The colossal danger of hospital violence needs urgent care
The week between Christmas and New Year’s might be a lull in most workplaces, but not in hospitals. Overcrowding and understaffing are common, and that can have dangerous results. The very people charged with protecting the health of the public at large face an unsafe environment themselves.
Health care workers experienced five times more violence on the job in 2018 compared to the general population, federal statistics show. Covid-19 has only seemed to increase the amount of violence in health care settings, with regular reports of assaults and verbal abuse toward medical staff.
In Branson, Missouri, for instance, the assaults on nurses have become so frequent and severe — incidents of violence tripling in the last year — that a local medical center installed panic buttons to alert security personnel when a patient becomes unruly.
In 2019, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported nearly 21,000 workers in private industry reported some form of violence while on the job; 70 percent were in health care and social assistance positions. Data going back to 1993 shows steady increases in the health sector over time.
In January, the nation's oldest accrediting body in health care, the Joint Commission, will begin mandating that hospitals institute workplace violence programs and reporting systems to maintain their highest standard of approval, which can be crucial to an institution obtaining sponsors and donors.
https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/hospitals-health-care-workers-face-inordinate-violence-they-need-our-ncna1286705
__________________________________________________________________
Take the cops out of schools and put them in hospitals. Just a thought.
= new reply since forum marked as read
