Better Occupational Health is the Need of the Hour at NHS
A psychiatric nurse recently received a compensation of £6,500 from
Juliet Satterthwaite, a nurse at St Nicholas Hospital in Gosforth, was on night duty when a patient pulled her hair, snatched her earrings and clawed at her face and nose. The patient had a case history of assaulting an employee and was under 24-hour observation. The staff members who look after such patients should be trained in resistance and control. Ideally, there should have been two such trained members on duty for the patient. However, owing to the hospital being understaffed, Juliet only had an untrained agency worker to help her. Although the agency nurse tried to rescue Juliet from the patient, her efforts went in vain. She and Juliet even tried to press the alarms, but unfortunately, they were out of order. As a consequence, Juliet suffered hair loss and deep cuts on her face before she could get any assistance.
Karen Jennings, who is the Head of Health at UNISON, commented that it was unfortunate that such cases occur frequently at the NHS and that the employees have to suffer abuse and physical assaults. As the case of Juliet indicates, many of such cases can be avoided if the Trusts look into the causes of sickness absence. It was a disgrace that a nurse had to suffer injuries because the Trust failed to ensure proper occupational health for its workers. The Trusts must take required actions without waiting for the final Boorman report, added Karen.
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