At a Baton Rouge hospital on April 4, 2019, a patient walked into a nurses’ station, violently pinned a nurse into a corner, swung his arms at her and tried to grab her. Nurse Lynne Truxillo heroically came to her colleague’s aid and attempted to pull the patient off the other nurse, but the patient grabbed Truxillo by the neck and brutally shoved her head down, striking her head on a desk. Truxillo was finally able to escape the patient’s grasp, fell, and tore her ACL which necessitated surgery. Five days later, Lynne Truxillo sadly died as a result of the injuries she suffered in the attack.
Unfortunately, such violence and tragedies are not uncommon in the health care industry. Alarming information provided by the American Hospital Association indicates violence directed against health care workers is on the rise. A study published in the Workplace Health & Safety journal found that 44% of nurses reported experiencing physical violence and 68% reported experiencing verbal abuse during the COVID-19 pandemic. And according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data from 2018, health care workers are five times as likely to suffer a workplace violence injury than workers overall.
To address this increased violence, Congress is considering the Workplace Violence Prevention for Health Care and Social Service Workers Act that would set federal standards designed to protect health care workers from workplace violence. It passed the U.S. House of Representatives in 2021, but the...
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