Assault of nurse prompts experts to revisit legal provisions, security for medical personnel

AMMAN — Last week, an associate nurse at Princess Basma Hospital was physically assaulted while on the job, according to the Jordan Nurses and Midwives Association (JNMA).

The nurse was admitted to the hospital to receive treatment and the assailant was arrested. An investigation into the incident has been opened, JNMA Vice President Mohammad Kharabsheh told The Jordan Times. 

Although the quantity of reported cases of assault against nurses has decreased from 80 in 2018 to 4 in 2023, many go unreported, Kharabsheh noted. 

“The only acceptable number of assaults is zero… Nurses and other medical staff continue to deal with threats and violence while doing their jobs,” he said, demanding stringent penalties. 

Kharabsheh also suggested increasing security measures in overcrowded emergency rooms (ERs) and hospitals with high inpatient census, where most assault cases occur. 

Maha Fakhoury, a board member at the Jordan Medical Association (JMA), said that around 20 assaults against doctors have been reported to the JMA this year so far, compared to 81 cases in 2019.

Fakhoury believes that despite the significant decrease shown in the data, the numbers don’t reflect the reality of the situation. 

In many cases, assaults go unreported, or victims drop the charges to avoid long legal procedures or due to being pressured by the assailant’s family, Fakhoury told The Jordan Times. 

An ER doctor working at a public hospital that often deals with high inpatient census agreed to speak with The Jordan Times about this issue on the condition of anonymity. 

The doctor said that many patients come to the ER with a large number of family members, who in their attempt to advocate for their loved ones, disrupt doctors’ work and create charged situations that sometimes escalate into verbal abuse or physical violence. 

“Doctors try to be as understanding as possible, as family members can be quite emotional, especially when the patient’s case is critical… but sometimes the situation gets out of hand,” the doctor said. 

Article 187 of the Jordanian Penal Code states that any individual who assaults an employee while performing his or her job, or due to actions taken while performing the duties of his or her post, shall be subject to imprisonment of no less than six months. 

Fakhoury demanded that a 2015-decision by the Cabinet, which approved the mandating reasons for a number of draft amendments to the Penal Code, be revisited.

The decision includes strengthening penalties against assailants of educators and medical personnel to be no less than one year of imprisonment. However, the amendment never went into effect, the JMA member said. 

Speaking with The Jordan Times, Executive Director of Lawyers Without Borders-Jordan, Muath Mumani, noted that the implementation of any legal amendments or new deterrent policies should be preceded by an extensive evaluation of the assault cases to determine their root causes and provide decision makers with accurate statistics and indicators. 

There are currently around 34,000 nurses registered with the JNMA, including 7,000 in the public sector and 11,000 in the private sector, while thousands of others work abroad, according to the JNMA. 

The JMA stated that 42,364 doctors are currently registered with the association, 6,246 of whom work in the public sector and 2,253 of whom are deceased.