Article date:Feb 20th 2017: Article By/Published by:Boston Globe On the 20th Of February 2017 Boston Globe published an open letter from: Donna Kelly Williams (President of Massacheusetts Nurses Association:) entitled
Health care employers must do more to protect staff from workplace violence
Donna Kelly Williams wrote to the Boston globe in response to a situation where a psychiatric hospital in Brookline was recently cited for failing to protect their employees from aggressive patients.
Her impassioned response was printed in the open letter which puts the problem into plain heavy hitting language.
NURSES SHOULD not have to suffer broken bones and concussions to spur action against workplace violence. Unfortunately, at Arbour-HRI psychiatric hospital in Brookline, it took that level of violence for the federal government to investigate and levy a fine
Donna Kelly-Williams,President, Massachusetts Nurses Association
Serious violence is four times more common in health care than private industry on average, OSHA reports. Legislation filed last month by the Massachusetts Nurses Association would help prevent assaults at every hospital in the Commonwealth. The bill would require health care employers to perform annual risk assessments, implement programs to minimize violence, provide time off for assaulted workers to address legal issues, and regularly report assaults
Donna Kelly-Williams,President, Massachusetts Nurses Association
It should be pointed out that the hospital mentioned in the article have stated that they will be contesting the allegations and details of the OSHA citation.
Donna’s original letter appears at the link below.
https://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/letters/2017/02/20/health-care-employers-must-more-protect-staff-from-workplace-violence/DINyO6emi3Xa4Eb7AJFa8M/story.html
The legislation filed by the Massachusetts Nurses Association shares some of the key requirements of other workplace violence legislation in the US including the well publicised *Cal/Osha Section 3342. In both cases there is an urgent need for improved risk assessment, annual reviews, better workplace violence prevention planning and a legal requirement for the reporting of incidents to protect others from re-occurrence.
GuardianMPS share these views and we are committed to promote a culture of safe working environments for all unaccompanied and lone workers in healthcare and beyond.
GuardianMPS
*Cal Osha Section 3342 Workplace Violence Prevention in Health Care
http://www.dir.ca.gov/OSHSB/Workplace-Violence-Prevention-in-Health-Care.html
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