6 May 1999

SAFETY AND SECURITY

INTRODUCTION

The QNU has been raising security issues with Queensland Health consistently over the years. Unfortunately, the seriousness and incidence have increased over time.

Very few health establishments have security staff and/or comprehensive systems in place.

There has been a dramatic increase in verbal and physical violence towards nursing staff and members indicate that there is an attitudinal problem not necessarily related to drugs or alcohol abuse.

Recently, a nurse at Gold Coast Hospital was assaulted in the accident and emergency department by a patient who was being attended to and had not had to await treatment. The union became involved with the issue and held meetings with members to get an indication of the problem. This was followed through with a meeting with the management of the hospital whereby it was agreed to do a joint security audit of the accident and emergency department. The accident and emergency department has now received a full-time security guard between 10.00pm and 6.00am as a result of this issue.

Health Minister, Mike Horan also became involved in the issue and has requested Districts to provide him with details of their security arrangements in order that he can review them.

The Union is concerned that nurses may be asked to take on the role of security or traffic controller - THIS IS NOT YOUR ROLE! Should this occur in your facility please notify your Organiser.

The Australian Standard for Health Care Facilities AS4485 recommends that security audits be done on facilities every year. Please place this issue on the agenda of your consultative committees.

CHECKLIST

A number of workplaces are having security problems at the moment and have been asking for information about what they should do. We have developed the following checklist to assist in dealing with security issues in the workplace.

 An initial security audit should be done of the workplace. It is preferable that this is done by a union/management team, and could cover such things as:

• car parks for staff vs visitors
• fencing of hospital grounds
• external lighting
• trees/shrubs
• access to under the buildings
• are doors suitable for their purpose?
• windows
• walkways
• security devices
• maintenance
• policies

 Staff should also be asked where they think there are security problems.
 Incident forms should be reviewed to see what issues are being reported on breaches of security.
 Once hazards are identified, solutions should be documented then priority of action can be allocated.

There is also a need for a policy or memorandum of procedure for what should happen in the workplace, covering the following:

• safe walkways for after hours
• who is responsible for locking up and at what time?
• how to request maintenance on locks etc.
• if you have alarms, who is responsible for testing them and when are they tested?
• who do you call to report breaches of security?
• is there a special form for this?
• if there is an intruder do you have a safe room to go to?
• do you hand over the drug keys?
• if you are requested to deal with after hours patients, what procedure do you have to determine if it is safe to let people in?
• do you have a separate violence at work or aggression policy which needs to be incorporated in this document or read in conjunction with it
• access to appropriate counselling following an incident should be included and how this is organised.

Other things to consider are:

• Is your telephone able to be predialled and do you have the police/security number programmed in?
• if there is no police/security easily accessed, are there others in the community you can contact urgently?

These are only a few items to get you started. You can obtain further information from the Division of Workplace Health and Safety, the Queensland Police Service and Neighbourhood Watch.

Click here to complete our Safety Audit Form

This form is to be used to report incidents or other relevant information to the Queensland Nurses Union.  The use of this form is voluntary and forms part of our consultative process.  We ask that you provide your name and contact details for our purposes only, this information is kept confidential but will allow us to contact you if we need further details or to assist in following the matter up.