TOPEKA — Kansas nurses are demanding more be done to protect health workers in response to the attack Wednesday at an Oklahoma hospital and rising violence against medical staff.
The shooting at Saint Francis Hospital in Tulsa resulted in four deaths and left several more injured. It is a reminder that more protections are needed for health care workers, who were already disproportionately targets of workplace violence before the pandemic, said Kelly Sommers, state director for the Kansas State Nurses Association.
Sommers said her organization would continue to advocate for Violence in the Workplace and Safe Staffing legislation at the state and national levels.
“Our sincerest thoughts, hearts, and tears are with our fellow nurses, health care employees and families regarding the intentional fatal shooting at a hospital in Tulsa, Oklahoma, including two physicians, a receptionist, and a patient,” Sommers said. “The truest dedication includes all the employees at the hospital that returned to work after this horrible act of violence directed at staff.”
Workplace violence is a significant problem for health care workers that, while exacerbated by the pandemic, has been ongoing for some time. For example, 2018 federal data shows workplace injuries outpaced other industries drastically with 73% of non-fatal workplace injuries from violence.
A little more than 10% of health care workers missed work because of non-fatal workplace violence. And since the pandemic began, hospital...
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