For Liz Taranto, one of the scariest moments of her nursing career happened while she was doing something routine — adjusting a tube on a patient.
“While I was leaning over, the patient reached behind me, grabbed a pair of surgical scissors, and raised his arm like he was going to stab me in the face,” she told a crowd of hundreds of nurses gathered Tuesday at the State House.
Thankfully, she said, another nurse grabbed the patient’s arm and removed the scissors. Another time, a patient kicked her in the throat.
A different patient threatened her life. That incident, she said, affected her the most.
“I thought about it while walking to my car and in quiet hallways and out and about in my regular life. I couldn’t turn it off,” she said. “Even at home, I felt on edge, wired, stressed, constantly looking over my shoulder. And it would take me a full day after every shift to feel like myself again. Experiences like these have lasting effects, and they change the way we practice.”
The nurses were at the State House to lobby for the passage of legislation intended to prevent workplace violence against healthcare employees. The bill was passed unanimously by the House last November.
“This isn’t the environment I planned on working in, and too many other nurses are feeling the same way,” Taranto said. “That’s why we’re here today, to make it clear to our elected leaders that this is not acceptable, and that it doesn’t have to be this way.”
According to the Massachusetts Nurses Association, someone in a Massachusetts health care facility experiences workplace violence every 36 minutes, on average.
“Think about that for a moment,” MNA president Katie Murphy said at the event. “In the time we’re gathered here, listening, organizing, and preparing to meet with lawmakers, someone, maybe one of our colleagues, will be threatened, assaulted, or harmed on the job. Nearly seven out of ten nurses now report experiencing workplace violence. For newer nurses, it’s even higher, almost eight out of ten. It’s one of the reasons why nurses are leaving the bedside. Not because they don’t care, but because they don’t feel safe.”
The new legislation would address many of those concerns, Murphy said.
“This bill is not complicated,” Murphy said. “It’s not extreme. It simply requires healthcare facilities to take preventative measures against workplace violence to track violence when and where it occurs, and to support victims.”
The legislation would require hospitals to complete risk assessments and implement new violence prevention plans and programs. Hospitals would also be required to report assaults on employees.
“This bill also strengthens our laws, making it clear that an attack on a healthcare worker is not going to be tolerated,” said Rep. John Lawn, House Chair of the Health Care Financing Committee, who was the lead sponsor of the bill that passed the House. “It protects privacy and establishes a paid leave benefit for employees assaulted in the line of duty. No one attacked while doing their job should have to use their vacation time or sick time to attend court proceedings.”
The bill also makes it a felony to assault a healthcare worker in the line of duty. Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan, who worked with the MNA on the drafting of the legislation, emphasized that the bill is written to allow prosecutors some discretion, based on the severity of the assault.
“Are there circumstances where someone, because of their condition, might make physical contact with someone in a way that is not a crime? Yes there are, and the bill provides discretion not to move forward on those incidents,” Ryan said at Tuesday’s event.
Despite the fact that implementing some of the bill’s provisions will cost hospitals money, Ryan noted that the legislation has the support of the Massachusetts Health and Hospital Association.
“This legislation is about a basic promise we owe every frontline healthcare worker: a safe environment to treat patients in need of care,” Steve Walsh, President and CEO of the Massachusetts Health & Hospital Association said in a written statement after the bill unanimously passed the House last November. “We are grateful for the House’s support as our hospitals, the MNA, and 1199 SEIU continue to collaborate to stem the tide of the current workplace violence crisis — especially as our healthcare system remains under significant strain.”
The bill now faces a July deadline for passage in the Senate to become law this session.
“I’m feeling pretty optimistic,” said State Sen. Joan Lovely, lead sponsor of the Senate version. “It is probably unanimous in the Senate as well. I’ve talked to most, if not all, of my colleagues about this. And they want to see this passed.”
The support of different constituencies, including the hospital association, will make a difference, Lovely said.
“Sometimes that’s what takes some time, to get to the middle, to get ‘yes’ from each side of an issue,” Lovely said. “We’re there. So this is the moment. So it’s time to do it.”
