By Laura Bailey
Three Bristol Hospital employees testified before the Public Health Committee of the Connecticut General Assembly last week regarding their experiences with workplace violence in the healthcare community.
The healthcare workers testified at a public hearing at the state capitol on March 13 to voice their support for Bill HB-6741: an act improving the safety of healthcare providers and patients. Sen. Henri Martin (R-31) introduced the bill.
“In the 18 years of being an emergency room nurse, I’ve been spit at, kicked, punched and verbally assaulted by simply trying to do my job as a nurse and help others,” said Marla Campbell. “These assailants are allowed to victimize us over and over again in our own workplace with no legal consequences.”
“These are not just patients,” said Campbell. “They’re family members, visitors, friends that are coming into the hospitals assaulting us. It’s an everyday occurrence.”
Campbell has been an emergency room nurse at Bristol Hospital for 12 years.
The proposed legislation includes a marketing campaign regarding mistreatment of health care providers and encouraging public civility in health care settings, as well as establishing a hospital security grant program for securing hospital entrances and public places.
The bill also permits hospitals to make policies that govern when a patient receiving nonemergency care can be removed from the site if their conduct threatens the safety of a health care provider, staff member or another patient at the hospital.
“We don’t have that authority to ask them to leave,” said Nancy LaMonica. “They can leave on their own behalf. So, what we want to do is be able to ask them to leave if it’s not emergent.”
“It’s not just behavioral health,” LaMonica said. “It’s somebody just having no control over their behavior at a certain moment. Some people just have anger management issues, or they feel like they weren’t served correctly, or they would like something else done differently and there’s a lot of blame for that put on us as service workers.”
LaMonica, who is the vice president and chief nursing officer at Bristol Hospital, added that the violence has risen greatly in the last couple of years.
Studies have shown that 75 percent of workplace assaults occur annually in healthcare settings, with many incidents unreported, even at facilities with formal incident reporting systems. Some healthcare workers feel that lack of understanding and accountability are contributing to the rising number of incidents of workplace violence.
“I think the community at large, they don’t understand the potential consequences of assaulting healthcare workers,” said Tiara Cheatham. “Or those potential consequences aren’t followed through when an assault occurs, so there are more cases of assault occurring.”
“There’s no follow-through as far as the charges that occur for patients and there’s no severe consequences enough for people,” said Cheatham.
Cheatham is the assistant nurse manager at Bristol Hospital.
Workplace violence is mental and physical health hazard for the approximately 15 million health care workers in the United States. A 2016 Government Accountably Office (GAO) study reported that rates of violence against health care workers are up to 12 times higher than rates for the overall workforce.
“It’s an everyday occurrence,” said Campbell. “When I go to work, one of my staff members is assaulted whether it’s verbal or physical.”
To read the TBE article about Sen. Henri Martin’s support of HB-6741, click here.
Laura Bailey can be reached at lbailey@bristoledition.org
All TBE readers, supporters and donors
The Bristol Edition will be limiting the number of stories non-members and free readers may access each week. This decision is based on our financial projections and, most certainly, to remind people that TBE is serious about providing accurate, timely and thorough reporting for Bristol. To do this we have devised a financial support structure that makes unlimited access extremely affordable, beginning with a $6 monthly donation.
- Non-members will be able to access four (4) articles per week.
- Free readers and people who have subscribed by email will be able to access four (4) articles per week.
- Donors and financial supporters will have unlimited access as long as they log in.
Note: Donors may have to contact TBE if they find they are being limited, since we will need to set up a membership account for you. Email editor@bristoledition.org for instructions. Sorry for any inconvenience. People with financial difficulties may write editor@bristoledition.org to be considered for free access.
