Workplace Violence: Nurses often get hit at work

By Suzanne Hoholik, The Columbus Dispatch

Many nurses are assaulted by the very patients they’re trying to help.

Experts say most of these assaults take place in emergency departments or psychiatric units where patients and visitors might have used alcohol or drugs, or were improperly medicated.

Nurses often take the brunt of patients’ frustration and fear because they’re on the front lines more than other medical staff.

“You can have people hit, slapped, knocked about and thrown against walls,” said Jan Lanier, deputy executive officer of the Ohio Nurses Association. “It’s a tense situation.”

Workplace violence is one of many issues more than 400 nurses and nursing students will talk about with lawmakers today at the Statehouse. They also plan to talk about staffing shortages in Ohio, prescribing authority for advanced-practice nurses and licensing issues.

A national study last year by the Emergency Nurses Association found that more than half of emergency-room nurses experienced physical violence on the job during a three-year period.

About 25 percent of the 3,465 nurses surveyed said they were attacked more than 20 times during the three years.

“It’s a daily occurrence that there was a threat of (assault),” said Nancie Bechtel, president of the Ohio State Council of the Emergency Nurses Association.

“That’s why most hospitals – and all in Franklin County – have security that hangs out in the emergency department.”

But assaults often go unreported, said Diane Gurney, president of the Emergency Nurses Association.

“Many nurses feel it’s part of their job,” she said. “You’re there to help and they hit you. How do you feel about turning around and reporting them so they’re punished? It’s a complicated issue.”

Assaulting a nurse in Ohio – and in 17 other states – is a first-degree misdemeanor. Assaulting a police officer, firefighter or emergency medical worker in Ohio is a felony.

A bill introduced in the Ohio House last week by Rep. Denise Driehaus, a Cincinnati Democrat, would raise the penalty for assaulting a nurse to a fourth-degree felony, punishable by as much as 18months in jail and a fine of as much as $5,000.

Peggy Halter was a young nurse at a state mental hospital in 1987 when a patient grabbed her and carried her down a hall before security stopped him.

She was traumatized, called her husband and gave her two weeks’ notice. She didn’t call police or file a complaint.

“I never thought to do that; it’s not in our culture,” said Halter, now an associate professor of nursing at the University of Akron.

She shares that incident with her students to teach them to be vigilant, even while they care for patients.

Experts say workplace violence is hurting recruitment and retention. The same national study found that two-thirds of emergency-room nurses were considering leaving the emergency department.

“I’m hopeful that Ohio’s legislators will do the right thing for Ohio’s nurses,” Bechtel said.