Nurses to Testify About 425 Assaults at Worcester Recovery Center in 2014
Tuesday, July 21, 2015
The testimonies from the nurses will be heard at a Legislative Committee hearing regarding a bill to address workplace violence against health workers. The bill, H1687, is sponsored by Senator Michael Brady (D-Brockton) and will require health care providers a comprehensive program to prevent workplace violence and a counseling program for victims of violence.
According to the Massachusetts Nurses Association, "the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that workplace violence affects an estimated 1.7 million employees in the U.S. annually and nurses and other personal care workers are at the highest risk. Health care workers suffer violent assaults at a rate nearly five times higher than the average worker in all other industries combined, and the rates are increasing. In 2013, 13 percent of the injuries and illnesses requiring health care and social assistance workers to miss workdays were the result of violence on the job - a rate five times greater than all other workers. In fact, nurses are assaulted at work on a par with police officers and prison guards. Yet most hospitals and health care employers in the state fail to adequately address the issue of workplace violence and very often provide little or no support to employees who are attacked on the job."
Nurses from Brigham & Women's Hospital will also testify about assaults, including an intensive care unit nurse who was stabbed with a knife by a patient’s family member, just three months after the tragic shooting death of a respected surgeon at the facility by a family member of a patient.
The hearing will be held by the Joint Committee on Labor and Workforce Development at 1 PM on Tuesday, July 21 in the Gardner Auditorium at the Massachusetts State House.
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