Spike expected in numbers of nurses leaving profession due to assaults 

Almost 3,400 assaults were made against nurses, doctors, care assistants and other healthcare workers in just the first nine months of this year. File photo: iStock

Nurses and midwives are resigning or retiring early because of the level of assaults being made against them and the exodus is expected to only worsen, their representative body has warned.

Almost 3,400 assaults were made against nurses, doctors, care assistants and other healthcare workers in just the first nine months of this year.

Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO), general secretary Phil Ní Sheaghdha said the organisation now has "evidence of premature retirement and resignations from the health service amongst our members following assaults and due to burnout".

"As hospitals get busier and busier and become even more of a pressure cooker, we are becoming increasingly concerned about the levels of assault and the impact of them on our ability to retain staff within the health service," she said.

We are very concerned that the ability to provide adequate staffing into the future will therefore be negatively affected.

Nurses and midwives make up 63% of all assaults in the health service, with an average of 375 incidents being reported every month.

The figures released via Freedom of Information show that since January 2021, a total of 7,927 physical, verbal and sexual assaults on healthcare workers have been reported with 3,381 of these being reported between January and September of this year.

Ms Ní Sheaghdha said: “These are the cases we know about. We know that many people are reluctant to come forward and report what happened to them. There is no information made available on the number of nurses who are assaulted in private hospitals."

'Urgent priority'

Ms Ní Sheaghdha is now calling on the Government and State agencies responsible for worker safety to make the issue of workplace assaults an "urgent priority".

"Not only because we need to make sure we keep and attract as many nurses and midwives as possible into the health service, but also because it’s what members of the profession deserve."

She added: "Everyone deserves dignity, respect and protection at work, especially nurses and midwives who have given their all to their patients and their colleagues over the past few years.” 

It comes as the INMO will today highlight major overcrowding and outline recruitment and retention measures that must be implemented for Irish nurses and midwives this winter.

The organisation has been warning that trolley numbers are on track to be the worst year on record.

A total of 10,679 patients who were admitted to hospitals last month spent time on a trolley before being transferred to a bed, which the INMO said was a more than 25% increase on last October and double the figures for 2020.

Over 393 children spent time on trolleys in October - the worst month for paediatric overcrowding on record according to the INMO.