Nurses in the Middle East (MNE) Position on Safety and Security in the Workplace
Description
Nurses in the Middle East are committed to providing care to all patients and communities equally without prejudice and with love, dignity and respect, while at the same time protecting themselves. Governments and health care systems should be required to secure and ensure safe workplace environments where nurses can continue to practice provide quality patient care without concern for their own safety and security.
Position Statement
· Nurses have the right and the duty to learn and empower themselves and demand workplaces that provide safety and security. This empowerment starts in Nursing schools and educational systems and extends to active political participation to represent and have a voice in policies and regulations that affect the settings/environments where nurses practice. Safety and security for all, “all” includes nurses themselves as a start.
· Systems/facilities/governments are responsible for creating and enforcing policies that ensure environments where nurses can practice while their own safety and security are protected. This translates into securing resources, supplies, training, access to information, continuous education and physical measurements that enable nurses to practice while feeling safe and secure.
· We , the nursing leaders in the middle east are determined to :
Create and maintain a culture of safety and quality throughout the (organization).
Leaders develop a code of conduct that defines acceptable behavior and behaviors that undermine a culture of safety. Leaders create and implement a process for managing behaviors that undermine a culture of safety.
Background
Watson Caring Science Institute 3rd Annual Conference of Middle Eastern Nurses – Human Caring in a Time of World Crisis: Transcending Culture and Boundaries, brought together nurses from across the Middle East – Palestine, Jerusalem, Israel, Bahrain, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Dubai – and the USA to discuss the issues that face us daily.
Where do the rights of the individual stop and the rights of the other begin?
From the American Nurses Association:
“A Healthy Work Environment is one that is safe, empowering, and satisfying. Parallel to the World Health Organization definition of health, it is not merely the absence of real and perceived threats to health, but a place of “physical, mental, and social well-being,” supporting optimal health and safety. A culture of safety is paramount, in which all leaders, managers, health care workers, and ancillary staff have a responsibility as part of the patient centered team to perform with a sense of professionalism, accountability, transparency, involvement, efficiency, and effectiveness. All must be mindful of the health and safety for both the patient and the health care worker in any setting providing health care, providing a sense of safety, respect, and empowerment to and for all persons.”
It was identified that the threats nurses face daily present a challenge to the profession in their commitments to the ethical principles of beneficence, malfeasance and self-preservation. Nurses are constantly put on the spot to make quick decisions about their commitments to these principles.
We recognize that Nurses need to be more proactive and become leaders rather than followers when it comes to their own safety and security. We, as nurses, recognize that these threats should be considered seriously in relation to balancing personal and social liberties and personal rights and public rights.
And dedicated :
Preventing violence in the health care setting
Identifying high risk areas
Perpetrators of violence to patients (http://www.jointcommission.org/assets/1/18/sea_45.pdf)
References
Nursing Practice and Working Enviornment. American Nurses Association. Downloaded 15 March 2015 from http://www.nursingworld.org/MainMenuCategories/WorkplaceSafety
Watson Caring Science Institute & International Caritas Consortium. Middle Easter Nurses & Partners United in Human Caring. Downloaded February 21, 2015 from http://watsoncaringscience.org/education-programs/intro-to-human-caring/middle-eastern-nurses-project
· Notes from the group discussion
§ There was a call on the table to clarify the difference between the nature of threats that nurses are exposed to.
· Risk of contracting communicable diseases
· Risk of physical and emotional of injury caused by patients and their families
· Risk of injury caused by violent events posed by geopolitical conflicts
§ These threats challenge nurses in their commitments to the ethical principles of beneficence, maleficence and self-preservation. Nurses are put on the spot to make quick decisions about their commitments to these principles.
§ There is a ripple effect of these threats that should be considered seriously; in relation to balancing personal and social liberties and personal rights and public rights. (e.g. vaccinating illegal immigrants).
§ Is it justified for MOHs/facilities/schools to enforce vaccinations for example, where do they stop in relation to individual rights, public rights?
§ A counterpoint was raised by Victor (Palestine) about the issue of trust and its role in considering whether governments/systems have the right to enforce practices such as vaccinations to protect the public.
§ Nurses have, at times, been politically unaware and uninvolved and they need to be more proactive, and to lead more than follow when it comes to their safety and security (e.g. Miriam’s experience from Russia, Nurit’s experience in Israel, Ahlam from the US).
§ The notion that” individual rights stop where other’s rights begin” was debated and considered in the making of MEN’s position statement.
§ Nurses and HCP going to public places in their hospital attire in relation to protecting the public from what result from such behaviors.
§ A discussion ensued about whose responsibility it is to provide safe and secure workplace for nurses. The group agreed on two points:
· Nurses have the right and the duty to learn and empower themselves and demand workplaces that provide safety and security. This empowerment starts in Nursing schools and educational systems and extends to active political participation to represent and have a voice in policies and regulations that affect the settings/environments where nurses practice. Safety and security for all, “all” includes nurses themselves as a start.
· Systems/facilities/governments are responsible for creating and enforcing policies that ensure environments where nurses can practice while their own safety and security are protected. This translates into securing resources, supplies, training, access to information, continuous education and physical measurements that enable nurses to practice while feeling safe and secure.
MNE are committed to providing care to all patients and communities equally without prejudice and with love, dignity and respect while at the same time protect themselves. Governments and systems are required to secure and ensure workplace environments where nurses can practice while their safety and security are protected.