Stress, bullying, violence and sexual harassment are genuine issues in the workplace which demand a response, delegates at the SIPTU national nursing convention have been told.
Ironically, it is within the health services that some of these problems are most acute, and there is a "blatant failure" to deal with them, according to Mr Francis Devine, an education and training tutor with SIPTU.
Speaking yesterday about stress and bullying in hospitals, Mr Devine said fundamental problems still existed regarding the identification and acceptance of these problems as being hazardous.
He warned that there could be long-term and potentially fatal outcomes for those exposed to constant chronic stress levels.
Despite this there were no specific regulations or legal standards that could be applied, enforced or appealed to, said Mr Devine.
"There are no prevention of stress at work programmes. The same is true for the other problems under discussion, bullying, violence and sexual harassment."
Health indicators of stress, he said, included headaches, back pain, stomach upset, high blood pressure, muscle pains, skin problems, anxiety and depression.
Trade unions, he said, had to push in each workplace for the introduction of a stress management programme.
"Management is often suspicious of such demands. Everyone is comfortable with an obvious hazard - like noise, say - that can be clearly identified, measured, compared to a legally binding, international standard and removed, reduced to acceptable levels or mitigated by the provision of suitable personal protective equipment.
"Stress is not like that. Tolerance and susceptibility vary from individual to individual, and within the same individual, from time to time."
Mr Devine said a recent MA study in UCD on bullying within nursing revealed that well over half of those interviewed claimed to have been the victim of bullying at some time.
"Together with the high levels of violence and stress which are acknowledged to exist within nursing, all this builds up a picture of extreme exposure of nurses to the full range of possible human factor hazards and underlines the need to pursue strategies to deal with them."
Mr Devine said that if stress, violence and bullying were as endemic in the health services as most suggested, it was long overdue that the matters be dealt with, not just by management but also by trade unions.