In light of a growing national epidemic of workplace violence against registered nurses and healthcare workers, National Nurses United (NNU) is petitioning the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) for a formal workplace violence prevention standard, NNU announced today.

“The death of our member, Cynthia Palomata, RN, in 2010 as a result of a preventable workplace violence incident spurred NNU to continue to fight harder for workplace violence protections for our members. We have since won comprehensive legislation requiring regulations in California; now we are submitting this petition and moving to the federal level,” said NNU Director of Health and Safety Bonnie Castillo. “We urge OSHA to accept this petition and to enter rule making immediately.” 

Workers in the healthcare industry face extremely high rates of workplace violence. In 2013, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) estimated that healthcare workers experience workplace violence at rates 5 to 12 times higher than for workers overall. And the rates are on the rise; between 2005 and 2014, rates of workplace violence incidents have increased 110% in private industry hospitals. 

These statistics illustrate, say nurses, that existing OSHA efforts have proven inadequate to address the life-threatening problem of workplace violence for registered nurses and other healthcare workers.

“As things stand, nurses cannot keep their patients safe if they cannot guarantee their own personal safety, and it is past time for OSHA to mandate that healthcare employers create comprehensive prevention plans to stop violence before it happens,” said Castillo. “Workers and their unions have the right to petition OSHA to promulgate that protective standard.”

The OSHA workplace violence petition submitted by NNU includes many of the provisions and protections that NNU won in the 2014 Workplace Violence Prevention legislation in California (SB 1299, Padilla), the legislation won in Minnesota in 2015, and the legislation recently introduced in Massachusetts. California’s mandatory workplace violence regulations, requiring hospitals to have a facility-specific prevention plan, will be fully finalized within the next few months. California’s mandatory workplace violence regulations, requiring hospitals to have a facility-specific prevention plan, will be fully finalized within the next few months.

“This petition has an expansive scope, like the proposed California regulations—so it includes general acute care hospitals, psychiatric hospitals, nursing homes and long-term care facilities, home care and other field work, mental health treatment centers, and others—everywhere healthcare workers are at risk,” said Castillo.

Other key aspects of the petition include:

• A thorough assessment by OSHA of workplace violence risk factors, including staffing levels—and the implementation of prevention measures.
• A comprehensive workplace violence prevention program that is implemented at all times, in all units and work areas and on all facility grounds, including parking structures.
• Interactive training.
• Post-incident response (including first aid, trauma counseling, and injury investigation procedures).
• Employee participation in plan creation and review.
• A prohibition on retaliation against an employee for seeking law enforcement assistance during an incident.

“Workplace violence is absolutely preventable,” said Castillo. “We cannot stand by while one more nurse or healthcare worker is injured, or killed on the job. This petition says the wellbeing of all nurses and healthcare workers must be mandated at the federal level—and it must be mandated now.”