The healthcare system is costly, and if it is inefficient due to violence, those costs do not serve their purpose. U.S. healthcare spending is more than 4 trillion dollars annually (Dean, 2022). Such spending means the system is intended to work well and solve problems in curing ill people. However, it cannot reach this goal when there is violence in the system: it significantly decreases worker efficiency and makes them unmotivated (Dadfar & Lester, 2020; Ross et al., 2019). While healthcare spending is enormous, especially during COVID-19, healthcare workers are three times more at risk of violence than workers from other specialties. Therefore, healthcare workplace violence destroys the national economy, making significant costs allocated to healthcare inefficient.
The system becomes unstable due to workplace violence, as nurses and doctors lose the motivation to work. Emergency nurses are especially at risk; they should ride after patients to deliver them to the clinic. They may meet a patient who is under alcohol or drugs or is prone to violence (Maguire et al., 2018). Female nurses are especially at risk: workplace violence is the second major cause of women’s death at work. Regarding that healthcare workers are three times more at risk of violence, one may see that the scope of the problem is extensive. (Dadfar & Lester, 2020). The system becomes corrupt and inefficient, leading to health problems among medical workers and the growth of such problems among the population.
The growth of violence undermines the morality of healthcare, which is designed to help people and, thus, relies heavily on moral principles. Nurses are the target of sexualization, as the stereotype of a sexy nurse is widespread in society, and if healthcare ethics is undermined, the risk of sexual harassment rises (Ross et al., 2019). More than 30% of male nurses and 60% of female ones were victims of harassment, according to the 2000s research statistics. As the healthcare system relies on ethics, when it is weakened, the ethics in society weakens too. People feel insecure without a robust healthcare system and become more prone to violence, increasing the problem even further.
While there are efforts to improve the situation, the current legislation is not enough to prevent workplace violence: there are no clear definitions, support for victims, and punishments for malefactors. As mentioned, nurses are often afraid to report the violence and threats they receive, as they fear revenge (Dadfar & Lester, 2020). While there are ethical recommendations and corporate social responsibility enforcement efforts aimed at making hospitals protect their employees from violence and sexual harassment, there is a lack of laws to protect them (Ross et al., 2019). Emergency nurses face even greater risk, as they should deal with patients in their own homes, where they may harm them; those cases usually are not investigated (Maguire et al., 2018). Several major gaps in the legislation system allow the problem of violence to persist.
Thus, there are three main issues: the absence of a clear plan of how to deal with violence, a lack of support for the victims, and the absence of clear punishments for workplace violence. Nurses, doctors, and hospital managers still tend to ignore the problem due to fear or unwillingness to change anything. A lack of support means that there are no specialized facilities where victims may obtain support and be assured that their abusers will be punished and the situation will not repeat (Dadfar & Lester, 2020). Last, people who harm nurses or harass them often enjoy impunity, especially if there are emergency nurses.
Today, there are no federal-level acts that would protect medical workers from workplace violence. The Occupational Safety and Health Act determines their rights, and each medical facility, similarly to other businesses, should provide its employees with decent working conditions as prescribed by the Act (United States Department of Labor, 2019). However, it does not clearly define workplace violence and how it should be prevented and does not explicitly protect medical workers.
Fortunately, several bills registered in the 117th Congress are intended to solve this problem and fill the gap. As mentioned, there are S. 4182 and H. R. 7961 bills that are directed to reduce workplace violence in healthcare. H.R. 7961 bill proposes punishments for those who engage in workplace violence (Dean, 2022). S. 4182 bill is more concise and will be summarized there, as it is intended to close the three mentioned gaps. It will introduce a clear plan, provide support for victims and improve workplace awareness, and provide precise law enforcement methods and mechanisms (Courtney, 2021). Compared with that, H. R. 7961 efficiently solves only one gap: it introduces punishments for workplace violence.
The S. 4182 bill introduces a special violence prevention plan, which will close the gap between the hospital manager’s ignorance and lack of such a plan. It should be created according to the bill and issued within one year after its enactment; in another case, it will be enforced according to the law (Courtney, 2021). The plan includes availability for all medical workers to obtain support, investigation of all violence cases, and training about recognizing and preventing violence. Those measures solve gaps of ignorance and a lack of support. All cases should be clearly documented and reported, and if the medical facility does not do this, it will be enforced, too: this is especially helpful for emergency nurses (Maguire et al., 2018). The punishment gap is also closed, as law enforcement is clearly specified in the bill in all violent cases or if the medical facility rejects case investigations or the plan enaction.
References
Courtney, J. (2021). H.R.1195 – 117th Congress (2021-2022): Workplace Violence Prevention for Health Care and Social Service Workers Act. Web.
Dadfar, M., & Lester, D. (2020). Workplace violence (WPV) in healthcare systems. Nursing Open, 8(2), 527–528. Web.
Dean, M. (2022). H.R.7961 – 117th Congress (2021-2022): SAVE Act. Web.
Maguire, B. J., Browne, M., O’Neill, B. J., Dealy, M. T., Clare, D., & O’Meara, P. (2018). International survey of violence against EMS personnel: Physical violence report. Prehospital and Disaster Medicine, 33(5), 526–531. Web.
Ross, S., Naumann, P., Hinds-Jackson, D., & Stokes, L. (2019). Sexual harassment in nursing: Ethical considerations and recommendations. OJIN: The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, 24(1). Web.
United States Department of Labor. (2019). OSH Act of 1970. Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Web.