Albertans need immediate action against violence in hospital emergency departments

Immediate action must be taken to protect patients, nurses and health care workers from violence in Emergency Departments in Alberta.

A stabbing at the Royal Alexandra Hospital Emergency Department in Edmonton on Friday, April 3 left one person with life-threatening injuries and another in police custody. An Edmonton Police spokesperson reported that the assailant had three knives on his person when the attack occurred.

This was not an isolated incident. Patients and nurses in emergency rooms are being exposed to violence and dangerous working conditions daily throughout Alberta.

Since the beginning of 2026, the majority of Occupational Health and Safety concerns from nurses working in the Royal Alexandra Hospital Emergency Department have involved weapons. These incidents are consistently underreported, meaning the risk to staff is likely even higher than reflected in OHS complaints.

The continued presence of dangerous weapons in the Emergency Departments represents a critical and ongoing failure of the government and employers to provide safe access to health care for patients and a safe workplace for nurses and other health care workers.

This ongoing risk is unacceptable and requires immediate action.

Since 2023, nurses at the Royal Alexandra Hospital Emergency Department have been advocating for the installation of a weapons detection system aimed at reducing violence, which is similar to ones used in Ontario hospitals. The government published a request for proposal for a new weapons detection system in October 2025 as part of a two-year pilot project but the system has not yet been installed.

The weapons detection system must be installed immediately. The safety of patients and nurses must not be delayed because of bureaucratic paperwork.

Emergency Department violence is a capacity problem. Overcrowded Emergency Departments are a direct result of short staffing, a lack of physical space, and long patient wait-times. The province’s population has boomed to five million people yet the last new hospital, that wasn’t a replacement hospital, was opened in 2012. The last new hospital built in Edmonton was opened in 1988.

This lack of capacity creates dangerous situations for patients and nurses in crowded ER waiting rooms. This is especially the case in inner city Emergency Departments like the Royal Alexandra Hospital, which sees many vulnerable patients facing homelessness, mental health, and substance dependency issues.

The Canadian Federation of Nurses Union’s 2025 report, Violence against Nurses in Canada: An Urgent Call to Action, calls for mandated minimum safe nurse-patient ratios to reduce risks of violence exacerbated by excessive workloads.

UNA is calling on the government and employer to immediately implement the following actions:

1. Expedite installation of the weapons detection system in the Royal Alexandra Hospital Emergency Department and other hospital Emergency Departments identified as facing weapons-related risks.

2. Immediately update its Hazard Identification, Assessment, and Control document to reflect these hazards and to implement effective controls that will ensure staff safety.

3. Assist the Emergency Department staff who were involved in the incident to file a Workers’ Compensation Board claim for psychological injury.

4. Have Alberta Health Services Protective Services take a much more proactive approach to speak to patients and visitors about weapons.

5. Ensure police officers are stationed in big city hospital Emergency Departments at all times.

Nurses with questions or concerns about threats of violence in their workplace can contact a UNA Labour Relations Officer or Occupational Health & Safety Advisor at 1-800-252-9394 or nurses@una.ca.