'Frightening trend': Deadly assaults on medical workers are rising

[Jilly_in_VA]

It's a medical nightmare: When the bullets fly not outside on the street, but in the doctor's office or the hospital itself.

This week's shooting that left four people dead at a Tulsa medical center is an all-too-familiar scenario for health care workers across the nation, who face assaults and even bullets on the job, according to studies and police reports of at least a dozen shootings across the U.S.

In another hospital attack on Friday, a man stabbed a doctor and two nurses at Encino Hospital Medical Center's emergency department in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles and barricaded himself inside. The man remained inside a room in the hospital for about four hours as SWAT team members tried to unsuccessfully to negotiate with him before he was finally arrested, police said.

"The risk of workplace violence is a serious occupational hazard for nurses and other health care workers," a recent study by National Nurses United found. "Countless acts of assault, battery, aggression, and threats of violence that routinely take place in health care settings demonstrate a frightening trend of increasing violence faced by health care workers throughout the country."

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2022/06/03/tulsa-shooting-medical-health-assaults/7490186001/
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The assault and battery, threats, etc. are nothing new to this old nurse. The shootings and stabbings most definitely are.

[hlthe2b]

1. My ER colleagues (especially nurses) are threatened on an almost daily basis. Not enough security,

no metal detectors, hell half the time no one available to even greet (screen) who is coming through the doors, and the amount of homeless with psych issues merges with the angry anti-vaxxers/COVID-deniers and wealthy self-entitled narcissists to make it a nightmare right now--especially with up to seven-hour waits (or more) in many ERs. The amount of abuse (including violence) we are unloading on HCWs, especially ER staff after 2 1/2 years of COVID and with massive staff shortages (quite a bit from COVID morbidity/mortality) is damned near as indefensible as refusing to control the guns killing children in their schools.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

2. OSHA: Workplace Violence in Healthcare

For OSHA, it used to mean acts committed by patients on the caregivers. The shootings and stabbings add a new dimension.

Workplace Violence

Workplace violence (WPV) is a recognized hazard in the healthcare industry. WPV is any act or threat of physical violence, harassment, intimidation, or other threatening disruptive behavior that occurs at the work site. It can affect and involve workers, clients, customers and visitors. WPV ranges from threats and verbal abuse to physical assaults and even homicide. In 2010, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data reported healthcare and social assistance workers were the victims of approximately 11,370 assaults by persons; a greater than 13% increase over the number of such assaults reported in 2009. Almost 19% (i.e., 2,130) of these assaults occurred in nursing and residential care facilities alone. Unfortunately, many more incidents probably go unreported.

{snip}

[Lovie777]

3. The trend encompus other professions as well . . .

teachers, etc.

[RamblingRose]

4. Anyone watch New Amsterdam? That was part of the theme of this last season: attacking health care

workers and blaming them for Covid restrictions. Where they were once heralded as hero's now they're blamed for the shutdowns, mask mandates, etc.

[Midnight Writer]

5. The conservative message machine has made healthcare workers their enemy.