Healing in harm's way: Violence against health care workers is increasing

What you probably already know: Workplace violence in health care settings is on the rise. You may have seen news reports about several recent attacks on nurses and hospital staff, including an incident last winter when a gunman opened fire and held several nurses hostage at UPMC Memorial Hospital in York County, Pennsylvania. Three staff members and three police officers were shot. One officer died. Other incidents occurred at HCA Florida Palms West Hospital — where a mental health patient brutally attacked a nurse — and at HCA Florida Fawcett Hospital (two nurses were attacked). An American Hospital Association (AHA) report released in June noted that “violence is a major public health problem impacting our health system and communities.”

Why? The AHA points to a general increase in violence over the past decade, citing rising rates of assault, homicide, suicide and firearm use. Violence toward health care workers also rose, in no small part due to widespread frustration with the health care industry during the pandemic, and has not dropped to pre-pandemic levels. National Nurses United (the nation’s largest union of registered nurses) said in a 2024 report that 81.6% of nurses had experienced at least one type of workplace violence within the past year, including verbal and physical threats and being pinched or scratched. Only 3.8% of nurses reported a decrease in workplace violence. It’s worth noting that more than 85% of nurses are women.

What it means: Congress is getting involved. Wisconsin Sen. Tammy Baldwin and Connecticut Rep. Joe Courtney have introduced The Workplace Violence Prevention for Health Care and Service Workers Act, a bill that would require employers in the health care and social services industries to develop and implement a comprehensive workplace violence prevention plan. “No worker, especially those we rely on for care, should be injured or killed on the job,” Courtney says, noting that a nurse in his home state was murdered two years ago during an in-home visit. “Unfortunately, this workforce endures more violence than any other workforce in America.” The surge in health care violence is also a financial problem: The AHA estimates the overall cost of violence to hospitals at $18.27 billion, whereas training and prevention programs were estimated to be $3.62 billion.

What happens now? National Nurses United notes that the bill is modeled after California’s health care workplace violence prevention program that went into effect in 2018. Employers there are required to establish a clear process for employees to report incidents and threat of workplace violence; adopt prevention measures including staff training; and develop plans to respond immediately to all incidents. “Workplace violence is a longstanding and unresolved issue in health care,” says Jennifer S. Mensik, president of the American Nurses Association, which represents more than 5 million registered nurses across the U.S. “It is a growing public health crisis that demands urgent attention.”