BC Nurses Are Leaving Jobs Due to Drug Harm Reduction Policies in Hospitals

Reports of nurses subjected to violence by drug addicts are ignored

Last week I wrote a piece on the deranged policies BC’s NDP government had implemented in hospitals as part of its Harm Reduction and ‘destigmatization’ initiatives around drug use. The policies, which were outlined in a letter from BC Health to its Northern Health Region hospitals, that was leaked, essentially instructed nurses in hospitals to ignore open drug use and drug dealing by patients in their hospitals. They were also told to allow patients to keep weapons such as knives they bring with them – as long as they are under four inches long.

In that piece I questioned how the nurses were dealing with this insanity as they try to do their jobs, and whether they feel safe in this kind of work environment. Well an article in the National Post written by columnist Adam Zivo – headlined BC Nurses Have Had Enough – makes it clear nurses don’t feel safe at all. Here’s a few excerpts from Zivo’s piece which paints a sorry picture of what BC nurses, whose jobs are hard enough under normal conditions, are expected to put up with thanks to the implementation of this ludicrous  government policy. 

• Drug use and harassment is omnipresent in hospitals which one nurse described as a glorified homeless unit.

• Non-smoking policies are not enforced. Nurses have to walk through toxic plumes of fentanyl and meth as patients openly smoke drugs in their rooms.— one nurse was told not to breastfeed her child in case her milk had been contaminated by the drugs she had been exposed to at work.

• Nurses are expected to provide a multitude of harm-reduction services such as pouring alcohol for patients (so they do allow for alcohol, I had wondered about that in my previous piece) and preparing their meth and crack pipes.

  

• Nurses were told not to touch a patient’s belongings, or the drugs in their room, and if they do they can be charged with theft.

• Patients openly inject heroin or get drunk with no consequences and drug dealers openly deal in hospital rooms and the hallways.

• Drug users routinely molest nurses, grab their breasts and subject them to a barrage of sexually inappropriate comments and nurses who complain are ignored and provided no support.

• Nurses have stopped reporting issues about drug exposure and violence because their reports are ignored.

• One who wishes to remain anonymous for obvious reasons recounts her own experience where a drug addicted patient leered at her for hours mouthing ‘I’m going to fucking ill you.’ And when she reported the incident to her superior nothing happened.  

Meanwhile BC’s Health Minister Adrian Dix, claims, “worker safety is a singular priority for all of us”. What a joke.

What happened to those 320 ‘relational’ security guards Dix said his government hired? Shouldn’t they be stepping in to help or support the nurses? Isn’t that something they should be doing as part of their job? According to a press release issued by the BC government that is what they were hired and trained for.

“Health-care workers and patients benefit from safer work environments as the Province fulfils its commitment to recruit 320 new relational security officers throughout B.C. as part of the new security model announced in 2022. This commitment will significantly improve the safety of our health-care facilities and help us better retain and recruit health workers, as well as care for our patients. All protection-services personnel receive training in workplace violence prevention and mental health.”

Due to these flagrant safety issues it is not surprising to hear that nurses in BC have left the profession or have taken leaves of absence. Younger nurses are also switching jobs after realizing how much abuse they could be subjected to under the current crazy rules being imposed by the government. As the old saying goes the road to hell is often paved with good intentions. And I think hell aptly describes the current work environment BC hospital nurses must endure.