Nurses have been punched in the face and kicked in the head during multiple assaults by a patient at Canberra’s secure mental health unit, the ACT nursing union has alleged. In one attack at the Dhulwa facility, the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Association claimed help did not come for more than a minute. The union’s ACT branch secretary Matthew Daniel said he met members on Tuesday over reports of 10 assaults over recent weeks, after which some nurses sought medical treatment at the emergency department. “I’m aware that a number of those nurses are off work for a substantial period of time because of their injuries,” he said. “It was heart-wrenching to see the look in their faces when they talk about the anguish of going back into that workplace. “These people have mortgages, they have school fees to pay, all these sorts of things — it’s not like they can walk away.” The union posted the claims on social media yesterday, saying nurses had raised the inadequacy of violence management training with ACT Mental Health.
