NOS News•today, 1:01 PM
The professional organization for healthcare workers, NU’91, is calling on its supporters to stop work for 2 minutes at 2 p.m. The reason is the stabbing last month in a mental health institution in Heerlen in which an employee died during her work.
NU’91 calls on everyone in healthcare to participate out of respect for the deceased victim. With the protest they also want to ensure that more measures are taken to protect healthcare workers during their work.
The professional organization conducts an annual survey among its supporters to see what the status of safety at work is. Members from various healthcare sectors participated, including people in mental health care, but also in hospitals and care for the disabled.
“Last year, 87 percent of respondents were victims of aggression in healthcare,” says Femke Merel van Kooten, chairman of NU’91. “It can involve kicking, hitting, spitting, but also death threats, both in real life and online. But it also involves more serious physical violence, such as being put against the wall, squeezing the throat or breaking bones.” A safe working environment is therefore hard to find, says Van Kooten.
‘I know where you live’
One of the healthcare workers participating in the campaign is Martijn van Loo from Ermelo. He works in an acute admission department of a mental health institution. He also regularly has to deal with violence, he says NOS Radio 1 news. “For example, this involves swearing, scratching and hitting. But also threats such as ‘I know where you live’ and ‘I will come find you and beat you up’.”
That means a lot to Van Loon. “It doesn’t become normal, even after years of working in healthcare. It makes you more anxious and sometimes a less pleasant partner, and it can also keep you awake at night.”
Van Loo does not have a solution to all this violence and he does not expect one from the organization where he works. “They try to do enough and the manager thinks along.”
He mainly participates in the protest to express his appreciation for the deceased victim. He also wants more attention for the profession. “We actually portray ourselves very little. We can do that more so that we can better manage these complex situations.”
Van Kooten agrees. “It is a very modest professional group, they subordinate their own health to the care of others.”
V&VN, a professional association for nurses and caregivers with 105,000 members, joins the call of NU’91. “We want to honor the mental health worker from Heerlen and thereby also draw attention to a safe working environment,” says Bianca Buurman, director of the association.
‘Not listened to by employers’
“There’s just not enough happening,” says Van Kooten about the role of employers in healthcare. According to her, 40 percent of respondents in the NU’91 survey indicate that they do not listen to the suggestions that employees themselves make to make work safer. “There is a great opportunity for employers. Listen to them. Maybe an extra door is needed in the department or plastic plates and cutlery have to be used.”
Examples of other points for improvement that, according to the professional organization, can make work slightly safer are installing alarm systems and repairing them immediately if they are defective. But also the deployment of additional staff and giving the subject of ‘safety’ a greater role in the collective labor agreements.
The Dutch Mental Healthcare Association, which represents employers in mental health care, informed NOS that employers are also joining today’s initiative. “Everyone in healthcare recognizes this, we should never accept violence,” says a spokesperson.
When asked whether employers are going to do something with the points raised by NU’91, he says that they are already doing a lot to make the working environment safe. This is done by creating clear protocols, providing training, exchanging initiatives to increase safety and adapting working methods if practice requires this.
“But 100 percent safety cannot be offered. We also work with people who can sometimes exhibit dangerous behavior as part of their illness. However, the setting can promote safety and policy can play an important role in this.”
