Footage of a registered nurse being attacked by a patient in the foyer of the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital in 2024 has gone viral, prompting the nurses union to call for safer working conditions.
Daniel Nelson shared a video of the incident to his Facebook late last week, saying: “This is what many people never see.”
Nelson was working in the RBWH Emergency Department in October 2024 when the incident occurred at 2am.
“I was a victim of assault by an intoxicated patient in an area where there were no visibility from staff or security,” he said.
“He’d been spitting on the floor, abusing staff and generally behaving like an absolute grub.
“[He] was asked to leave, I opted to escort him out and grab a cheeky coffee from the coffee van parked out front whilst I was out there. In a stroke of genius he decided he wanted a cuddle.”
In the footage, the patient and Nelson almost make it out the doors of the hospital when the patient turns and throws his belongings at the nurse before physically attacking him.
Nelson wrestles the patient to the floor, pinning him to the ground and restraining him until help arrives almost a full minute later.
“Safe to say… it didn’t work out the way he expected,” Nelson said. “I don’t think he anticipated the nurse having an obsession with jiu jitsu for over 10 years.”
No level of violence against nurses, midwives and all health workers is acceptable, Queensland Nurses and Midwives’ Union Secretary Sarah Beaman said.
“QNMU is deeply concerned about any incident that threatens the safety of nurses, other health professionals and patients,” Beaman said.
“With national figures recently released by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare showing assault in the workplace has now climbed from the fourth to the second leading cause of hospitalisations for injuries among healthcare workers, we reiterate more needs to be done to protect our nurses.
“Nurses and midwives should not have to defend themselves from violent behaviour in the workplace.”
While staff receive occupational violence prevention training, QNMU called for employers to do more to ensure there are safe working conditions.
“We expect employers to do more to ensure when behaviour does escalate there are de-escalation measures in place that do not rely on nurses and midwives having to use reasonable force to protect themselves from harm,” Beaman said.
“Occupational violence is at alarming levels, and this is not new news. We need urgent action by employers to protect nurses and midwives from further harm.
“We call on employers to provide additional security measures and to strengthen workplace safety in all health care settings.”
The viral video coincides with the state government celebrating 10,000 new health workers in just under two years.
Of these workers, 7200 are frontline doctors, nurses and allied health workers.
The LNP previously pledged to deliver an additional 46,000 health workers by 2032.
Premier David Crisafulli said the government is working to rebuild the state’s frontline.
“We made a promise to rebuild the health frontline, and with more than 10,000 frontline workers already delivered, that’s exactly what we’re doing,” he said.
“We will continue to reduce ramping and stabilise the elective surgery waitlist by delivering more hospital beds and building the frontline workforce to ensure Queenslanders can access the health services when and where they need them.”
Health Minister Tim Nicholls said employing more health professionals is just one part of the solution.
“We will be doing all we can to attract and retain doctors, nurses, midwives, ambulance officers, allied health workers and other health workers to Queensland Health, especially to the areas they are needed most,” Nicholls said.
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