Workplace Violence...Just Say No!

I have had the pleasure of spending the past two days teaching and participating in the NC State Emergency Nurses Association Annual Conference.  The first day I was a teacher in a pre-conference session, teaching in an Emergency Nursing Pediatric Instructor Course.  We now have 13 new ENPC Instructors in NC--woo-hoo!  Today was the actual conference day and what a great agenda!  All of the speakers were nationally recognized nurses who have made great contributions to emergency and trauma nursing and who had great ideas and knowledge to share with us here in NC.

One topic that was discussed was the increasing frequency of workplace violence directed at emergency department nurses and staff.  It is ironic that the public each year reports that they respect nurses and trust them, yet at the same time, nurses on the front lines are very likely to be assaulted, physically or verbally, while they are trying to perform their jobs.  Diane Gurney, the current national ENA president spoke about the work that the ENA is doing to spotlight this issue including research into the subject and highlighted the following study.

A study by the Emergency Nurses Association (ENA) finds that more than half of emergency nurses report experiencing physical violence on the job, including as being “spit on,” “hit,” “pushed or shoved,” “scratched,” and “kicked.”  One in four has experienced such violence more than 20 times in the past three years.  Just as alarming, one in five nurses have experienced verbal abuse more than 200 times during the same period (www.ena.org).

As a nurse working in an emergency department, these numbers are more than concerning, they are at epidemic proportions.  You, as a member of the general public (if you are not in health care) should be stunned at these numbers.  In no other workplace would this be acceptable.  This behavior would not be acceptable in a restaurant, a grocery store, a bank...  AND as importantly, this violence has implications for other patients and families in our emergency departments who might get caught in the crosshairs of a violent event caused by another patient or family member.  With violence in our emergency departments, EVERYONE is at RISK!  There should be no tolerance for workplace violence...anytime...anywhere~

So, what to do?  In many states, if they have a assault on a healthcare worker law, it is just a misdemeanor.  North Carolina had a bill to make assault of a healthcare worker a felony which just DIED IN COMMITTEE.  Our laws need to be strengthened to provide a legal deterrant and so that nurses and other healthcare workers who are assaulted by patients or family members have legal recourse.  The NC ENA advocates for this stronger legislation, and will be again trying to find a sponsor to introduce the bill again in the upcoming session.  When this happens, if a nurse asks you to contact your legislator, I hope that you will.





~DDB