“Patient brought a gun into clinic although guns/weapons not allowed. There are no closed doors on the clinic floor and patients/family members wander in and out all the time…. We have complained multiple times about safety.”
“Yeah, my hospital. We’re unsecured…. anybody can walk into the hospital… They ask you your name and then they give you a sticker for where you’re going. You could tell them any place because they don’t have a list of actual patients. There’s no visitors pass and there’s no search and there’s no security at these entrances…. I feel like every day we’re not secured.”
“Had my wrist nearly broken by a patient who grabbed me and twisted my arm until someone else pulled him off me. Had a patient kick me in the chest…. Had a patient bite me and break skin. Had a patient throw their full urinal at me.”
“In the past year, I have had water pitchers, call lights, and other items thrown at me. I have been spit on, punched multiple times…”
Protecting Caregivers from Danger
Nurses reported the above observations in a National Nurses United (NNU) report released on February 5, 2024.
In healthcare settings, where caregivers provide compassion, care, and recuperation, violence against nurses and healthcare professionals is on the rise and has been since the COVID-19 pandemic, when “antagonism toward nurses and others reached an apex.” The very people dedicated to healing are the ones being targeted for retaliation. The NNU report is an urgent call to action, underscoring a distressing reality that endangers the well-being of healthcare workers, the quality of care patients receive, and the recruitment and retention of vital staff members.
What are administrators doing to protect their staff and their facilities during this epidemic of workplace violence in healthcare?
Not enough, it seems. A New York Times article notes that “Some health care workers have already taken matters into their own hands by undergoing self-defense training, even looking into wearing body armor.”
Leaving employees to fend for themselves is not a viable option, but solutions and interventions do exist. It is time for healthcare workplaces to take the threat seriously and implement comprehensive safety and security measures.
Alarming Statistics of Violence toward Nurses
The NNU report covered the year 2023 and gathered responses from more than 1,000 nurses in 48 states and Washington, D.C. What surfaced was grim. A staggering 81.6% of nurses reported experiencing workplace violence in the past year, with nearly half of them stating violence has increased, and only 3.8% saying they saw violence decrease in 2023.
The physical and non-physical repercussions of violent incidents can have long-term effects, both on the nurses themselves and the profession as a whole. The report illustrates that in the last year, 60% of the nurses surveyed considered changing jobs, leaving their current positions, or even abandoning the healthcare profession due to workplace violence.
NNU President Jean Ross, RN, was quoted in MedPage Today as saying “employers too often prioritize profits over patient care, including workplace violence prevention measures like safe staffing, violence prevention plans, and training.”
Healthcare Employers Take Inadequate Security Measures
Violence from patients and visitors has always been an occupational hazard of nursing, but people are growing quicker to anger and lashing out, a UCHealth chief security officer told the Colorado Sun in Oct. 2023. “This is not new, nurses and health care providers have always had their asses kicked,” he said. “However, the intensity has heightened. It is much worse. And there is [just] not enough protection for our health care professionals.”
Escalating violence in hospitals is not limited to the U.S. In Canada, the president of the Manitoba Nurses Union told CBC Radio “violence in the health-care [sic] system is the highest she’s ever seen.” In the same story, an anonymous healthcare worker in Winnipeg said, “Our violence is through the roof.”
Despite the growing crisis, employers are failing to implement effective solutions, even though “Research has documented the effectiveness of workplace violence prevention measures,” according to the 2024 NNU report.
A 2021 NNU brief–“Injury to None: Preventing Workplace Violence to Protect Health Care Workers and Their Patients”–stated, “Healthcare employers have a moral and legal obligation to provide a safe and healthful workplace to their employees. This necessarily involves recognizing the hazard of violence on the job and implementing effective workplace violence prevention plans.”
The 2024 NNU report emphasizes the necessity of proactive measures, such as unit-specific workplace violence prevention plans and appropriate staffing levels, but the report also exposes the troubling reality that “many healthcare employers continue to fail to implement these essential protections,” leaving healthcare workers vulnerable.
Regulatory Efforts Are Slow in Materializing
The U.S. government and federal standards organizations are aware of the problem of workplace violence, but solutions are not coming fast enough.
The Joint Commission–a nonprofit U.S. organization that accredits healthcare facilities–has passed workplace violence prevention for any facility seeking accreditation. Similarly, the American Hospital Association emphasizes the need for healthcare facilities to address workplace violence by implementing de-escalation techniques and security measures, such as controlled entrances, surveillance, and secure areas for staff, visitors, and patients.
But House and Senate bills addressing such security measures continue to stall. H.R.1195 – Workplace Violence Prevention for Health Care and Social Service Workers Act, an act supported by NNU and other healthcare employee organizations, would enforce an Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) standard “that requires certain employers to take actions to protect workers and other personnel from workplace violence” and apply to “employers in the health care sector, in the social service sector,” and in sectors that conduct similar activities. It was passed by the House in April 2021, but its Senate version, S.4182 – Workplace Violence Prevention for Health Care and Social Service Workers Act, was introduced in May 2022 and has yet to pass.
Similarly, H.R.2584–the SAVE Act–would establish “a new criminal offense for knowingly assaulting or intimidating hospital personnel during the performance of their official duties.” It was introduced in the House in April 2023 and still languishes there.
Holistic Approach Necessary for Hospital and Healthcare Worker Security
Addressing the epidemic of healthcare violence requires a multi-faceted approach. Implementing a holistic security solution is essential to create an environment where healthcare professionals feel safe.
The SmartSOS™ platform addresses many of the specific security recommendations in the 2021 NNU brief.
The brief lists environmental risk factors, which include:
- Obstacles to alarm systems or impediments to using alarm systems, including nonfunctional alarm systems.
- Entryways where unauthorized entrance may occur, e.g., doors designated for staff-only entrances or emergency exits.
- Presence of weapons, including improvised weapons.
SOS Technologies offers a solution to each of these factors, including highly visible tactile button stations and wearable alarm button pendants, secure entryways with video monitoring, and AI-powered weapons detection software.
NNU recommends employers take into consideration “physical layouts, patient populations, staffing levels, policies and procedures, and other facility-specific considerations.” They also emphasize that “plans must cover other areas within (e.g., elevators and stairwells, waiting rooms, and the lobby) and surrounding (e.g., employee parking areas, walkways, and other outdoor areas) the facility.”
SOS Technologies’ solutions are not one-size-fits-all, but tailored to each facility and interoperable with the facility’s existing security infrastructure. Security integration means areas both within and surrounding the facility are carefully monitored, and proper staff can be alerted before a potential threat escalates.
Other violence prevention and incident response measures the NNU lists include:
- “Implementing a system for staff to effectively seek immediate assistance when a workplace violence incident begins or when they identify indicators of potential violent behavior.”
SOS Technologies’ button stations and wearable pendants mean help–either in-house hospital security or outside law enforcement–can be summoned instantly, without the need for a radio, cell phone, or memorized codes.
- “Developing systems for effective communication about workplace violence hazards between coworkers, across shifts and units, between paramedics and receiving facilities, and between employees, emergency services, and law enforcement.” This would include “instituting communication procedures to alert employees to the presence, location, and nature of a security threat.”
The immediate and detailed nature of SmartSOS security alerts means all affected individuals would be notified instantly, with information including the exact location and nature of an incident. If the incident requires law enforcement, the push of a button will notify the police and first responders within seconds and similarly include the facility’s layout and location of the incident.
Violence against nurses and healthcare workers continues to escalate and demands urgent attention and action. With comprehensive security measures in place, we can reclaim hospitals as sanctuaries of care and healing. To make your hospital a safe and secure workplace, schedule a presentation with SOS Technologies and give your employees peace of mind.