Press Conference Wednesday, 9:30 a.m., Oakland

On Wed. April 1, registered nurses will rally in front of the Harris State Building, to share personal stories of workplace violence—and to voice continued support for the highest level of protections, as new California Occupational Safety and Health Administration (Cal/OSHA) hospital workplace violence regulations move through their final public hearing.

The upcoming regulations are the result of a California Nurses Association (CNA)-sponsored bill, SB 1299—the Healthcare Workplace Violence Prevention Act—which was signed in 2014 by California Governor Jerry Brown. The bill mandates that hospitals have a comprehensive workplace violence prevention plan; Cal/OSHA’s upcoming regulations will implement the law.

“Violence against nurses has reached epidemic proportions. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, a worker in healthcare and social assistance is nearly five times more likely to be the victim of a nonfatal assault of violent act than the average worker in all other major industries combined,” says California Nurses Association/National Nurses United Co-President Malinda Markowitz. “Prevention is the key to stopping it, and because the hospital industry has not done an adequate job on its own, it’s so important that Cal/OSHA’s regulations will hold hospitals accountable for having a plan.”

WHAT: Press Conference with Registered Nurses on Workplace Violence
WHEN: Wednesday, April 1, 9:30 a.m.
WHERE: Harris State Building 1515 Clay St., 2nd Floor, Room 1 Oakland, CA

Nurses say they are in support of the current draft regulations, which include education and training of all personnel who do direct patient care, maintaining proper security, ensuring adequate staffing, and documenting and reporting violent incidents to Cal/OSHA. After the press event, several CNA registered nurses will also testify at the official public hearing, beginning at 10, on the proposed regulations.

“We want to let the hospital industry know that we will continue to push for the strongest regulations possible,” says Terry Tongate, a St. Joseph of Orange County RN, who will be speaking at the event. “I work in the Emergency Department, and we get kicked, hit, spit on, slapped and kneed all the time. The hospitals discourage any type of reporting and hang the nurses out to dry. They need to be held accountable.”

According to the Bureau of Labor statistics, 13 percent of healthcare workers’ missed workdays in 2013 resulted from workplace violence—an increase for the second year in a row. That’s why, nurses say, mandatory regulations are so key. In fact, RNs say California’s current legislation is a model for the nation.

“These draft regulations set a model for the rest of the country by emphasizing prevention. Some states emphasize criminalizing perpetrators, who are often mentally unstable patients, but we don’t believe locking up more mentally ill people is the answer,” says Markowitz. “It is the responsibility of hospitals to stop violence from happening in the first place.”

Nurses also laud the comprehensive nature of the proposed regulations, which cover healthcare workers working in any location where healthcare is being provided. The healthcare industry’s current trend toward moving care to retail settings means unregulated spaces vulnerable to violence, say nurses. RNs assert that hospitals must be held accountable for making these spaces safe.

Public health nurses, who work beyond the hospital walls, in the community, would also be better protected by the proposed Cal/OSHA draft regulations, nurses explain.

“We’re the ones who are visiting the most vulnerable, the most marginalized patients,” says San Mateo County public health nurse Laarni San Juan, RN. “There need to be safeguards in place so that nurses can safely provide the care their patients need, as they put their lives at risk to help the community.”

With final input gathered, draft regulations will then move on toward finalization in 2016.