Recent studies report that the non-fatal violence injury rate for nurses is considerably higher than for law enforcement personnel. The number of workplace violence reports submitted by ANA members is steadily increasing. The patient, who now faces criminal charges in the attack, shoved Grimes so violently that she fell backward and hit her head against a metal door frame. Grimes remains hospitalized with a severe head injury. At Zeller alone there have been seven RNs injured by patients in the past 18 months, despite repeated efforts to inform management and work with them to implement workplace protections.
Workplace violence can be deadly.
This week, in Girard, KS, a home health nurse was murdered when she entered a patient's home. In Anaheim, CA, three employees were murdered at a hospital when a man opened fire in September, 1999. In San Francisco, CA, a patient shot his father and wounded a janitor at a hospital in March, 1999. That same year, in Colorado Springs, CO, a dietary aide was found murdered under a stairway in a hospital. At the same hospital, a nurse's aide was murdered, when her ex-husband opened fire.