A Powerful Story of Workplace Violence, Survival & Systemic Change - Natasha Poirier, RN

We just released one of the most important—and most difficult—podcast conversations we’ve ever hosted.
In this episode, Perley Brewer speaks with Natasha Poirier, a longtime registered nurse whose life changed forever after a brutal workplace assault in 2019. Natasha courageously walks us through her experience, the life‑altering injuries she suffered, the long fight for justice, and the systemic failures that followed.
Natasha has also written a powerful memoir about her journey, Unsure: Bearing Witness to Justice, where she exposes the “code of silence” surrounding workplace violence in healthcare and shares her fight for recovery and justice. 

This is not just a story about violence in healthcare.
It’s a story about resilience, advocacy, and the urgent need for change—in hospitals, in Worksafe systems, and in how we protect frontline workers.

Transcript

Perley Brewer   0:16
Welcome to today's podcast. My name is Pearly Brewer and I will be your host. Today's guest is Natasha Poirier. Natasha has a story about violence in the workplace that she is going to share with us. Welcome, Natasha.

Natasha Poirier   0:29
Thank you. It's so good to be here with you today, Pearly, to discuss the, you know, this important issue.

Perley Brewer   0:38
So, Natasha, why don't we start by getting you to tell us about Natasha Poirier prior to your violent altercation?

Natasha Poirier   0:47
Prior to my violent altercation, I was a registered nurse for 25 years. I was a hard worker, working 60-70 hours a week, working two jobs.
A mother, a grandmother, a wife, a daughter, an aunt, a niece, and I love to exercise.
I was very outgoing, very social, very involved. I was known as a person that has had the solution to every problem. And yeah, it was a very active life, but very fulfilling.
And I loved my career.

Perley Brewer   1:41
So before the day you were assaulted, had you ever yourself had any violent incidents that you had to deal with as as a nurse?

Natasha Poirier   1:50
I did when I first became a nurse, about two years after I had an incident while I was pregnant with my daughter.
Eight months pregnant, I was kicked in the abdomen. So that was my first, my first violent incident at the hospital.

Perley Brewer   2:17
Now, were you off work at that time or not? No, April.

Natasha Poirier   2:20
No, no, I didn't take any time off work. It wasn't even discussed at the time because I felt ashamed. I felt that if I would report the incident, I would lose my job. I had many fears, so that was kept between me, you know, and my.
Colleagues and it was never reported at that time and this was in 19901998.

Perley Brewer   2:49
So what about your fellow workers? Had you seen them assaulted or kicked at or hit in any way before your incident?

Natasha Poirier   2:59
Depending on the area where I worked in different healthcare areas and yes, I did witness people getting spit on, kicked, bit.
Insulted. Um.
You know, urine and feces thrown on them. Yeah, I I've witnessed some situations.

Perley Brewer   3:32
Yeah, so for people that haven't followed your story, I certainly have since it happened. But for people that haven't, what exactly happened to you the day you were assaulted?

Natasha Poirier   3:48
This was it was March 11th, 2019. It was a Monday, beautiful Monday, sunny afternoon. I was in my office working on ordering some equipment for the unit.
And at 1400, I saw a man poke his head in my office, invited him to sit down to see what was the problem and.
He was the patient of a wife that was hospitalized and because she had seizures, she needed close monitoring. So over the weekend the staff had moved her from the end of the corridor.
To in front of the nursing station for closer monitoring and he wasn't happy with that and he wanted his wife's room change. She wanted to change us to change her room and this was his whole issue.
Um, so once he told me what his issue was, I started looking at my senses. You know, who was the lady? How old? Who was the physician? Um, trying to gather all the information I could, but before the, uh, conversation could continue.
The man abruptly said that he was giving me 3 seconds to make a decision and within.
A second or two, he came at the back of my desk, pulled me by the hair, started pulling my three of my fingers back, holding them back in a hold, and this went on for quite a while.
Until it became more and more aggressive, where I was punched multiple times in the head, multiple time on my nose. I was thrown against the wall multiple times.
There was an LDN, one of my staff that came and tried to assist me, but she got hurt in the process and after he was done hurting her, he came back at me and he continued punching me in the head and continued his attack.
Until 11 minutes later, someone was able to pull him off of me.

Perley Brewer   6:18
Oh, terrible.

Natasha Poirier   6:20
Yeah, it it really was.

Perley Brewer   6:23
It must have seemed like an eternity for you.

Natasha Poirier   6:27
Yes, it was. It did feel like an eternity. It felt like because I was coming in and out of consciousness, it felt like soon if someone didn't rescue me that.
It would be obvious that I would probably end up dying from all the the multiple blows to my head. So that is how I felt like I I only had a short time left.

Perley Brewer   6:59
How badly were you injured? So what actual injuries did you suffer?

Natasha Poirier   7:03
I suffered multiple life altering injuries, suffered A traumatic brain injury which causes symptoms like nausea.
Light sensitivity, multiple migraines and headaches. Unable to be stable on my feet at times. It affected my eyes where it caused me a death perception problem, so.
That is a that is really disturbing and on top of that I had fingers injury that became hand injuries. So I had multiple.
Procedures done on my hand, +2 surgeries. My nose was operated on by two surgeons and two surgeries at the same time. I suffered severe neck whiplash.
And.
That's not to talk about the PTSD.
The major depressive disorder with suicide ideation.
I've been hospitalized twice on the psychiatric unit for a psychotic episode. Um.
Panic disorders, anxiety attacks. Um My brain injury is really stopping me from thriving because when I wake up in the morning, I don't never feel refreshed. My battery might be at 40 or 50% and then I might.
I have two, maybe 3 hours a day where I can be productive and then my battery shuts down so I have to rest. If not, I'm word searching. I have trouble expressing myself. My brain slows down.
It's a whole gamut that I had to and still trying to manage everything because when one condition kind of comes up or accelerates, it kind of.
Impacts all the other conditions, so it's becoming like a juggling act to make sure that.
I can stay OK and be stable. You know, it's, it's, it's difficult. Every day is difficult.

Perley Brewer   9:51
So what was the reaction of the hospital at the time?

Natasha Poirier   9:56
Hmm.

Perley Brewer   9:56
Did they realize how serious it was?

Natasha Poirier   10:01
They didn't they. I don't think they did and once they did it was try to kept like minimize like and and victim shaming also.
For example, when I got first got the call from the hospital to kind of discuss what had happened after I had all explained, the first question was what could have you have done differently?

   10:32
Oh.

Natasha Poirier   10:32
You know, that was the kind of support I got. When I decided to call the RCMP after the attack, the security, the head of security came to my office and he said what would you like to do now? And he said I would like to call the RCMP.
And he said, Are you sure? As if like he was shocked, like, Are you sure this is where you want to go? And I just said yes, I'm sure.

Perley Brewer   11:01
That's unbelievable. It really is. I mean, you would think that they would have, the security would have, the hospital would have both called the RCMP right away.

Natasha Poirier   11:13
Yes, but um.
I guess it's all about appearances and public perception and all those things that came into to play for for management.

Perley Brewer   11:19
Yeah.
Now, as a nurse, we you were you were in a union.

Natasha Poirier   11:34
Actually, what? Yes, I was in the union. I was in the nurse managers union because I was in charge of a department that had 53 staff under me. So one of the biggest departments at the hospital.

Perley Brewer   11:35
Or not.

Natasha Poirier   11:52
And um.

Perley Brewer   11:54
So did they back? Did they give you some support?

Natasha Poirier   11:55
That.

Perley Brewer   11:59
The Union.

Natasha Poirier   12:00
Yes, the union gave me support in the capacity that they knew how. Um.
But it was really challenging navigating all the systems I became involved in on my own.

Perley Brewer   12:20
Yeah. So what happened prosecution wise over the following few months with the gentleman that assaulted you and how did you sort of feel about the process as you went through it and the outcome?

Natasha Poirier   12:36
So the initial charges were assault. Um, the RCMP came to see me in the emergency department and 10 minutes later he was charged and just let go. Just like that. Uh, this trial started in uh step.
September 2019 and it lasted 18 months approximately. I was in court approximately every 2-3 months to see the process. As my injuries got more severe and the documentation
started coming in. I had to go myself to the Crown prosecutor and ask her to elevate the charges to assault causing bodily harm. It's a big difference.
It took a lot of convincing and everything, but at the end the charges were elevated and um, it took a lot of time for the RCMP to charge him for the second assault he did on my colleague.
They didn't want to. They refused to. So I had to make calls to Victim Services and finally we found an RCMP that was able to proceed with those charges.
At the end, he was convicted. He did jail time. He received six months. It was very, very hard for the lawyers to find precedence like case law, because this hadn't kind of happened in Canada.
So this was a case setting precedent that at the end changed the law. So now when a healthcare worker gets assaulted, it's as severe as if you would assault a police officer or an RCMP officer.
So the charges that would be aggravating charges. So hopefully you know that law can be utilized because it took a lot of years to change it.

Perley Brewer   14:49
So how do you feel? How do you feel today when you look back at that whole process and and and you know, really what he got for punishment, so to speak? How do you feel?

Natasha Poirier   15:00
I feel that the punishment was insufficient. My hopes that he would get at least two years plus a day so he could spend his time in federal prison so he could be mandated to take anger management classes and.
Whatever else would be needed, but in provincial prison in six months, there's nothing you know that that is done. So I was disappointed with the the verdict.
But at the same time, I was very happy that he was convicted and went to jail because there's a lot of people, you know, that, oh, he'll never get anything for that. Nothing's going to happen. Well, no, I took a lot of energy, but I forced through the process.
In that process was a year and a half.

Perley Brewer   15:59
Now you can correct me on my next statement if I'm wrong, but what I read in the media is that he never really showed any remorse, did he?

Natasha Poirier   16:08
He never showed any remorse, and while he did his statement at the last court before judgment, he stood up and he told the judge that Natasha is lucky. I didn't kill her that day.

Perley Brewer   16:22
Oh.

Natasha Poirier   16:24
Yeah, but that's not it. That was that was the Criminal Court and I felt like I was chewed up and spit up through the process. But after that, if about four months after, I had to go through another trial, which was the civil.
Trial because I pressed the ball charges against him. I was awarded 1.3 million by the judge, but of course I've never received anything.
Anything from the gentleman. And after that I had another process to go through because my employer terminated my job and my employment even before the Criminal Court was over, not even 2 years.
Without explanation. So I went through a grievance. I waited five years to be heard and again I was on the stand. So this is 3 processes where I became a witness on the stand.
And that was.

Perley Brewer   17:27
How could D?
How could the hospital let you go?
What was their rationale?

Natasha Poirier   17:41
Their rationale? Um.
They didn't even do it face to face with me the way they did it. They called my union representative and said we have a letter today that terminates Natasha and she tried to have a meeting with them to discuss this before they made the distress decision.
And uh, no, the their decision stood. So after I got that letter, um, it really sent me in a spin. I was vomiting daily, like multiple times a day for a couple weeks.

Perley Brewer   18:03
My goodness.

Natasha Poirier   18:18
You know, it was just the the grossness of it all, the the immort, immortality, like the morality of it all was really against my own values.

Perley Brewer   18:27
No.
So that process, did you eventually get your job back or not?

Natasha Poirier   18:37
Eventually it it went to court, it went through an arbitrator and basically we tried to negotiate putting me back on the list. They didn't want to. The arbitrator finished by awarding me $40,000.
It's not a lot, but apparently Vitalitid, the organization that I work for, has a vitual habit of letting go people that got injured at work, and those people used to get $5000 as a reward. So now everybody.
Would get 40,000, so it's that another president.

Perley Brewer   19:23
Wow.
That's almost unbelievable.

Natasha Poirier   19:27
Yeah, it's if you put the whole case together and everything that happened, it becomes a real story.

Perley Brewer   19:34
Now, not not to insinuate and blame here or anything here, but did the Union not fight that or challenge that?

Natasha Poirier   19:44
The um, the letting go.

Perley Brewer   19:48
Yes.

Natasha Poirier   19:49
Well, they they did it through a grievance.

Perley Brewer   19:53
OK.

Natasha Poirier   19:54
And the we followed the grievance process.

Perley Brewer   19:57
OK, now workers compensation system.

Natasha Poirier   20:02
Oh my, yes.

Perley Brewer   20:04
Well, go, go ahead, tell us sort of what, how they were reacted and what they've done or haven't done for you.

Natasha Poirier   20:13
Workmates compensation. Um.
Was in charge of my whole healthcare plan. They made the decision. They were the authorities and it's either I followed the plan or I was cut off. So I followed the plan. I followed their treatment.
Um.
You know, I.
I averaged 8 appointments a week for about three years and then I continued the treatment, you know, for another two. It took about 4 1/2 years to get my long term disability approved.
At first they they approved me until, you know, I couldn't drive at first, like I couldn't.
I was. I couldn't get up my steps. My husband had to carry me. I was so.
Not well, so, but I went to the treatments and then after a while they sent me for an assessment where for two days I had to put put pins in holes.
That was their assessment and the assessment came back that, you know, I could work at 50%. But the reality is I was working at 5 hours a week and it was exhausting me and it took me a whole six days before I could.

   21:29
Mhm.

Natasha Poirier   21:46
Recuperate to work again. So they cut me off my salary, you know, they cut me off by 3/4 and I just had to kind of fight through the system. I had Blue Cross involved also.
Um, so I had.
You know, all these organizations.
Coming at me and telling me, you know, what was the next step along with dealing with the criminal, civil and the grievance from the hospital, it was, um, not good. But after four years, my case manager changed and my new case manager called me two days.
After she started and she said Natasha.
It's clear evidence that you're disabled, like you're on long term disability and I'm approving it and stamping it today.
So that was, um, that was a relief because.
At the beginning before my incident.
With my two jobs, I was making 175,000 a year.
After my incident, my salary, I lost 70% of my salary. So the financial impact along with all my injuries were almost.

Perley Brewer   23:10
Oh.

Natasha Poirier   23:19
Unsurmountable and I never thought I could live through.
All of this.
But I did, and I'm a survivor. So, you know, the physical impact, emotional impact and everything. But let's not forget the financial impact.
If you make 170,000 a year and you're cut down to 24,000 a year, what are you going to do? What is your life going to look like? Are you going to be able to keep your house? Are you going to be? No, I wasn't. Everything was sold.
And reduced.

Perley Brewer   24:02
So be you've written a book, but before I get into the book, uh.
It sounds to me that like the health care system hasn't changed any as a result of this, and it's been how many years now?

Natasha Poirier   24:16
Gonna be seven years and two weeks.

Perley Brewer   24:18
Seven years. So what should they do? What should they be doing to make it safer for the health care staff?

Natasha Poirier   24:29
You know, that's a question that I've been asked, you know, by the media and different people and I've done a lot of research try to find.
Scientific articles on violence in healthcare. There's one article that was released by the Australian University and the WHO maybe 35 years ago.
It's not a subject that's explored very much so.
Through my research I found a person that is a healthcare security expert and he is also an author and he knows the insurance and outs.
Of what security measures need to be implemented, what changes needs to be done. And from what I've heard in the media, nobody kind of knows who to reach or how to get organized. But this guy?
Is someone that should be contacted because I did contact him and we communicated a few times and um, I think he's an expert that should, um, be tapped into.
But is there a will? Is there a will to invest money for changes that need to be done? You know, all I've heard is talk, talk, talk and blah blah blah. And it's always the same message, but I haven't seen any action. I've heard with 0 tolerance, but.
Not happening. It's OK to talk, but if there's no action between behind your talk, then it's useless and nothing's gonna change, but for the immediate purposes.

Perley Brewer   26:15
No, obviously not.
Yeah, it's.

Natasha Poirier   26:28
It would be to install everybody have a a security device on them that if they need help they can just press and it goes to a central alarm with a team that comes or in every office in every nursing station.
Just like a red button that they can press for urgency, urgencies like that. They say they have the code white team, but these people are not trained for incidents like mine. They're trained more to how to.

Perley Brewer   26:48
Mhm.

Natasha Poirier   27:06
Of help control a patient that's out of control and that has, you know, mental health issues and things like that, but.
It's just not enough. It's not enough.

Perley Brewer   27:20
Where was security that day?

Natasha Poirier   27:23
Um.

Perley Brewer   27:25
I mean, what's a benefit of a security if if they're not there to help?

Natasha Poirier   27:25
Well, well, what I've seen security do is sit in front of the cameras and mostly monitor parking in front of the hospital, you know.

Perley Brewer   27:37
Yeah. Sad.

Natasha Poirier   27:39
And even if they do a round every hour, that unit has 32 units. So by the time he does another round, it's gonna be, you know, at least another 2-3 hours. It's insufficient and something needs to be done. I've been screaming this, you know?
You know, for years, and every time I listen to someone speak about this on the radio, it's the same rhetoric, you know, violence prevention program, which, by the way, I had just renewed 2 weeks before my incident.
Or, you know, risk assessments. Well, it's not to nurse managers to do risk assessment in a hospital. It's it's way out of our territory. It's inappropriate and it's useless.

Perley Brewer   28:30
Yeah.

Natasha Poirier   28:32
So people like the like David Corbin can help set your organizations and set a plan and a budget and discuss all that and help implement the proper.
Robust security measures that are needed.

Perley Brewer   28:56
So you've written a book, I guess a couple of questions there. One, why did you write to decide to write the book? And what are the messages that you share in your book?

Natasha Poirier   29:05
Well, the book. I'm the author of the book, but unfortunately I wasn't able to write it because I don't have the.
Skills or or the concentration levels or everything. So what I did, I hired a ghost writing team. So every week for about 2026 weeks we had an interview. They were asking me question and the book was being.
Written one chapter at a time. Um, the reason why I felt compelled to.
To write or to tell my story is because I felt.
I felt completely um.
Contaminated by this event.
My body was remembering. My mind was remembering, you know, like.
It I was just.
I thought I would need to expose myself more until I became desensitized to my situation. So that's why I proceeded to to go with the book. And it's a memoir. It's a memoir of of my career.
Career and um and my life journey.
Um.
The reviews that I've received on my book, the message is that it's a message of courage. It's an inspiration, healthcare hero. And many people said, oh, it's the first time I read a book and I couldn't let it down. Like I had to read it.
Like for until I finished the book, like it was mesmerizing. So I've had a lot of positive feedback, but also a few people said that it was repetitive at some places.
Yeah.
And maybe it is. I have a brain injury. I'm the one that reviewed my book over and over and over again before I released it. I must have taken off 100 pages out of that book, rewrote it, and it's it's just.
It was just a whole process, a whole process of.
And unconventional therapy that I was doing for myself. And as I was writing the book and talking to my daughter about it, you know, she really encouraged me to release it and publish it.
So people could read the journey and be sensitized and create awareness surrounding the issues. So that's when I decided to release the book and I needed it to be released on Nurses Week in May. Like that was very important.
To me because it was symbolic. So it happened and it happened in 2024.

Perley Brewer   32:27
Now, excuse me for our listeners today, how can they get a copy of your book? Where's it available?

Natasha Poirier   32:33
It's available on Amazon. The audio book with Prime is free. The the Kindle copy is $1.36. You can also have it at the Librari Academian on the University of Moncton campus.
They have a library, so it's also there, yeah.

Perley Brewer   32:55
OK.
So a couple of last questions here. What does the future look like for Natasha?

Natasha Poirier   33:08
Well, I'm not sure, but.
I think I would like to continue, you know, working on stabilizing my mental health to ensure my quality of life improves. I'll continue to accept invitations like the Community College of New Brunswick.
She has been inviting me for a few years to talk to their students once a year about this topic. So there's discussions. I've done a few podcasts often I receive.
A request for media for an interview or the radio. So I can't do too much of these events, but if I separate them correctly, then it's not as impactful on my health.
As if I would. So it it's just kind of pacing myself, maybe going with the flow, continuing my my work that I'm doing, contributing what I can to this topic.
And just.
I'm just here if you know people need to.
To debris for brainstorm or things like that. I think that's what I see.

Perley Brewer   34:38
Sh.
So how did your family feel about the assault and all that you've gone through? I must say it must be so traumatic for them as well.

Natasha Poirier   34:51
You know, even though they weren't there. Um.
They were very, very traumatized. They felt like there was no kind of supporting agencies or support that was offered to them to help them navigate the crisis because.
The Natasha that they knew wasn't there anymore. I was having fits of rage. I was saying anything and everything that was in my mind. I had lost my cognitive filter.
Uh, my irritability. My mood swings. Um.
It fairly altered the family unit and the relationships.

Perley Brewer   35:41
Well, look, Natasha, you know, it's almost unbelievable what you went through and it's really unbelievable that you didn't get this proper support that you needed from all the different parties. It's it's such a sad story, but I guess from the point of view of you writing your book.
And and sharing your message, that's that's a positive that came out of it.

Natasha Poirier   36:06
Yes, absolutely. Yeah, if anything. And you know, the law, the federal law changed. So that was a big win, um, not only for me, but for all healthcare workers in Canada. So that was, uh, a major milestone.

Perley Brewer   36:13
Yeah, big win, yeah.
But it shouldn't have taken you getting assaulted and going through what you went through to get a proper law in place.

Natasha Poirier   36:34
No, but the the the the unions were fighting since in 1985 in the House of Commons to get this changed 1985. So look how many years it took.

Perley Brewer   36:45
Yeah.

Natasha Poirier   36:50
For anything to change.

Perley Brewer   36:54
So I guess one question I still have you know in my head over this topic is this if if any worker gets a solid at work, is there a different standard applied versus?
Someone getting assaulted on the street.

Natasha Poirier   37:12
Oh my God, absolutely. And the problem with getting injured at work is that you have to file a Worksafe report. That's the law.

Perley Brewer   37:15
Oh.
Mm-hmm. Yes.

Natasha Poirier   37:27
Which takes away the right to sue your employer. So you assume that by exchanging those rights that you'll be well protected and your salary will be maintained.

Perley Brewer   37:33
Right.

Natasha Poirier   37:42
But in my case, because I was on Worksafe, it becomes extremely, extremely expensive for the employer to keep me on that, whereas if I would have been injured on the street and went on Blue Cross.
Then there's no increase in premiums for the employer. So the employer does not want to keep staff on Worksafe and I've been in meetings where higher management.

Perley Brewer   38:09
Yeah.

Natasha Poirier   38:18
Is advising us and telling us to get this person off Worksafe because it's costing too much and showing us the amounts. And this happened in one than more than one meeting, more than one organization. So it is a huge problem.
It's a taboo if you're gonna go on Worksafe and it's a black cross on you if you accept the you know the the the payments and the support that you get from Worksafe.

Perley Brewer   38:51
Yeah, and they talk so much about, oh, accommodation, accommodation the employer's supposed to accommodate.

Natasha Poirier   38:56
Well, this is what they didn't do with me.

Perley Brewer   38:59
Yeah, obviously.

Natasha Poirier   39:00
They didn't accommodate, they didn't try. Uh, they simply when I reviewed all the the I went through um access of information to review higher management's e-mail in regards to uh me.
And it was, um, how can we get rid of Natasha Poirier legally? This was the e-mail that was sent. So from that e-mail on it was a, you know, not a conspiracy, but.
Um.
It was a a really a trial event to try to get me out of the the organization. So they just while I didn't volunteer to go, they just terminated me and they knew that it was a highly.
Um, in a mediatized case. So that was also said in the e-mail that they would have to be careful because it's it's followed by the media heavily across the country.
And it was interesting to go through access of information to see how this all developed.

Perley Brewer   40:18
Well, well, look, Natasha, I had listening to you today and and what you've gone through and the lack of support is just just terrible. It's the only way to put it. And it's so unfortunate that you didn't get everything you needed here. You give your.
Life and daily energy to taking care of patients. Yet when you were there in a situation where you needed help, everyone left you by yourself.

Natasha Poirier   40:48
That's right.

Perley Brewer   40:51
Well, look, Natasha, thank you very much for taking the time for our podcast. We very much appreciate it. And for our listeners today, make sure you you get a hold of the Natasha's book and read it and share it with with other folks. There's a lot of good information here.

Natasha Poirier   40:51
That's right.

Perley Brewer   41:10
that I don't think a lot of people really know about and they need to know about it. So for our listeners, stay safe and have a good week.