FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Rick Fuentes
(o) 651-414-2863
(c) 612-741-0662
rick.fuentes@mnnurses.org
Amber Smigiel
(o) 651-414-2849
(c) 651-202-0845
amber.smigiel@mnnurses.org
February 9, 2021 (St. Paul) –
“Minnesota Nurses are again shocked and saddened by the news of another incident of workplace violence at a healthcare facility in the state. As caretakers of victims of gunshots and other violent injuries, nurses and healthcare workers are acutely aware that violence could easily come to the doors of their workplace too. Seeing other workers become victims shakes any hospital worker to their core. When nurses reflect on the increase of violence in the healthcare setting, tragic incidents such as the one at St. John’s Hospital in 2015, plague their thoughts and often result in nurses leaving the bedside.
Healthcare facilities should be safe places — for patients, health care workers, and visitors. A 2019 survey of Minnesota Nurses Association membership showed that 95 percent of MNA nurses say they do not feel safe from violence at work. Nurses urge policy makers to determine the causes of this incident and all other reports of workplace violence and prioritize sweeping changes to ensure safety in these places. Workplace violence incidents in healthcare facilities should be flagged and reported in a central location and healthcare workers should have the ability to process and recover from these types of incidents without penalty. Protecting frontline workers from violent incidents, whether from visitors, patients, or colleagues, needs to be a priority of policy makers.
The Minnesota Nurses Association offers our commitment and pledge to the healthcare workers and patients involved in today’s incident that we will not stop until healthcare facilities become a safe place for both workers and patients.”
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