Abstract
Despite their role in saving and improving lives, healthcare providers, particularly nurses, in New Zealand too often find themselves victims of verbal abuse from their patients and members of the public. If this turns, or threatens to turn, physical, the state and employer are empowered to provide remedies and sanctions, whether this be through improved security, trespass notices where possible, or through criminal charges, punishing perpetrators and providing a sense of legal relief. When this abuse is purely verbal however, a gap becomes apparent; what recourse for words spoken, however harmful, exists? No clear crime has been committed, yet the harms have potential to be debilitating, debasing, and even career-warping.
This dissertation seeks to explore existing legal frameworks in which there may lie some legal recourse, or other potential solutions based in New Zealand law, for this grey area of verbal abuse.