Nurses face several workplace risks. We recently discussed how violence against nurses is one of the reasons they suffer injuries on the job. It has long been an issue, and statistics from 2011 suggested that it happens to roughly 9% of nurses. In approximately one out of every 10 injury cases, the nurse had simply been injured by a patient, a visitor, a family member, a coworker or someone else who deliberately inflicted that injury.
But as much as this has been a long-term problem, it is also important to point out that it is getting more common. Some reports suggest it is happening more often than ever. For example, a survey carried out last year asked nurses if they had been verbally or physically threatened or assaulted in the last 30 days. Shockingly, more than 50% of them claimed that this was true.
Career rates would be even higher
One important thing to consider is that this study was only asking about the previous 30 days. As such, it suggests that the violence nurses face over their career is even more consistent than that. There may certainly be many nurses who have experienced verbal or physical assaults in the last 12 months or the last 10 years, even if they would have technically claimed in the survey that it did not happen in the last 30 days. The total percentage of nurses subjected to workplace violence could be well over half.
Exactly why this type of violence is growing more common is not always clear. Cases may have individual causes, such as a patient reacting poorly to a diagnosis or family members feeling angry at a negative outcome and blaming the hospital staff, even if it technically was not their fault.
But no matter why violence against nurses occurs, it can lead to serious injuries. Those who have been harmed must know exactly what legal options they have, especially when seeking workers’ comp benefits.
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