Citing “dissatisfaction and disgust” with the battering of a female member of the nursing profession by a man — an incident that has now gone viral on social media — the membership of three nursing organisations say they will on Monday mount an islandwide protest which could result in some practitioners being off the job.
Nurses’ Association of Jamaica (NAJ) President Dawn Marie Richards, on Friday told the Jamaica Observer that the group will be joining forces with the Jamaica Enrolled Nurses’ Association — of which the affected nurse is a member — and the Jamaica Midwives’ Association “to voice our concerns in a more formal way”.
“It will be in the form of a protest. We hope to see justice swiftly brought to the perpetrator of the act. We hope to see security measures being put in place for members of our profession to ensure our safety to and from work; nurse was on her way to work when this incident occurred,” Richards told the Observer.
“We are going to be going out. It’s going to be islandwide, nurses who can be off the job will be, but we have to send a message out there, and it’s not because it’s one of our own. As I said, the NAJ, on a yearly basis, brings awareness to the public through our Orange Day Walk,” a militant Richards told the
Observer, adding that further details of the planned vigil will be disseminated over the course of this weekend.
She said the incident, which saw the nurse being mercilessly pummelled, kicked and flung by the enraged man, has left members of the profession reeling.
“To know that at a time such as this we are now faced with this violence being perpetrated against one of our own, right in a time when we are trying to cope with what has happened with the nine-year-old [Kelsey Ferrigon] and the missing student from the University of Technology [Anisa Dilworth], who is the daughter of a member of the medical profession,” Richards stated.
“So you know it is hard for us at this time, but we stand resolute and we are asking our members to be aware of what is happening around them, be aware of your circumstances and in any event, if you can mitigate, move away because we realise now that people are not so nice,” she said further.
The Observer was told that the incident happened on the Mount Airy Road in St Andrew on Tuesday night.
While the circumstances that led to the incident are still unclear, it is understood that some time after 7:00 pm the man and the nurse were driving separate vehicles along the road when the man became enraged and attacked the woman.
Initial reports said the nurse’s motor car had bumped into the car being driven by the man. However, other reports have emerged that there was no contact between the vehicles.
A video of the incident, which went viral on social media Thursday night, shows the man at one point with what appeared to be a gun in his hand, brutally assaulting the nurse, even stomping on her head.
Commenting further on the incident, Richards said nurses are better advised to be more guarded, given the obvious decline in certain societal values.
“The expectation you would have had that because you are female, because you are a nurse, somebody would have had some sympathy. That was not seen in this incident. So as advocates for nurses and for nursing, the Nurses’ Association of Jamaica is saying we are not happy with what has happened. So on Monday we will join forces,” she told the Observer.
Friday morning, amidst widespread outrage, the Firearm Licensing Authority (FLA) said it had launched an investigation.
Explaining that it conducts investigations into incidents like these “where it can be confirmed that the individual involved is a licensed firearm holder”, the FLA said “we are assuring the public that a thorough investigation will be conducted and the necessary actions under the law will be taken”.
“The FLA takes this opportunity to remind licensed firearm holders that brandishing or using a firearm to intimidate or assault a person is a criminal offence,” said Cait-Amoi Goulbourne, FLA corporate communications officer. The FLA said it will provide an update as soon as its board of authority has made a decision regarding the matter.
Health and Wellness Minister Dr Christopher Tufton, in a statement on Friday afternoon, strongly condemned the physical assault of the nurse.
“I am shocked and outraged at the brutality of the assault. It is a heinous act, perpetrated against a member of the health-care team — a team whose members consistently go above and beyond the call of duty in service to the people of Jamaica,” Dr Tufton said.
“This assault, whether on our health-care workers or Jamaicans, must not be tolerated,” he said.
Dr Tufton further called on the police to swiftly investigate the matter and ensure that the full measure of the law is applied.
“I implore the public to be respectful and protective of our health-care workers as they move about their business in society,” he said.
He, in the meantime, said the nurse in question had been treated at University Hospital of the West Indies.
Additionally, he said the ministry will continue to offer support to the healthcare worker and her family “for her full and speedy recovery”.
On Friday, Patricia Duncan Sutherland, Opposition spokeswoman on social transformation and president of the People’s National Party Women’s Movement, called for “urgent national action to end the epidemic of violence against women and children”.
She said the country “was plunged into a state of disbelief and outrage as we watched a man beat a woman because of a fender-bender. A brutal pattern of violence against women has seized national attention and demands an uncompromising response”.
“Only a week ago the nation struggled to process the brutal rape and murder of nine-year old Kelsey Ferrigon by a recently released sex offender, a horrifying consequence of our broken systems for monitoring and rehabilitation. The country is now searching for a missing University of Technology student. These are not isolated events. They are symptoms of a deep societal crisis, where violence is normalised,” Duncan Sutherland said.
This Instagram video grab shows the moment when a man steps on the head of a nurse on the Mount Airy Road during a physical assault.
