingly awful and doesn't reflect the stress and utter shitness of the job

I am a retired nurse and believe all of this.It is 20 years now since I last worked and it was getting bad then.I was once asked to keep a watch outside A&E entrance for people lighting cigarettes in hospital grounds.The one and only time I asked someone to do this he threatened to put out his cigarette in my eye.
A nurse was kicked by a patient's relative because his mother had not been given instant attention
Those are just the milder assaults.

That's absolutely awful. You deserve more

I also worked in paediatrics. I received an obscene phone call asking for me (as I was called on my lanyard) saying they wanted to fuck me in the mouth. I got bitten, scratched and verbally abused but we were supposed to take it on the chin, so to speak.
We also had a consultant who used to grab our bottoms and grope our breasts if he could corner you in a treatment room