Sign the national petition to end violence against nurses in the workplace.

The Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions has helped  launch a petition for a national strategy to address the growing crisis of workplace violence. The petition calls upon the federal Minister of Health to address the growing number of incidents of violence against health care workers.

“From St. John’s to Victoria, nurses and frontline health care workers go to work every day knowing they may be verbally or physically assaulted,” said CFNU President Linda Silas.

National data shows the number of violence-related accepted lost-time injuries for front-line health care workers increased by close to 66 per cent between 2006 and 2015, and that 61 per cent of nurses experienced a serious problem with some form of violence over a recent 12-month period.

“Individual workplaces have been tackling this crisis in isolation, but we need a pan-Canadian strategy to bring governments, employers, unions and frontline workers together to finally put a stop to violence in health care,” said Silas.

The petition is sponsored by Doug Eyolfson, a Member of Parliament from Manitoba who worked as an emergency room doctor in Winnipeg for 20 years. Eyolfson was assaulted at work on two occasions. The petition is open for signatures until February 20, 2019, at 10:18 a.m. Ottawa time (8:18 a.m. in Alberta).

UNA members are encouraged to add their name to the online petition.

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