Violent workplaces plague nurses in Winnipeg hospitals: MNU

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The Manitoba Nurses Union (MNU) is calling for changes at Seven Oaks Urgent Care saying nurses are working in unsafe and often “vile” conditions at the Winnipeg facility.

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“This is the harsh reality at Seven Oaks Urgent Care,” MNU posted in a Wednesday bulletin on the union’s Facebook page. “Nurses are working in unsafe, vile conditions, facing verbal and physical abuse night after night.”

The union said nurses working at Seven Oaks Urgent Care are being “spat on, sworn at, hit, and exposed to weapons.”

The union added that patients are openly, and regularly, using drugs in the waiting room and bathrooms at Seven Oaks and nurses don’t feel they are getting any closer to seeing the changes they want to see to increase safety.

“Nurses have raised alarms through every proper channel, the Nursing Advisory Committees, Union-Management meetings, Workplace Health & Safety, but nothing has changed. To date there has not been one single improvement,” the union said. “We are tired of talking, we want action.”

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Calls for safety enhancement at Manitoba’s hospitals have been growing recently and the MNU released a report this month that showed nurses in Manitoba are concerned about their safety and the safety of patients.

The report said nurses are facing an “escalating crisis of workplace violence” and police are receiving an increasing number of calls from health-care facilities across the province about both verbal and physical abuse.

The report said that the HSC campus currently has the second-highest rate of violent crime in Winnipeg.

Calls to police from hospitals are also rising in rural hospitals, with RCMP responding to 557 calls from the Thompson General Hospital in 2024, while it also says there has been an “alarming surge” at other rural facilities including the hospital in Swan Valley.

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A scary incident at the Thompson General Hospital on Christmas Eve saw RCMP respond to a report of a man with a gun inside the hospital’s chapel.

According to police, the man, who was later arrested, pointed a .22-calibre rifle at staff and fired the gun through a window before hospital security was able to safely secure the weapon.

MNU also recently publicly reminded nurses in Manitoba that they have the right to refuse to work if they believe there is an imminent threat to their safety.

“If a patient is acting aggressively toward you, remember that your safety comes first,” the union said.

The union has listed steps nurses can take should they encounter unsafe work situations. Nurses in imminent danger should immediately stop what they are doing and alert a supervisor that they are refusing unsafe work.

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Nurses should then wait for a “resolution” of the issue before returning to their duties. MNU said that resolution must come from a superior.

“It is your employer’s responsibility to address the hazard. If they can’t or won’t, you are not required to proceed,” MNU said. “Stand up for yourself, MNU has your back.”

— Dave Baxter is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter who works out of the Winnipeg Sun. The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.