On April 14, National Nurses United will join members of Congress to speak out at a Washington, DC press conference unveiling findings from the Government Accountability Office (GAO)’s new report on workplace violence prevention in healthcare.

GAO conducted the study over the course of nearly two years, interviewed health care workers in five states, and evaluated the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)’s efforts to protect health care workers from workplace violence.

“We commend the GAO for producing a report on this critical issue, and we expect the report will demonstrate what we already know from our members: It is past time for federal action to protect healthcare workers across the nation, as rates of violence are on the rise and increasing in severity,” said Bonnie Castillo, NNU Director of Health and Safety.

What: Release of New GAO Report on Workplace Violence Protection
When: Thursday, April 14^th from 2:30-3:30 PM EDT (11:30 AM PDT)
Where: House Administration hearing room, Longworth House Office Building 1310, Washington, DC 20515

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, a worker in health care and social assistance is nearly five times more likely to be the victim of a nonfatal assault or violent act, than the average worker in all other major industries combined.

“This is a serious occupational hazard, which is why NNU has been fighting for workplace violence protections for years—in Massachusetts, Minnesota, California, Texas, Illinois, Florida, and other states. Last year, nurses in California won a landmark law that mandates all hospitals to implement workplace violence prevention plans as enforced by California-OSHA,” Castillo said. “But not all states have their own OSHA program to do enforcement. To fully protect all healthcare workers in the nation, we need a strong federal OSHA standard requiring workplace violence prevention plans in all hospitals and healthcare facilities. And we need it now.”

California’s mandatory workplace violence regulations, requiring hospitals to have a facility-specific prevention plan, will be fully finalized within the next few months. In California and Nevada, NNU nurses have also fought for and won supplemental insurance protection for registered nurses injured in workplace assaults. 
 

“Workplace violence should not be part of the job, and it doesn’t have to be,” said Brandy Welch, RN, an NNU general pediatric nurse from Long Beach, Calif. who will be speaking, along with other healthcare workers, at the GAO report release. “Workplace violence prevention standards, like the upcoming regulations in California, require employers to identify risk factors and implement engineering controls to correct them.”

Welch, who suffered a permanent right arm injury when a teenage patient threw a chair at her last October, said that had regulations been in place at the time—her injury may have been prevented.

“In this incident, I reacted the only way I knew how—I had not been trained in de-escalation techniques or strategies for avoiding physical harm,” said Welch. “California’s workplace violence standards will require employers to provide training for all employees, so that we know how to handle aggressive behavior and violent situations.”

Welch said with an injury that will now span her entire career and beyond, she is heading to DC to speak on the importance of mandatory, federal provisions being put in place to protect all nurses and healthcare workers, across the country.

“I am so proud that the work of my union—National Nurses United—has resulted in strong workplace violence standards for healthcare workers in California. I will feel much safer at work once these standards have been implemented,” said Welch. “But it is not enough. It is time for a strong national standard to protect all employees from workplace violence, not just those in California. We need to guarantee that workplace violence is not a ‘part of the job.’”