Health Care Workers Share Tactics to End Violence in Hospitals
Almost everyone knows someone who has been in the hospital and cared for by nurses, aides, and other health care workers. But most people don’t know that nearly half the 1.7 million workplace assaults each year are perpetrated by patients—and that nurses and other personal care workers are 12 times more likely than others to be victims of workplace violence.
Especially in emergency rooms, health care workers often deal with patients who are drunk or delusional. In October a psychiatric tech at a California state hospital was strangled by a mentally ill patient.
According to the Department of Labor, only police and correctional officers are more likely to face violence on the job.
Health care unions are tackling the problem head-on. In Philadelphia, 210 nurses and colleagues attended a conference November 10 sponsored by PASNAP, the Pennsylvania Association of Nurses and Allied Health Professionals. We heard from the Massachusetts Nurses Association, which has fought for and won state legislation that imposes stiff penalties on patients and clients who assault health care workers. PASNAP and MNA are affiliated with National Nurses United.
Health care workers shared experiences ranging from verbal insults and slaps across the face by agitated patients to kicks in the chest and beatings that required months of convalescence.
A nurse from Crozier Medical Center tearfully lifted her sleeve to show us an injury sustained over the weekend in the ER. The physical and psychological harm imposed by these injuries can be truly crippling.
Why does the health care industry fail to address these issues? The cost of security equipment, extra guards, and de-escalation training for workers isn’t kind to the bottom line. Also, hospital administrators are uncomfortable with the image created by stricter security measures.
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The MNA left us with a clear understanding of how Massachusetts nurses built a strategy and won their legislative fight, creating a safer workplace.
“The health care setting was once perceived as a refuge from the elements outside, as a place to treat the sick and injured,” reads a MNA training guide now being distributed in Pennsylvania.
But as members brought more and more cases to the union, attempts to open a dialogue with employers were largely ignored. The MNA responded by setting up a task force in 1999 to study the problem, supporting nurses beaten on the job, and developing contract language.
As the day wound down, two Philadelphia-area district attorneys conveyed their commitment to prosecuting people who assault health care workers. They agreed to serve on a task force to develop strategies for prevention in Pennsylvania.
Mary Adamson is a surgical-trauma nurse at Temple University Hospital.
