A reader who contacted the editorial office of the news portal “Kas vyksta Kaune” last Saturday and wished to remain anonymous claimed that he wanted to draw public attention to a very serious problem in the departments of Kaunas Clinics Psychiatric Clinic, especially in building A. According to him, this problem poses a danger not only to the safety of the institution’s employees, but also to the patients themselves.
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“Nurses and other staff working in this department face aggressive patient behavior every day, but despite the high risk, there is no constantly on-duty security in the department. Employees are often left alone to deal with dangerous situations,” the source said.
He noted that these are not isolated incidents. According to him, over the past year, windows have been broken repeatedly, the nurses’ station and inventory in the department have been vandalized, and staff have experienced both physical and psychological violence.
“Despite such events, the situation, it seems, has not fundamentally changed.
This morning, a particularly painful incident occurred – an aggressive patient attacked a nurse and, as is known, her jaw was broken. This is a very serious health impairment, which once again shows the dangerous environment in which medical staff work. However, even during this event, there were no security guards in the department,” he said, emphasizing that this raises a natural question – does an even more serious disaster have to happen for real action to be taken?
He raised the question of why adequate staff safety is not ensured in a high-risk psychiatric department where aggressive and unpredictable patients are treated?
“Nurses and all staff care for patients daily, risking their health and even their lives.
They deserve to work in a safe environment where, in case of danger, professional security assistance can be immediately obtained. I hope that this issue will receive the attention of the public and responsible institutions. Employee safety cannot be a secondary matter – it must be ensured before an even greater tragedy occurs,” said the portal’s source.
Kaunas Clinics: Additional measures have been taken to ensure employee well-being and safety
Due to this situation, the news portal “Kas vyksta Kaune” contacted Kaunas Clinics. At the institution’s request, we provide the submitted comment in full.
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“We sincerely regret the incident that occurred on July 18 at the Kaunas Clinics Psychiatric Clinic and express our support to the clinic employee who was injured during it. Any manifestations of violence against healthcare workers are unacceptable and are taken very seriously, which is why the police were informed about the incident, and an internal investigation has also been launched at the hospital, during which all circumstances of this event will be thoroughly evaluated. Respecting the employee’s privacy, we do not provide more information about her health condition.
It must be acknowledged that undesirable incidents related to aggressive and disrespectful behavior of patients or their representatives still occur at Kaunas Clinics, as in other healthcare institutions, and their number is not decreasing. The majority of these consist of threats, insults, property damage, aggressive behavior towards other patients, and in exceptional cases, physical violence against healthcare professionals. Each such event is registered, investigated, and evaluated, but such situations are not and cannot be considered an acceptable part of the daily work of healthcare professionals.
That is why, after this incident, additional steps were immediately taken to ensure the well-being of employees and further strengthen their safety. On the same day, employees of the Psychiatric Clinic were given the opportunity to receive psychological consultations and emotional support. A Psychological Crisis Management Team was also activated, whose goal is to help employees overcome the psychological tension that arose after the event and to assess what necessary measures should be additionally ensured to strengthen employee safety.
After the incident, a meeting of the Psychiatric Clinic employees was held, where, together with the clinic administration, representatives of the employees’ trade union, and a medical psychologist, the situation of the incident was discussed, employees’ concerns about safety were voiced, recommendations for safe work with patients in a state of psychosis were reminded, the procedure for registering undesirable events, and the possibility for employees to apply for individual medical psychologist consultations.
However, it is important to understand the specifics of this field – the Psychiatric Clinic treats patients who, due to their health condition, may exhibit aggressive or difficult-to-predict behavior. This is one of the most complex areas of healthcare, which is why various organizational and technical measures were applied to ensure the safety of employees and patients even before this event.
Considering this work specificity, a centralized security system operates 24/7 at Kaunas Clinics to ensure daily safety – six Kaunas Clinics Security Service posts are installed on the hospital territory, where security guards are on duty around the clock. Their activities are coordinated to ensure safety and public order throughout the hospital. In departments with higher risk, additional video surveillance cameras and panic buttons are installed, which, when activated, immediately send security personnel to the department. The Psychiatric Clinic is only a 2–3 minute walk from the Kaunas Clinics Security Service coordination center.
Technical security measures are supplemented by employee preparedness – Psychiatric Clinic employees regularly participate in training on working with aggressive patients, conflict de-escalation, and safe behavior in threatening situations, as well as international “QualityRights” human rights training. International recommendations emphasize the importance of early risk identification, de-escalation, and respectful communication. In accordance with applicable legal acts and recommendations, physical intervention measures can only be applied in extreme cases when there is a real threat to the patient, employees, or those around them.
Although it is not possible to completely eliminate such situations, each incident is thoroughly analyzed. To ensure maximum safety for employees and patients, one of the six Kaunas Clinics Security Service posts has been moved to the Psychiatric Clinic, where a security guard is currently on duty around the clock,” Kaunas Clinics shared.
