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RIH emergency nurse says she was assaulted by patient who made racist remarks

ER nurse assaulted at RIH

A nurse working at Royal Inland Hospital says she was assaulted over the weekend by a patient who made a racist remark.

Arlene Tedjo told CTV News she was working in the hospital’s emergency department on Saturday when the incident took place. Tedjo said the patient, a man, was initially unresponsive, but she roused him awake.

She told CTV the assault took place several minutes later.

“That individual purposely waited until I was walking past to kick my leg with the intent of tripping me,” she said.

“I stumbled, and then he said to me, ‘I don’t know how they do things in your country’ — implying, first, that I’m not from this country, and being racist toward my level of education and professionalism.”

Tedjo said the incident left her upset.

“I’m angry and insulted because, firstly, I am Canadian and I am trained as a Canadian nurse,” she said.

“It should not matter if I was born here or not.”

Police confirmed they are investigating the incident and the suspect was arrested and then released with a court date.

Interior Health also confirmed officials with the health authority are looking into the incident.

Tedjo told CTV the incident shows what healthcare workers are dealing with in short-staffed B.C. hospitals. This weekend, she said, RIH’s emergency department was operating with slightly more than 50 per cent of the staff required.

“We’re all working overtime. We are understaffed. We are under-supported on a daily basis,” she said.

“We’re going through a global pandemic, through extreme heat waves, another wildfire season — on top of that, we’re getting verbally abused and physically abused, which sadly isn’t new.

“We’re sick and tired of working in unsafe conditions and can’t cope with being the one that everything falls onto anymore.”

Tedjo said the problems in B.C. hospitals are exacerbated by the fact that an estimated 1,000,000 — including about 40,000 Kamloops residents — do not have a family doctor. That means even more pressure is being put on emergency rooms.

“A lot of the healthcare workers are compensating for the systemic failures that have been occurring for a long time,” Tedjo told CTV.

“So, after this happened, I had to collect myself, continue working because there was a lot of people that still needed to be seen and we were short-staffed.”



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