1 week Ago
Photo: Interior Health The passing of a nurse employed at Kootenay Boundary Regional Hospital (KBRH) has her family advocating for changes in the healthcare system. Thirty-three-year-old KBRH psychiatric nurse Rosanne Wallace took her own life last month. Her family has attributed her passing to the impact that her job was having on her overall well-being, as she had reportedly sustained injuries from an altercation with a patient.
Her family accounts that the challenging environment in which she worked took a significant toll on her mental health. Assault is a federal offence as defined by the Criminal Code of Canada . Wallace’s family has expressed to sources that they believe her death was preventable.
In 2024, Worksafe B.C. prevention officers conducted 1,970 inspections and issued 138 violence-related orders and seven warning letters in the health care and social services sub-sectors.
They provided the following data regarding claims for nurses and nurse's aides within the health care and social services subsector, where the accident-claim type was due to an act of violence or force. Photo: Provided by WorkSafe BC According to WorkSafe B.C.
, there were 604 claims made by nurses aides, orderlies, and patient services associates in 2024, with 59 (10 per cent) of those coming from the Interior Health authority. Photo: Provided by WorkSafe BC Lannon de Best, executive director of clinical operations, oversees the Kootenay Boundary region's medical services, including KBRH. De Best said he and the hospital leadership at Interior Health (IH) are deeply sadden by Wallace's death, and expressed his condolence to her family, friends and colleagues.
When asked about the support systems already in place to help protect nurses against violent patients on the job, he said that IH staff are required to take provincial violence prevention curriculum that involves online and in-person training that provides healthcare works the skillset to respond in violent situations. "There is a suite of options that are available to them to support mental and physical wellbeing including counselling and other services." He said healthcare worker safety and incident prevention has continued to be a constant focus for IH, adding that they have been working with the staff in the unit Wallace worked in order to assess if there are any additional measures they should consider.
"We have installed more panic alarms, and moved some based on the recommendation of staff," he said, explaining that the process of assessing safety concern is continuous. The process of reporting a violent patient begins with an assessment of the patient to evaluate any signs of aggression. If a patient is considered to be high risk, that information is communicated internally and the patient is flagged on the system.
IH reports acts of violence to the police who are tasked with determining the next steps. "We're doing the best we can," said de Best " It's dynamic and it's going to require ongoing attention in order to manage situations as they change." The union representing B.
C. nurses has also been calling for more action to be taken on enforcing safety in the workplace for nurses following a recent attack where a healthcare worker was strangled unconscious by a patient in Vancouver General Hospital. In the wake of the tragic circumstances that led to a healthcare workers passing, IH representatives said that they are hoping to respond to the realties that many healthcare workers are facing to keep them safe.
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