Nurse Crystal Dhooghe is used to dealing with blood and broken bones in the emergency room.But she didn't expect to witness so much violence against her own colleagues.This story was produced in partnership with KFF Health News."I've seen nurses get shoved, pushed, scratched.
The biggest one is bitten," said Dhooghe, who works at Henry Ford Genesys Hospital in Grand Blanc, Michigan.The prevalence of workplace violence in healthcare has fueled strikes in states such as Louisiana, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Michigan, where Dhooghe and many of her coworkers have been on the picket line since Labor Day of last year."People will question me and be like, 'Why are you still working in a place if you're treated like this?'" said Dhooghe, who gets by on strike benefits and working extra shifts at another hospital.The problem, she said, is that other hospitals aren't any better.
"It's the same everywhere I go."In a statement, Henry Ford spokesperson Dana Jay acknowledged violence against healthcare workers is a "national epidemic" and said the health system's efforts to address the problem include metal detectors, armed security officers trained to make "misdemeanor arrests," and de-escalation training."We have zero tolerance for violence of any kind," said Jay, asserting the strike is not about safety but is instead "simply an economic strike."Nationwide, hospital workers are seven times as likely to be injured on the job due to violent acts as members of the general working population, according to the most recent data available from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.The outcry over workplace violence in healthcare is pitting workers' demands for better compensation and staffing against hospital operators pressured to cut costs.Violent outbursts are so common that they've been dramatized on the popular medical TV series The Pitt.
"Emergency rooms right now are like a powder keg," said Rachel Odes, an assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madis...