About 40 per cent of all violence-related WorkSafe BC claims come from health-care workers, although these workers make up less than five per cent of the province’s workforce. Violence in the health-care workplace also differs from violence experienced by workers in other industries. Health-care workers must interact closely with their patients/clients and their families, often under difficult circumstances. Patients/clients may act aggressively due to their medical condition or the medication they are taking. They may also have a history of violent behaviour or feel frustrated and angry because of their circumstances.

Violence in the workplace is a concern of many VPSA members. Learning self-defence skills is one way to mitigate risk. VPSA recently hosted its second self-defence workshop this year, with members from a cross-section of departments taking part.

VPSA member Dr. Anna Borowska welcomed participants and introduced martial arts expert Master Michael Sirota. Under his guidance, the group learned some awareness and prevention strategies, basic striking and escaping techniques, and boundary setting and verbal assertiveness methods. The goal of the workshop was to build confidence and enable quick decision-making. Participants were enthusiastic with some keen to further develop their new-found skills. Given the enthusiastic response to both self-defence workshops offered so far, VPSA is planning to offer more this fall. Stay tuned for details.

Photos from the workshop are available here.

Survey feedback

Eight members completed the post-event survey with 86 per cent strongly agreeing that the event supported their well-being and all respondents feeling they had learned something new or felt their self-defence skills improved during the workshop. Respondents gave the event a net-promoter score of 75 per cent.

Comments included:

• Overall great idea for a “mixer.” So glad there were more male participants.
• Well organized. Fun. Useful. I’ll sign up again.
• Good event for well-being and meeting others. Does build collegial relationships. Hope I never need the self defence.
• Let’s do this again! Choose better food. The bowls were all vegetarian or plant-based options.
• I really enjoy this events where there is some physical activity so this workshop was great!