Health-care providers seek solutions for increase in workplace violence

LINCOLN — Profanities aimed at nurses.

Taser needed in the emergency room.

Physical assault of front-desk personnel. 

Nebraska health care officials said Friday they’re seeing a significant uptick in violence aimed at medical professionals. And after deadly incidents at hospitals in Tulsa and Dayton this week, they’re seeing more nurses and health care workers considering switching jobs.

A ‘driver’ in exodus of nurses

“We’re at a staffing crisis, post-COVID, and we know (workplace violence) is a major driver for a lot of people to leave the profession,” said Jeremy Nordquist, the president of the Nebraska Hospital Association. 

Addressing the increase in incidents of verbal and physical abuse is one of the “main pillars,” Nordquist said, in rebuilding the health care workforce, which has seen shortages of up to 15% and 20% in some facilities. (Bryan Health in Lincoln, by contrast reported a 7% job vacancy rate Friday.)

Nordquist was joined Friday by health professionals from Omaha, Lincoln, Lexington and North Platte in a news conference to talk about the increase in violent incidents in health care facilities.

The event coincided with the association’s sixth annual “Hospitals Against Violence Day” and comes during a week in which five people were shot and killed inside a Tulsa health care clinic and a security guard was slain at an emergency room in Dayton.

Medical staff are five times more likely to be victims of violence than the average worker, Nordquist said. And the pandemic and other stressors, he and others said Friday, are making it worse.

Assaults rise

A survey of nurses nationwide found that 44% had experienced physical violence during the pandemic, and 68% had been verbally abused, Nordquist said.

Health care workers, officials said, often encounter patients who are intoxicated or having a mental break. But now visitors and patients entering hospitals are angry even before they walk inside.

“When they come in, they’re fighting against masking, against vaccinations, against visitation rules — things we’ve set in place for their safety,” said Alex Wilkerson of Great Plains Health in North Platte. “But our community doesn’t see it that way sometimes.”

“Fighting those things day to day with families has been a struggle,” she said.  “I think we have to remember we’re all human.”

Taser needed

Wilkerson said law enforcement had to utilize a Taser to control an angry patient who had assaulted a nurse in her facility’s emergency room. Dr. Lisa Vail of Bryan Health in Lincoln said a front-desk employee was assaulted at one of her facilities after asking someone to comply with a mask requirement there. Nicole Thorell of the Lexington Regional Health Center said nurses are leaving the field at an “astronomical rate.”

To address the violence, the health care officials said facilities have installed bulletproof doors and glass at emergency rooms, provided alarm badges for staff to summon help, hired more private security guards, installed more security cameras and are holding more frequent meetings on workplace safety. 

Jeff Farmer, public safety director at Nebraska Methodist Systems, said he’s training more staff on de-escalation techniques to prevent arguments from escalating into greater violence. He added that his organization has submitted a federal Homeland Security grant request toward obtaining “weapons detection technology” to keep employees safe.

Nordquist and others encouraged members of the community to reach out to others who may be struggling mentally.

Address gun violence

The Hospital Association and the Nebraska Medical Association also issued a statement concerning overall gun violence in the nation, urging elected officials to “work across the aisle to make progress against the terrible violence we are seeing.”

 “As health care providers, we know investments in mental health and substance abuse must be part of the overall solution,” said Brian Noonan, a spokesman for the Hospital Association.

He said the NHA did not have any specific legislation it was advocating. The statement by the two groups called for “common sense, responsible gun violence prevention” efforts.