Reintroduction comes amidst a wave of violent attacks on nurses

National Nurses United (NNU), the nation’s largest union of registered nurses, announced its support for the Workplace Violence Prevention for Health Care and Social Service Workers Act, reintroduced today by Representative Joe Courtney (CT-2) and Senator Tammy Baldwin (S-WI). The bipartisan bill would mandate health care and social service employers develop and implement a comprehensive workplace violence prevention plan.

The bill’s reintroduction comes as nurses and hospital staff face an epidemic of violence. Just this year, nurses and hospital staff have been violently attacked at UPMC Memorial in Pennsylvania, HCA Florida Palms West Hospital, and HCA Florida Fawcett Hospital. Many more incidents go unreported or are pushed aside by hospital management.

“Nurses need federal lawmakers to take swift action to protect us and our patients from preventable violence,” said Nancy Hagans, RN and president of NNU. “For years, employers have refused to work with us to implement workplace violence prevention plans and to address the staffing crisis that creates the conditions for workplace violence. Congress can support frontline health care workers by requiring employers to invest in proven measures to prevent violence in our workplaces.”

Health care and social service workers have some of the most dangerous jobs in the United States — they are nearly five times more likely to experience injuries due to workplace violence than any other profession. According to a February 2024 NNU survey, eight in 10 nurses (81.6 percent) have experienced at least one type of workplace violence within the past year. Nearly half of nurses (45.5 percent) reported an increase in workplace violence in their units in the previous year.

Hagans continued, “We applaud Representative Courtney and Senator Baldwin for reintroducing this critical legislation that will save so many lives. Studies have shown that the most effective way to reduce health care violence is to have a plan in place before violence occurs. Nurses across the country urge Congress to use its power to save lives and swiftly pass the Workplace Violence Prevention for Health Care and Social Service Workers Act.”

“No worker — especially those we rely on for care — should be injured or killed on the job. Unfortunately, this workforce endures more violence than any other workforce in America. Tragically, a dedicated nurse from eastern Connecticut was murdered on the job in 2023 during a solo home-health visit to an extremely high risk patient with a criminal history of violence. Joyce’s preventable death was a reminder of the urgent need for Congress to buck up and act,” said Representative Courtney. “Our legislation would put proven tactics into practice in hospitals and health care settings across the country to prevent violence before it happens. I’m grateful for the bipartisan coalition — backed by the support of the workers directly affected by this violence — who has worked tirelessly to move this legislation forward year after year.”

“Nurses, doctors, and anyone who is working to give our families health care deserve to work in a place that they are safe and free from violence, but in recent years we’ve seen workplace violence skyrocket,” said Senator Baldwin. “We rely on our health care workers every day to protect our communities, and in turn, we need to protect them from senseless acts of violence. That’s why I am introducing legislation to give our health care professionals long-overdue basic protections, helping address our healthcare workforce shortage and keeping our frontline heroes safe.”

The Workplace Violence Prevention for Health Care and Social Service Workers Act follows California's groundbreaking health care workplace violence OSHA standard, which was the result of state legislation sponsored by the California Nurses Association/National Nurses United. Previous iterations of this legislation were passed by the House of Representatives with strong bipartisan support in the 116th and 117th Congress.

Workplace Violence Prevention for Health Care and Social Service Workers Act Overview

• Requires federal OSHA to create a federal workplace violence prevention standard mandating employers develop comprehensive, workplace-specific plans to prevent violence before it happens.
• Covers a wide variety of workplaces, including hospitals, residential treatment facilities, non-residential treatment settings, medical treatment or social service settings in correctional or detention facilities, psychiatric treatment facilities, substance use disorder treatment centers, community care settings such as group homes and mental health clinics, and federal health care facilities such as those operated by the Veterans Administration and the Indian Health Service, as well as field work settings such as home care and home-based hospice, and emergency services and transport services.
• Sets a quick timeline on implementation to ensure timely protection for health care workers.
• Sets minimum requirements for the standard and for employers’ workplace violence prevention plans, based on the groundbreaking California legislation. These requirements include unit-specific assessments and implementation of prevention measures, including physical changes to the environment, staffing for patient care and security, employee involvement in all steps of the plan, hands-on training, robust record keeping requirements including a violent incident log, protections for employees to report WPV to their employer and law enforcement, among other requirements. 

National Nurses United is the largest and fastest-growing union and professional association of registered nurses in the United States with more than 225,000 members nationwide. NNU affiliates include California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee, DC Nurses Association, Michigan Nurses Association, Minnesota Nurses Association, and New York State Nurses Association.