‘Tried to gouge my eyes out’: Nurses terrified to go to work as hospital violence surges
Exclusive: During his first week on the job as a mental health nurse, James* witnessed a patient punch a female nurse in the head, then turn to him and say, “you’ll be next”.
That was 16 years ago and violence towards healthcare workers has only worsened, to the point that some nurses feel being assaulted on the job has become inevitable.
Mental health nurse James told nine.com.au he was attacked by a patient who tried to gouge his eyes out. Supplied
“There is this fatalistic sense that you will get assaulted at work,” James told nine.com.au.
“The patients are able to just abuse us without consequence, and staff feel quite powerless and that no one really cares.”
New data from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) revealed the rate of healthcare workers being hospitalised after workplace assault has doubled in the last decade.
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Assault is now the second-leading cause of healthcare staff being hospitalised at work, but the AIHW data doesn’t capture the many assaults that don’t require hospital admission, or are never formally reported.
James said he’s been kicked, punched, and spat on by patients more times than he can count working in forensic mental health care.
But even the most severe physical assaults – like when a patient elbowed him on the chin so hard he bit through his tongue, or when another jumped him and “tried to gouge my eyes out” – didn’t put him in hospital, so they wouldn’t have been counted.
A report from the NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association (NSWNMA) found 88 per cent of nurses, midwives and carers had experienced or witnessed violence and aggression over a six-month period in 2025.
It also revealed that occupational violence is significantly underreported by healthcare workers, with only a quarter saying they report all incidents.
“In terms of workplace culture, it definitely has become normalised,” Sydney nurse Eloise*, 26, told nine.com.au.
She was strangled by an ICU patient while trying to help him out of his room alone.
“His hands were around my neck and in my fight or flight response, I just froze,” she said.
“I didn’t want to hurt my patient, I didn’t understand what was happening. I didn’t push him off me. I didn’t really do anything.”
Verbal and physical attacks are so common that many nurses are afraid to go to work. Renee Nowytarger
Another nurse happened to walk past the room at that exact moment and Eloise was able to call for help, but the outcome could have been much worse.
“Four or five nurses came in and were able to pull the patient off me,” she said.
Eloise was taken to the emergency department, reported the assault, and was given a week off work, but she was hesitant to leave the team short-staffed.
When she returned to work, she was riddled with anxiety and traumatic memories of the assault.
Mental health nurse Ravi said that for many healthcare workers, the mental and emotional wounds of workplace violence last long after their physical injuries heal.
“The psychological impact that it has, I feel like it doesn’t get talked about,” he told nine.com.au.
“Nurses are resilient, but that’s not really the point. The point is what is management and the health service doing about it?”
In his six years on the job, Ravi has been assaulted and has seen colleagues threatened, verbally abused, and physically attacked time and time again.
There is some support available, usually in the form of counselling and employee assistance programs, but he said most nurses don’t find it helpful.
Without appropriate support and protection, many burn out or leave the industry altogether.
“You wouldn’t think, when you sign up as a mental health nurse, that you would sometimes be scared of going to work,” Ravi said.
Nurses across Australia have called for higher staffing minimums, better mental health and other support services, proactive risk assessment from management and timely follow-up on reported incidents of workplace violence.
Without changes to better protect them at work, many will simply leave.
“Staff feel they have got to look after themselves and their co-workers, because they can’t rely on management for support,” James said.
“A lot of the staff leave, and the few people that want to stick it out feel like their backs are against the wall.”
Ravi added that despite years of discussion about improving healthcare worker safety for years now, there’s been a lack of follow through.
“There is a lot of talk about how the management and health services are going to support nurses and all that, but on the floor it’s hard to see that change,” he said.
Health Services Union (HSU) national secretary Dustin Halse said healthcare workers deserve a workplace that takes as much care of them as they do of their patients.
The union advocates for practical measures like better staffing levels, functioning duress systems, and properly equipped security to keep all healthcare staff safe at work.
“Health and care workers are routinely placed in unsafe environments while services operate short-staffed and under enormous pressure,” he told nine.com.au.
“Violence and injury are often treated as an unavoidable part of caring for others, but they are not. They are workplace risks that can and must be prevented.”
*Names changed.
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