Hospital safety: Halifax Infirmary patient recalls own brush with violence

A former patient at the QEII Halifax Infirmary is speaking out about safety concerns, alleging she witnessed firsthand the kind of violence health-care workers experience.

Mandie Pitre is sharing the story in light of a Code Silver incident on Wednesday in the hospital’s emergency room, where three workers were stabbed. 

“If nothing is done to make sure that there is better safety and security for staff and for patients in the hospital, it’s just going to keep happening,” she said.

Pitre was hospitalized in the orthopaedic unit with a dislocated ankle in September 2024. She says she awoke in the middle of the night and heard another patient speaking with the nursing team on the other side of her alcove.

Suddenly, she recalls, the tone shifted.

“There’s no security on the floor right now, and it’s just these six female nurses, that are all not very big. So then, they’re starting to freak out, and you can hear in their voice something significant is happening and it’s not good,” she said.

Pitre says she later found out the patient had gotten into the nurses’ station and was threatening them with a pair of scissors. Staff called police, who arrived on scene and tried to deescalate the situation.

“They’re like, ‘You need to put down the scissors, you’re scaring the nurses and it’s making them not feel safe,’” she recalled.

“All of a sudden, just out of the blue, I hear this blood-curdling scream.”

Pitre says she saw the man run down the hallway past her, and witnessed him hurting himself.

“And then he gets taken off the floor eventually and then it’s a whole crime scene in the hospital,” she said.

A Halifax Regional Police spokesperson confirmed officers were called to the QEII on Sept. 11, 2024 for a weapons-related incident. Police said staff in that situation were not physically injured.

After the most recent attack, Pitre says she was disheartened to hear nothing has changed.

Workplace violence is a major concern for nurses — current and aspiring.

Tiffany McEwen, the president of the Canadian Nursing Students Association, says it can hamper students from entering the field.

“I thought to myself, ‘Is this really what I want to do? Do I want to go to work every day afraid that somebody might just lash out for no reason whatsoever, that I may end up off of work for six months a year, lose my income, be afraid, have post-traumatic stress from the incident?’” she said.

“Violence doesn’t stop as soon as the assault is over.”

According to the Nova Scotia Nurses Union, violence can be prevented.

Janet Hazleton, the union’s president, spoke up about the issue during the Federal, Provincial and Territorial Ministers of Health meeting, which took place this week in Halifax.

“We’re saying that we need security in all our facilities 24/7,” said Hazelton.

“We need security cameras. I think we need metal detectors. I spoke to the health ministers yesterday and the federal minister of health and I talked about this, and said it’s time.”

Karen Oldfield, CEO of Nova Scotia Health, said it is doing what it can to make the province’s ERs more secure.

“I want them to know I’m doing everything in my power to ensure that they can feel safe in their workplace,” she said in an interview Thursday.

She confirmed that Nova Scotia Health had purchased five hand-held metal-detecting wands to enable staff to search for concealed weapons, and that training to learn how to use them has begun.

As well, she said contract negotiations with the province’s nurses had led to an agreement to spend $7 million on new security measures, such as risk assessments and education programs. And she stressed that the health authority and the nurses union were deciding together on how to invest those funds.

In connection to Wednesday’s incident, 32-year-old Nicholas Robert Coulombe, of Halifax, is facing one count of attempted murder, three counts of aggravated assault, three counts of assault with a weapon, and two counts of possession of a dangerous weapon for the purpose of committing a crime.

— With files from The Canadian Press

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