Major organizations raise the alarm, professor 'blown away' by how normalized it has become
More so than ever before, workers in the healthcare sector are facing high levels of violence – and this is not new.
A 2015 OSHA study found that from 2002 to 2013, incidents of serious workplace violence were on average four times more common in healthcare than in private industry.
Violence towards nurses is especially prevalent.
The abuse is most serious among nursing, psychiatric and home health aides who face violence mostly in the form of hitting, kicking, beating and shoving.
In 2014, the American Nurses Association’s Health Risk Appraisal survey revealed that 21 per cent of registered nurses and nursing students reported being physically assaulted, and over 50 per cent verbally abused.
In addition, 12 per cent of emergency department nurses experience physical violence and 59 per cent experience verbal abuse (according to a 2009 – 2011 Emergency Nurse Association survey).
Jim Brophy, a Professor at the University of Windsor, ON, says that in his experience speaking with healthcare professionals, he was “blown away by how pervasive [violence] was, and how accepted and normalized it was. It’s becoming to be seen as being just part of the job.”
COVID-19
And COVID-19 has only made the situation worse, with organizations such as the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) raising the alarm about a rise in violence toward healthcare workers around the world.
In fact, the ICRC reported in August 2020 that they had found over 600 incidents of violence, harassment or stigmatization which took place against healthcare workers, patients and medical infrastructure in relation to the current pandemic.
Aside from threats of violence and verbal abuse, workers in healthcare also face a higher risk of catching COVID-19.
According to a survey by Massachusetts General Hospital and King’s College London, frontline healthcare workers in the U.K. and U.S. had a 12 times higher risk of testing positive for the virus compared with individuals in the general community (and workers with inadequate access to PPE had an even higher risk).
Healthcare workers are already experiencing high levels of burnout and other mental health issues, physical and verbal violence only exacerbates these issues.
“When [the pandemic] is over, it's going to be years before healthcare workers regain their confidence and their equilibrium after going through this,” says Brophy.
