June 25, 2007
Opinion: Legislature has chance to address the workplace violence crisis in health care
By Judith Smith-Goguen
The Massachusetts legislature has begun consideration of important legislation that could help address and prevent a growing crisis for nurses and other health care workers in Massachusetts - workplace violence.
Health care was the largest industry in the United States in 2004. Yet health care workers experience violent assaults at a rate four times higher than other industries. For nurses and other personal care workers this rate jumps to 12 times higher. In fact, nurses are assaulted on the job at the same rate as police officers and prison guards.
I am one of those nurses. In 1999 I was the victim of a vicious assault by a patient while I worked as a psychiatric nurse at a facility in Central Massachusetts. The patient, a 250-pound woman, attacked me by taking my head and repeatedly smashing it against a cement wall. As a result, I suffered a scalp laceration, a concussion and severe sprains to the back of my neck and shoulders. I missed months of work from the physical injuries, not to mention the emotional and psychological toll this incident took on me and my family.
The problem has only gotten worse since my incident.
• 50 percent of Mass-achusetts nurses polled in 2004 reported being punched at least once in the previous two years.
• 44 percent of Massachusetts nurses reported frequent threats of abuse.
• 30 percent of Massachusetts nurses reported being regularly or frequently pinched, scratched, spit on or had their hands or wrists twisted.
• 86 percent of U.S. emergency nurses polled in 2006 reported being a victim of workplace violence in the past three years; 20 percent said it was a frequent occurrence.
The cost of this crisis goes beyond the physical and emotional toll on the victims by impacting the health care industry as a whole in thousands of lost work days each year from injuries to workers, increases in workman's compensation claims and an increase in costs to recruit replacement staff.
Unfortunately, much of this violence is entirely preventable, yet too many health care employers are failing to implement policies to prevent violence.
The most prevalent cause of violence in health care is understaffing. In my case, I was the only nurse on duty responsible for 13 acutely ill psychiatric patients. Much of workplace violence occurs in emergency rooms where patients are frustrated, in pain, or where family members are frustrated from waiting for hours to have their loved ones treated.
In other instances, hospitals fail to have appropriate security details on campus, or do not train their staff on how to recognize and respond to potentially violent situations.
The legislature's Joint Committee on Public Safety is considering SB 1345, the Health Care Workplace Violence Prevention bill, which would require all health care facilities to take steps to identify potential causes of violence and to implement policies and procedures to prevent violence. In October, the Joint Public Health Committee will consider HB 2059, The Patient Safety Act, which will require hospitals to set safe patient limits and increase staffing. Action on both measures will go a long way to protecting workers and saving the health care industry millions of dollars.
Judith Smith-Goguen is a psychiatric nurse and a member of the Massachusetts Nurses Association's board of directors. She currently works at UMass Medical Center.
The Massachusetts legislature has begun consideration of important legislation that could help address and prevent a growing crisis for nurses and other health care workers in Massachusetts - workplace violence.
Health care was the largest industry in the United States in 2004. Yet health care workers experience violent assaults at a rate four times higher than other industries. For nurses and other personal care workers this rate jumps to 12 times higher. In fact, nurses are assaulted on the job at the same rate as police officers and prison guards.
I am one of those nurses. In 1999 I was the victim of a vicious assault by a patient while I worked as a psychiatric nurse at a facility in Central Massachusetts. The patient, a 250-pound woman, attacked me by taking my head and repeatedly smashing it against a cement wall. As a result, I suffered a scalp laceration, a concussion and severe sprains to the back of my neck and shoulders. I missed months of work from the physical injuries, not to mention the emotional and psychological toll this incident took on me and my family.
The problem has only gotten worse since my incident.
• 50 percent of Mass-achusetts nurses polled in 2004 reported being punched at least once in the previous two years.
• 44 percent of Massachusetts nurses reported frequent threats of abuse.
• 30 percent of Massachusetts nurses reported being regularly or frequently pinched, scratched, spit on or had their hands or wrists twisted.
• 86 percent of U.S. emergency nurses polled in 2006 reported being a victim of workplace violence in the past three years; 20 percent said it was a frequent occurrence.
The cost of this crisis goes beyond the physical and emotional toll on the victims by impacting the health care industry as a whole in thousands of lost work days each year from injuries to workers, increases in workman's compensation claims and an increase in costs to recruit replacement staff.
Unfortunately, much of this violence is entirely preventable, yet too many health care employers are failing to implement policies to prevent violence.
The most prevalent cause of violence in health care is understaffing. In my case, I was the only nurse on duty responsible for 13 acutely ill psychiatric patients. Much of workplace violence occurs in emergency rooms where patients are frustrated, in pain, or where family members are frustrated from waiting for hours to have their loved ones treated.
In other instances, hospitals fail to have appropriate security details on campus, or do not train their staff on how to recognize and respond to potentially violent situations.
The legislature's Joint Committee on Public Safety is considering SB 1345, the Health Care Workplace Violence Prevention bill, which would require all health care facilities to take steps to identify potential causes of violence and to implement policies and procedures to prevent violence. In October, the Joint Public Health Committee will consider HB 2059, The Patient Safety Act, which will require hospitals to set safe patient limits and increase staffing. Action on both measures will go a long way to protecting workers and saving the health care industry millions of dollars.
Judith Smith-Goguen is a psychiatric nurse and a member of the Massachusetts Nurses Association's board of directors. She currently works at UMass Medical Center.
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