US healthcare workers face rise in workplace violence

Alex Johnson

Workplace violence against nurses and other healthcare workers has burgeoned in recent years, becoming a nationwide phenomenon across hospitals and clinics. In one report released by nurse.org last month, testimonials from workers and official injury statistics highlighted, as the article’s headline puts it, “a silent epidemic” of violence growing in healthcare settings.

The article cited a report released by the American Nurses Association (ANA), which found that a staggering one in four nurses is assaulted on the job on any given day. Drawing on figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the ANA report notes that 13 percent of days way from work in the healthcare and social assistance sectors in 2013 were the result of violence. Workplace violence includes physical assaults, physical or verbal harassment, and even homicide.

Workplace violence in the healthcare sector remains higher than in most professions. According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), an estimated 75 percent of reports of workplace violence each year occurs in the healthcare and social service industry.

Data from the National Crime Victimization Survey has documented that healthcare workers have a 20 percent higher chance of suffering workplace violence than other workers. A recent poll conducted by the American College of Emergency Physicians found that 47 percent of emergency physicians had been assaulted while at work and over 70 percent report witnessing another assault.

The surge of violence against healthcare workers is a function of the US healthcare system itself. Nurses in particular are the frontline contacts for patients in their families, who are often in medical and emotional crisis and can lash out emotionally and physically against those providing them with care. But this has always been the case. What has changed?

Emergency rooms, hospital wards and clinics are a microcosm of the communities around them, concentrating their social and economic distress, as well as increased violence. Patients and their families seeking medical care also have the added stress that, even if their treatment is successful, they could return home to crushing medical debt.

A recent survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Los Angeles Times found that 137 million Americans struggle to pay their medical bills. One in six Americans who get insurance through their jobs say they been forced to make “difficult sacrifices” over the last years to pay for healthcare, including cutting back on food, doubling up with relatives or friends, or taking on extra work. One in five say their medical bills have eaten up all of most of their savings.

Skyrocketing out-of-pocket costs are the result of dramatically increased deductibles and co-pays. Added to this is the impact of the Affordable Care Act on healthcare workers. While the ACA has reduced the uninsured rate, this means that more patients are utilizing their insurance, adding to patient loads for healthcare workers, who are also under pressure to cut costs for hospitals and other providers.

All of this translates into a potentially toxic environment for those providing patient care. The nurse.org article contains numerous stories of attacks on healthcare workers, revealing their workplace conditions to be veritable danger zones where they’re vulnerable to the most brutal assaults from patients.

Angela Simpson, a registered nurse from Maryland who was only employed for six months, suffered a severe head injury after being attacked by an agitated dementia patient.

Simpson compared the likelihood of her getting hurt while working to her husband, a corrections officer. “It is more likely that I will be hurt on the job by an assault than him,” she said. “He gets to use pepper spray and has a bullet-proof vest, and he has others to back him up. He has the right to defend himself.”

Despite the publication of numerous studies exposing the rising violence against nurses and other healthcare workers, the healthcare industry discourages nurses from reporting incidents of violence, even when injuries are sustained.