08-05-2025
Attack with fire extinguisher, punches, and racist comments among daily assaults on nurses
An assault with a fire extinguisher, punches to the face, fractured bones, and racist comments were some of the fearful attacks described at the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) conference.
They warned a survey revealing 11 daily assaults on average last year was still relevant today.
One nurse from Monaghan told the conference the hospital did not have any security.
'Last year, one of my colleagues was attacked by a very aggressive patient, and her finger — her ring finger — was bent back and fractured,' she said. 'Another colleague was hit in the face.'
Some could not describe their attacks from the podium as investigations are ongoing.
Speaking privately, one nurse said she was punched and kicked during a night shift by a man who came into the ward.
When she tried to run away, he followed her and 'he took the fire extinguisher and sprayed it on me".
A nurse in Dundalk said she was 'battling' with management to improve security, saying: 'We should not have to fear for our safety while at work.'
A nurse with the Dublin South-West branch, Ibukun Oyedele, proposed to the conference the HSE bring in 'appropriate security measures' for all health centres.
'Everyone has the right to work in an environment free from abuse or harassment of any kind,' she said.
Covid
Her colleague, Association of Nigerian Nurses in Ireland vice president Christopher Ibanga, said in his eight years working in Ireland, the situation had worsened.
'I think covid unfortunately could play a role,' he said.
'I work in public health and we were managing covid cases, doing contact tracing. We had a lot of resistance and that resistance has continued even though not as high as during covid.
We receive a lot of reports from Nigerian nurses and this abuse gets to another level when the colour of your skin is different. This is something we have to talk about.
A nurse in Cashel, Co Tipperary, proposed the HSE should compensate them for abuse.
'The danger money refers to hazardous pay, a compensation to pay employees for working in these hazardous environments,' she said.
However, a nurse at University Hospital Limerick cautioned "unsafe practice cannot be compensated with money' and called for change instead.
Health minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill attended the conference in Wexford, and told reporters there was 'no justification' for abuse.
'There's no reason to assault anybody, but in particular a healthcare worker,' she said.
She takes the complaints 'very seriously' she said, adding many patients do not harm staff despite delays they face.
'I recognise there are some hospitals that are much more overcrowded than we would want them to be, and we are trying to increase capacity and trying to change work practices to make that a better environment for everybody,' she said.
The INMO found over a 13-month period starting in January 2023, about 11 assaults were reported every day to the HSE.
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