Artikel dan Rencana

Nurses Always There for You: United Against Violence
kata aluan daripada Presiden dan CEO ICN

12 May 2001

Dear Colleagues,

Violence is a major public health problem that is overtaking infectious diseases as the main cause of morbidity and premature mortality worldwide. Violence also represents a serious threat to individual human rights, as it undermines health, the right to life and the right to be treated with respect. From the home, to the workplace, to the streets, violence is a public health threat that must be rooted out.

Each year, more than 2 million people die as the result of injuries due to violence. Many more survive their injuries but remain permanently disabled. Among persons 15 to 44 years of age, interpersonal violence is the third leading cause of death. In addition to injuries and death, violence can result in a wide variety of other health problems. These include profound mental health consequences, sexually transmitted diseases, unwanted pregnancies, and behaviour problems such as eating and sleeping disorders.

For nurses violence is an all too familiar syndrome – in both our professional and personal lives. Professionally, nurses deal with the terrible outcomes of violence in caring for victims on the job. Nurses are threatened with violence themselves in the workplace. In fact nurses are three times more likely to experience violence than other professionals. And because most violence is perpetrated against women, as a female dominated profession, individual nurses are frequently victims of violence in their personal life.

ICN is pleased to announce a new partnership with the World Health Organisation, the International Labour Organization and Public Services International, to roll out a broad based anti-violence campaign. The top target of this campaign is the elimination of violence from the health sector workplace. Following an up-to-date and comprehensive analysis of the problem, the campaign aims to develop an inventory of best practices from different countries, and to produce guidelines and training materials for the education of policy-makers, employers, workers and the public.

This year’s IND theme and actions are an important part of this worldwide anti-violence campaign. Our IND kit is intended to provide tools and information to assist and encourage national nurses’ associations to mount zero-tolerance, anti-violence campaigns in their workplaces, communities, countries and regions. The kit provides fact sheets addressing different aspects of violence, offering comprehensive information on which to base a public anti-violence campaign. You will also find an information rich and graphically powerful poster, which we hope you will post in public areas throughout your community. Action ideas, facts and figures, and sample media materials complete the tool kit for this important initiative.

We are certain that your association will develop further ideas and materials and we ask that you share them with us. Communicating your best practices and successful strategies will contribute greatly to the worldwide effort to eliminate violence. Nurses, as those health care professionals closest to people in all settings of society, can have a powerful effect in reducing violence and promoting a culture of non-violence.

Sincerely,

Kredit

Stallknecht, K. ; Oulton, J.A.; "Kata Aluan Sempena Hari Jururawat 2001"; ICN website; 2001
http://www.icn.ch/indkit2001.htm